closed eyes veiled chameleon

[Courtneyrfox]

Hello,
I have a 9 or 10 month old veiled chameleon. He was very active, ate lots of crickets, and seemed to be living a great and happy life until about a week ago. We turned the air conditioning on and I think it was right at his cage. Even though he has plenty of heat lamp access and UVB light, he stayed in the middle of the cage for a while and didnt move.
He usually doesnt like being handled so I left him alone for a day or so, but then decided to move him up towards the lights. He became more active but wouldnt open his eyes. So for the past few days I have been trying to give vitamins through an eye dropper, put a few crickets in his mouth, and gave him a bath, but he hasnt really perked up to himself. He can open his eyes when agitated, but still looks lethargic/tired and not as responsive and active as he was.
I have a screened cage thats about four feet tall, with plenty of climbing branches.
Any advice of anything else to help him recover and what to do would be greatly appreciated, I am very worried, but I am cautious to go to the vet, because I feel like sometimes with exotics they dont really have the best advice/knowledge. Please let me know any recommendations!

 

[jannb]

Welcome to the forums and I'm sorry to hear that your veiled is not doing well. Please fill out the form linked below and give as much detail as you can with each answer and maybe we can see something that could possible be causing his problems. Also some photos of him and his enclosure would be helpful.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/how-to-ask-for-help.66/

 

[Courtneyrfox]

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - Veiled, male, and 9-10 months old. Since sept 2015 has been in my care
• Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? We rarely handle him because he does not like to be held and "hisses" when we try to pick him up. Sometimes we allow him out on his own to explore plants. Recently however, he relies on us to handle and help feed him.
• Feeding - We feed mostly crickets with flukers high calcium cricket diet and they are gut loaded- about 5-6 crickets a day, and wheat grass is always in his cage
• Supplements - We dust with calcium and a multivitamin (seen in pictures below) also sometimes the pet store dusts the crickets before we take them home
• Watering - We have an automatic sprayer/mister which goes off every two hours, but not at night. We used to see him drink a lot but have noticed he doesnt do it as often since he has had his eyes closed
• Fecal Description - nothing changed, brownish black with white, we havent noticed any changes, and he has not been tested for parasites
• History - nothing of note. we did move from louisiana to massachusetts in december via a car, but he was fine for the past 6 months, so that doesnt really affect him.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - large screen enclosure
• Lighting - he has two basking ceramic bulbs, a large pannel heat radiator in the back, a day basking bulb and a UVB bulb (which we just changed) the daylight is from 6am-6pm
• Temperature - The day temp is in the 80s-90s and the night temp is 68 at the lowest, the cage is very large so there is a big gradient between the cool and hot temps
• Humidity - we use a guage to measure humidity, the mister goes off quite frequently so he is never in too dry of a climate
• Plants - mostly fake plants, but some wheatgrass for him to munch on which he usually likes to eat sometimes
• Placement - the top of the cage is 4 feet from the floor, he was near an air conditioner vent but we moved him because we were nervous the cold caused this behavior change
• Location - massachusetts

Current Problem -I have a 9 or 10 month old veiled chameleon. He was very active, ate lots of crickets, and seemed to be living a great and happy life until about a week ago. We turned the air conditioning on and I think it was right at his cage. Even though he has plenty of heat lamp access and UVB light, he stayed in the middle of the cage for a while and didnt move.
He usually doesnt like being handled so I left him alone for a day or so, but then decided to move him up towards the lights. He became more active but wouldnt open his eyes. So for the past few days I have been trying to give vitamins through an eye dropper, put a few crickets in his mouth, and gave him a bath, but he hasnt really perked up to himself. He can open his eyes when agitated, but still looks lethargic/tired and not as responsive and active as he was.

 

[Courtneyrfox]

here are some photos

 

[jannb]

The lights could be bothering his eyes. That's way to many lights. I recommend two lights. One Reptisun 5.0 tube style bulb and one regular household bulb for basking......not the coil bulb. Do you have a way to get him outside time? That would be the best thing in the world for him. I'd turn off all those light until you can change the bulbs and get him plenty of outside time with some long warm mistings. He also looks like he has or had MBD. There's a decent chameleon vet in your area. The Odd Pet Vet. If none of these ideas work he will need to see a vet. I'll get you some more info on the vet.

 

[Courtneyrfox]

We live in Massachusetts so it's been like 60-70 degrees... Shouldn't I wait til it's a little warmer?
Also how do I deal with mineral bone disease?
Thanks
Courtney

 

[jannb]

Here's some really good info on Metabolic Bone Disease.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/thr...-like-how-it-happens-and-how-to-fix-it.95071/

Here's info about the vet.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Odd-Pet-Vet/211741702186671

 

[Andee]

If he has metabolic bone disease he needs to be seen by a vet. They will most likely prescribe liquid calcium and you will have to give it to him in order to get him back to where he needs to be. If he is affected with MBD it could be affecting how he opens his eyes. They need calcium to work their muscles and I have seen cases where it's affected lid movement. But I agree with Jann that's a few too many lights. I would just get a higher wattage house bulb if you need it to be warmer. With all those lights/heat sources his eyes could be bothering him. If it only drops to 60 at night you should be fine letting him have no lights at night. He also might need to be hand watered and hand fed? If your not already doing it. For the watering, take an oral syringe and drip water on the end of his nose, he should lick it off.