DESPERATE FOR HELP! Can one of the vets on this forum please help!?!?!

[Lizardguy1]

What really jumps out at me is that your mister goes off every hour- that is way too much- I recommend 2-3 times a day at most, and given the amount of fruits/veggies you say he is eating, you can probably skip a day once in a while.

 

[Tyaeda]

We had a "low" UVB coil on for about a month before he showed any symptoms. His symptoms did start suddenly right after i increased the uvb output. As soon I noticed his right eye blinking I took the light out immediately (within a couple hours of installing it). I increased the bulb, thinking he wasn't getting enough from the tiny one we had. I ended up reading about how bad they are afterwards. I switched to linear a few days ago, so maybe it's too soon to tell?

I have to apologize for the picture. His eye didn't stay lumpy or swollen for any period of time, I just took that picture as he was "washing" his eye. Sometimes he inflates them right out, and then closes and swishes them around. It's something I've seen a couple times in intense mistings before. If it is an infection in his eye, he was prescribed antibiotic eye drops, which I hope would keep that in check. (It's called Ciloxan. 'Ciprofloxacin 0.3% Hydrochloride Ophthalmic Solution, USP)

I checked the multivit I'm using and it has no Vit A at all. I give his feeders such a large selection, they may be favouring a less beneficial gut load over the good stuff. I notice that they only eat the carrots if there isn't any other wet options. I'm not too sure how much Vit A is in the other items, but I can't rule a Vit problem out, especially because of his tongue.

I don't think he misses his food because he can't see it. He's fully capable of opening both eyes, and keeping them open to hunt, and move around... if he feels like it. When his right eye was really bad, and not opening much at all, I did see him shoot at his food, but miss. The tongue went out as far as usual, he was just off target, because he was only using one eye. Now it's different. He uses both eyes, if he's interested, and can catch them no problem, as long as they're really close to him. He tries to get some that are out of reach, and it's like his tongue just doesn't shoot out far enough.

I don't plan on reducing my humidity control. I'm having a very hard time getting peaks of 50%, and I really don't want him to go without something to drink for a whole day... especially in his current condition.

 

[Lpsouth1978]

I don't plan on reducing my humidity control. I'm having a very hard time getting peaks of 50%, and I really don't want him to go without something to drink for a whole day... especially in his current condition.

You don't necessarily need to reduce your "humidity control", but the frequency of the mistings can lead to trouble, like mold and fungus. The enclosure should dry out almost completely between mistings, and I find it hard to believe that happens in less than an hour. I live in Colorado where humidity stays very low most of the year and even here it would not dry up in an hour. A trick my vet (ferretinmyshoes on this forum) told me is to wrap 3 sides of the enclosure in a clear plastic shower curtain. This will help keep the humidity up and allow you to mist 2 or 3 times a day for several minutes at a time instead of every hour.

Give it a try, if it doesn't do the trick you are only out a few bucks.

 

[Tyaeda]

You don't necessarily need to reduce your "humidity control", but the frequency of the mistings can lead to trouble, like mold and fungus. The enclosure should dry out almost completely between mistings, and I find it hard to believe that happens in less than an hour. I live in Colorado where humidity stays very low most of the year and even here it would not dry up in an hour. A trick my vet (ferretinmyshoes on this forum) told me is to wrap 3 sides of the enclosure in a clear plastic shower curtain. This will help keep the humidity up and allow you to mist 2 or 3 times a day for several minutes at a time instead of every hour.

Give it a try, if it doesn't do the trick you are only out a few bucks.

It dries out pretty good, probably because the cage is in between two windows. I also made sure that there are lots of areas where he can avoid being sprayed if he doesn't want to be. We plan on moving him soon, especially since the cooler weather will be on it's way in a month or so. When I do that, I'll be adding some plastic to at least 2 sides of his cage. That will definitely help, and I'll be able to have the mister go off less often.

I can set it to go off every 3 hours instead, see if it cheers him up

 

[Tyaeda]

I'd like to update everyone on Mr.Pink's status.

Thanks to the awesome advice we received from you awesome people, Mr.Pink is doing MUCH better. He's eating well, and his tongue is back to normal. He rarely closes his eyes, and is going to sleep closer to the time he did before he fell ill.

We stopped the eye drops convinced that they we not doing very much for him, but stressing him out severely. My husband and I believe that it was either the coil bulb we used, or the lack of Vitamin A in his diet, or both. I went out and purchased fish oil to drop on his feeders, and it perked him right up, and improvement happened quickly

We also went digital for temp and humidity monitoring, and realized that our dial gauges were very inaccurate. We thought we were fine with temp, and low on humidity, but we were actually really high in humidity and a little too high for basking temps. We reduced his mistings, and we plan on getting him a proper dripper so we can reduce the misting even more on hot and humid days like these.

He's not completely back to normal yet, but he's a lot better, and improving more and more everyday!

Thanks everyone! You people are awesome!

 

[MelissaB]

Tyaeda, I'm glad Mr Pink is feeling better. Poor guy, glad you were able to nurse him back to health. If you don't mind me asking, what was the brand and wattage of the coil uv bulb you were using? I only ask because I'm using ZooMed Reptisun 5.0 13 watt mini CFL on my anole hatchling and my jackson juvenile. I know from reading the included pamphlet that they aren't old stock, so they should be the "fixed" version of the bulb. But hearing about your trouble with Mr Pink has me second guessing myself, and worrying. The anole hatchling (hatched out of a palm tree from home depot, lol) has been under the cfl for about a month with no issues. I was planning on switching the cham to arcadia bulb setup when I upgrade his cage.

 

[Tyaeda]

Tyaeda, I'm glad Mr Pink is feeling better. Poor guy, glad you were able to nurse him back to health. If you don't mind me asking, what was the brand and wattage of the coil uv bulb you were using? I only ask because I'm using ZooMed Reptisun 5.0 13 watt mini CFL on my anole hatchling and my jackson juvenile. I know from reading the included pamphlet that they aren't old stock, so they should be the "fixed" version of the bulb. But hearing about your trouble with Mr Pink has me second guessing myself, and worrying. The anole hatchling (hatched out of a palm tree from home depot, lol) has been under the cfl for about a month with no issues. I was planning on switching the cham to arcadia bulb setup when I upgrade his cage.

I don't know if they're harmful to all reptiles or not... I'm not even positive if that was the main contributing factor. But I used Exo Terra 5.0 (I think it was a 130 watt, not sure). Since Mr.Pink got sick I read a lot of posts about them, some people use them without problems, some have issues. My husband and I bit the bullet and purchased the linear and fixture, the fixture being the biggest expense. Replacing the bulbs isn't that much more expensive than the small coils so I would suggest the linear just to be safe.

 

[MelissaB]

Thank you for the info, Tyaeda. I'll keep a close eye on the new guy, and probably switch it out sooner than I planned to.

 

[Tyaeda]

Thank you for the info, Tyaeda. I'll keep a close eye on the new guy, and probably switch it out sooner than I planned to.

Oh yeah I saw your post earlier! Love the setup... I wish I was as prepared as you were when I got Mr.pink. I could have saved a lot of money if I bought the right things in the first place.

Your new jackson looks really cool! Got a name picked out yet?

 

[MelissaB]

Thank you. He is so cool! The kids want me to name him Zoidberg, and I'll probably go along with it. Although he looks nothing like him, lol.

 

[bradley]

Glad he is doing better. Unfortunately once again problems are ocuring with the new coil bulbs with eyes and these bulbs certainly are not old stock. Using a higher output uv wouldn't have caused a problem with the bulb it would have been incorrect ratios of uv to visible light.

Your supplement schedule is correct but the brand you us is not great. The Exo terra calcium contains loads of other things which it shouldn't.

I would switch to zoo med powders. Their pure calcium is just that, plain calcium. Their multivitamin reptivite also contains vitamin A and many people use it with great success. Keep to the same schedule though.

 

[Tyaeda]

Glad he is doing better. Unfortunately once again problems are ocuring with the new coil bulbs with eyes and these bulbs certainly are not old stock. Using a higher output uv wouldn't have caused a problem with the bulb it would have been incorrect ratios of uv to visible light.

Your supplement schedule is correct but the brand you us is not great. The Exo terra calcium contains loads of other things which it shouldn't.

I would switch to zoo med powders. Their pure calcium is just that, plain calcium. Their multivitamin reptivite also contains vitamin A and many people use it with great success. Keep to the same schedule though.

We switched most of his supplements to Zoo Med a short while ago. I still haven't got the mutli yet, but I have the cal with and without d3 from them. To make up for the Vit A, we've been putting drops of fish oil on one of his feeders every morning, and it seems to be working really really well.

 

[bradley]

We switched most of his supplements to Zoo Med a short while ago. I still haven't got the mutli yet, but I have the cal with and without d3 from them. To make up for the Vit A, we've been putting drops of fish oil on one of his feeders every morning, and it seems to be working really really well.

Be careful though as it is easy to overdose on vitamin A. I know most people would use it once a month.

 

[Tyaeda]

Now that his symptoms are pretty much gone, I guess I could stop putting fish oil on his feeders for a little while.