does chameleon closing eyes during daytime imply a death sentence?

LanceLee

LanceLee

Member
I understand that the symptom of chameleons with their eyes closed during daytime indicate there's a serious underlying sickness or health issue.,

Interested to know how many owners managed to nurse their chameleons back to good health when this happens?

does closing of eyes during daytime rightaway indicate a death sentence? what are the chances of recovery?
 
It does not always mean a death sentence. It does however meant hat there is something that needs immediate attention. It becomes a death sentence when nothing is done to try and figure out what is going on.

Are you asking because you are experiencing this now? How can we help?

EDIT: I just went and searched what you have going on. Good luck with the vet visit and keep us posted!
 
Last edited:
LanceLee said:
I understand that the symptom of chameleons with their eyes closed during daytime indicate there's a serious underlying sickness or health issue.,

Interested to know how many owners managed to nurse their chameleons back to good health when this happens?

does closing of eyes during daytime rightaway indicate a death sentence? what are the chances of recovery?
Click to expand...

It does not always mean something is wrong, but generally it is a good indicator. Unfortunately with chameleons they do not always show signs that there are issues until they are already in pretty bad shape. Sometimes closed eyes could be environmental in origin (lights too strong for young, low humidity levels, etc.) but one way or another it should be taken very seriously!
 
Peachypink said:
Are you asking because you are experiencing this now? How can we help?

EDIT: I just went and searched what you have going on. Good luck with the vet visit and keep us posted!
Click to expand...

thanks PeachyPink, i really appreciate that you searched to see what's my problems (mentioned in other threads). I'm grateful

this is a great community, so helpful.

by contrast, where i am now (in China), my fellow chameleon hobbyists are less helpful and knowledgeable. btw, I'm a Singaporean working in China.


I think my sick female chameleon may be playing tricks on me. She came to me with an infected closed right eye a week ago. I'v been carefully nursing her back to health. she eats and poos well.
Last morning, yesterday, she was still very active, moving around the cage and pooing well. then, to my surprise, she closed her OK left eye around 4pm (my chameleons sleep around 6pm) she will open her eye if i move closer. then at 5pm, she closed her eyes entirely, hiding in a pot of live plants at the bottle of the cage.
i was so worried, i call the vet rightaway but the vet is only available this noon (about 11am), i'm now preparing to leave house with her for the appointment.

yet, this morning, she wakes up with her left eye wide open (her right eye is still closed), and she's moving around the cage again. so fickle....
 
I.just fitted a mister and an extract fan to my wooden viv and she spent a good hour sitting in the breeze waiting for the mister to kick in with her eyes mostly closed(the mister is on a humidistat), looked more like she was in chameleon paradise and enjoying the new environment change than had any health issues, i have seen more of her since fitting the fan and mister a.couple of days ago than I did in the preceeding 3 weeks since I got her
 
I brought my female chameleon Emily to the vet today
(she's the one who closes her eyes after 4pm yesterday, but appeared active with her left eye wide open this morning)

1) the vet i visited today is one of the very few who knows something about chameleons, because keeping chameleons as a pet is not legal in China.
he's very frank and told me that I probably know more about chameleons that he does. What he can do is to diagnose professionally.
he have done a successful surgery on a egg-bound veiled chameleon to save her life and remove the eggs safely. but this could be his first time handling a panther chameleon because he's asking me novice questions like what breed is she, and how long do such breed of chameleons live up to?
but he does know things like humidity, temperature etc, but not as precise as you or i might be familiar with


Emily-Xray-wechat_zpssptnzpsc.jpg.html


we did an x-ray to check if there's any eggs in her, because our vet thinks she's so ballooned, perhaps it's another egg-binding situation.
but i thought that's not possible because i squeezed her stomach to check for hard eggs, there isn't any. but we did the x-ray anyway.

Emily-Xray-wechat_zpssptnzpsc.jpg.html
http://s46.photobucket.com/user/asiaphoto77/media/Emily-Xray-wechat_zpssptnzpsc.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

the image link of the x-ray is above...
 
we did all the tests we could, short of a blood test, which i decided not to do it partly because our vet said they might not be able to successfully extract blood from her, and also because she seems so healthy to us at the clinic.

... so our vet said that she's alright, seems ok. suggest i observe her for another few days or two, especially to see if she eats (she didn't eat yesterday and today but she ate a lot the day before yesterday)

and when i brought her home at about 3pm. she's actively moving around the cage again.

yet at about 5pm when i start misting again. she went to hide in the pot of live plants again. and this time, when i tried to move the pot around, she kept her eyes firmly closed... like she's sound asleep and doesn't want to be bothered.


so this is really puzzling to me. my other chameleons sleep at 6pm, some stay awake up to 7pm if i forgot to switch off the lights at 6.
why is she keeping her eyes closed so early at 5pm today (and at 4pm yesterday?)

has this happen to any of you folks as well?
 
I am not experienced but maybe she is tired because of all the travelling around that she experienced today.
 
LanceLee said:
we did all the tests we could, short of a blood test, which i decided not to do it partly because our vet said they might not be able to successfully extract blood from her, and also because she seems so healthy to us at the clinic.

... so our vet said that she's alright, seems ok. suggest i observe her for another few days or two, especially to see if she eats (she didn't eat yesterday and today but she ate a lot the day before yesterday)

and when i brought her home at about 3pm. she's actively moving around the cage again.

yet at about 5pm when i start misting again. she went to hide in the pot of live plants again. and this time, when i tried to move the pot around, she kept her eyes firmly closed... like she's sound asleep and doesn't want to be bothered.


so this is really puzzling to me. my other chameleons sleep at 6pm, some stay awake up to 7pm if i forgot to switch off the lights at 6.
why is she keeping her eyes closed so early at 5pm today (and at 4pm yesterday?)

has this happen to any of you folks as well?
Click to expand...

So I was looking over your other post and I did not see where you posted what you use for lighting or the schedule of lighting. What time are your lights turned on and off? What lights are you using? Brands/wattage? Do you have any light at all left on at night?

My cham always goes seen and gets into his sleep spot about an hour before his lights go out. He doesn't fall completely asleep but he's ready.
 
I will post some pics of my lighting setup later today

Lights on at 6am every morning and off at 6pm

This morning at 7am i saw her with her left eye wide open.

Then at 8am, about an hour after misting, i saw both her eyes closed again. She was hiding in the potted live plant.
I picked her up and left her at the basking spot, she opened her left eye. Within the next 20 mins, i witnessed her eating two live crickets sprawling near her
 
What time does it get dark there? Has is been cloudy? My chameleons go to their sleeping spot early on cloudy or stormy days.
 
it's summer time now and it gets dark around 7pm. i keep my chameleons in a small bedroom with just a small window that is blocked by another building, so not much light thru the window anyway.

but what's worrying is that this morning, she closed her eyes at 8am (she wakes up at about 6pm). i lifted her up to the basking spot and she will open her OK left eye (her right eye has been closed for more than a week)
and she ate at least two crickets.

i left for work soon after. and when i returned home at 3pm, i saw her hiding in the pot of live plants... eyes closed again...

Vet has checked her with X-ray and ultrasonic waves (saying there are pre-formation of eggs, the kind without egg-shells yet, he spoke in chinese so i'm not sure what's the term in english...) so she will be getting into heat soon.

but on visual inspection, he says she's healthy, and fat... yet we couldn't explain why she kept her eyes closed during day.

we didn't do the blood check, because the vet is not confident of extracting blood. (and i hesitated too because the blood test would be obscenely expensive)

any advice pls? what else could i do?
 
emily-fierce0803.jpg


here's a picture of Emily with her mouth wide open. seems to have a clear throat. no mucus. and she has not breathing difficulties. can i rule out upper respiratory infection?

her left eye is OK, her right eye has been closed for more than a week (i got her as a replacement for a male chameleon i paid for, and it went missing at the breeder's place, he accidentally left the cage open, he claims)
 
I have a chameleon with his right eye closing on a semi-regular basis though it's gotten much better by far. He has a constricted pupil and seems to have light sensitivity. I had put in a halogen bulb which did not seem to agree with him. I now have a minimum light set up on him, no uvb, and have switched back to an incandescent. He goes outside almost everyday early in the morning for natural uvb, and his eye definitely seems to be doing better.
 
Andee said:
I have a chameleon with his right eye closing on a semi-regular basis though it's gotten much better by far. He has a constricted pupil and seems to have light sensitivity. I had put in a halogen bulb which did not seem to agree with him. I now have a minimum light set up on him, no uvb, and have switched back to an incandescent. He goes outside almost everyday early in the morning for natural uvb, and his eye definitely seems to be doing better.
Click to expand...

thanks for sharing, Andee, that may be a smaller part of the problem i'm facing


i brought the sick female Chameleon (Emily) out for a rare sunshine early this morning
(there's no sun, just stormy rain the past few days due to typhoon Nida (its a huge storm if u have read about her in the news)

with the good sunlight this morning, Emily is certainly more active, and she actually tried to open her problematic right eye (the infected or injured right eye)
for a few minutes, she was staring at me with both her eyes wide open. i saw that she ate about 7 silkworms and maybe, just maybe, a few cherry cockroaches.

but it will get very hot later in this summer day.. probably 32 deg celsius or more (close to 90 degree fahrenheit or more) and i will have to bring her back into the air-conditioned room...
 
Her eye, since it got infected may have gotten sensitive to certain kinds of light? She may need a break from too much artificial uvb light to let it heal properly? You could try turning off her uvb and just keeping her basking light on?
 
LanceLee said:
View attachment 163638

here's a picture of Emily with her mouth wide open. seems to have a clear throat. no mucus. and she has not breathing difficulties. can i rule out upper respiratory infection?

her left eye is OK, her right eye has been closed for more than a week (i got her as a replacement for a male chameleon i paid for, and it went missing at the breeder's place, he accidentally left the cage open, he claims)
Click to expand...

Did the vet give you any eye drops or ointment for an eye infection?
 
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