Eye droop

[MMTwoThree]

I need a little bit of help with my baby ambilobe. He has a little bit of a droopy eyelit on just the left side and it really has me worried. I have contacted the breeder I pirchased him from and she has offered an exchange, which I really don't have to if my little guy is going to be ok. I've had him for about 10 days now and his eye looks like this.



I have read that it is more than likely a vitamin A deficiency, so I bought vit A capsules and had him bite down on a q tip coated in vitamin A. He's also seeing multivitamin and calcium without D3 dusted crickets currently. Am I worrying and his eyelit may just be a little out of round? Can this be fixed? Or should I follow through with getting a new chameleon? Thanks guys, this just has me worried.

 

[laurie]

Be very careful with Vit A. Just a very tiny amount, and for one the size of yours, I might not try it. If you overdose vit A there is no way to reverse it. Vit A can kill easily if you give too much. I did that once and cried my eyes out when the vet told me what I had done.

I see only a very tiny drop in his eye lid. I would ask the breeder if you can monitor the possible issue and wait on any action for a month, just so you have time to see if it changes. Otherwise, if it were me, I would keep him.

 

[MMTwoThree]

I've only given him one little taste of vitamin A and haven't given him any more in knowing how easy it is to overdose. I didn't know if I should give him a little once a month or how often exactly. And your answer was exactly what I was looking for. I want to keep him and was afraid half the forum would be like that's a serious issue and I would consider trading. Thank you!

 

[MMTwoThree]

Bump. Any other input?

 

[fester2226]

sorry i dont know anything

 

[laurie]

How is he doing? everything going well, does he shoot his food ok, climb ok, everything seem alright? If so I would stop worrying.

 

[ZiggyStardust]

Excellent advice, as always, from Laurie, but I would just like to add my two-pennorth about the Vit A.

When I got my 4 month old Panther, he spent an awful lot of time "bulging" his eyes and rubbing them on vines.

I had him to my vet as a first step, to make sure that there was nothing stuck in them, but she said that he was fine, so I spoke to my breeder.

He said that eye problems such as Ghengis was experiencing could be a Vit A deficiency, but he cautioned me in the strongest possible terms as to how toxic vitamin A can be to chameleons, especially one as young as mine.

He gave me some Vit A powder and told me to dust ONE feeder insect out of his daily quota, twice a week and nothing more, due to its toxicity.

I only had to do this twice before Ghengis stopped faffing with his eyes and he is now fine.

I honestly cannot stress enough how harmful excessive levels of Vit A can be to chameleons, so if you do need to administer it, buy the powder and just coat one feeder insect - at least then you know that they are not getting an accidental overdose and you can monitor the intake without worrying.