Eye Infection Spreading to Other Eye? What Caused This?

[ColeCham333]

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - Male Ambanja Panther Chameleon, 18 months old, had him since February 2017
• Handling - only when he crawls onto my hand by himself to go to his free range/outside, this happens maybe once per week. recently however, I hold him often and for long periods of time because it makes him open his eye for some reason.
• Feeding - couple hornworms a week, 30-40 reptiworms, 2 dozen crickets
• Supplements - repti calcium w/o d3 every feeding, with d3 twice a month
• Watering -.mist king goes off every hour hopefully to help with eyes
• Fecal Description - clean urate, never tested for parasites
• History - been to vet twice for a problem with his left eye, perscribed eyedrops both times but never really helped. Bred by West coast chameleon brothers. just shed his face/eye area a couple weeks ago, hasn't shed his body or legs since the summer of 2017

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - XL reptibreeze
• Lighting - 100 watt white basking light, 10.0 tube uvb bulb. Lights on 8 to 8
• Temperature - Temps measured with digital thermometer. Basking ranges 88-95 depends on temp of room. Majority of cage is room temp about 70. NIght gets about 67.
• Humidity - 50%. Have a thermometer for humidity.
• Plants - Large pothos suspended from top, parlor palm, and an umbrella plant.
• Placement - Cage is in my room. . cage sits on a shelving unit that puts the top of the cage about 6 feet off the ground
• Location - Metro Detroit area in Michigan. (United States)

Current Problem - . It started with his left eye since he was about a year old. I made a post about it actually if anyone wants to see what the left eye looked like before it closed: https://www.chameleonforums.com/threads/problems-with-one-eye-maybe-infected.158636/#post-1360656 Anyways he was given eydrops twice a day for two weeks perscribed by the vet. they helped a bit, but only immediately after the drop was given. His left eye eventually closed and I see it slightly open maybe once a week (during handling). in the past two months, the same thing slowly happened to his right eye. it began to just squint but be open, and eventually was closed for more and more of the day. It is now closed 100% of the time I see him. Both eyes are ( unless handled). It has only in the past week began to impact his eating, as he hasn't eaten any of his crickets out of his feeder in a week. I had been hand feeding hornworms and reptiworms that he caught with no problem. This leads me to the part of the infection I don't understand: both of the eyes are always moving and looking around like they are open, and when he eats, even his closed left eye looks towards the food. Due to his closed eyes however, he often wanders into thin branched plants or gets caught in the fishing line that holds them up. He also climbed onto his cricket cup and couldn't get off because he couldn't see anything. The only way I have been able to get his right eye open is by holding him. I don't know why it works, but after 10-15 minutes of crawling around on my hands, he slowly opens the right eye, and this is when I feed him as much as he will eat, because I don't know when he will open it again. In the past couple weeks he has also been a lot less active. There are only a couple hours of the day where he is active and moving around the cage. He settles in to sleep around 4 in the afternoon, and doesn't start moving until a couple hours after his lights go on. I will be going to the vet again tomorrow, and I will see if they have any other ideas of how to treat it besides the eyedrops that haven't helped. Does anyone understand the connection between opening his eyes and handling him? If anyone has any input or comments at all about his eye issues , I would really appreciate any ideas that you put on the table. Thanks

 

[Syreptyon]

I'm so sorry to hear about your problems! That sounds extremely frustrating. I'm glad to hear you're going to the vet again tomorrow, as that will hopefully be more useful than the conjecture we can offer you here. As for the eye opening when you are handling him, I imagine that's probably because of the heightened stimuli of being outside his usual environment. Since chameleons are prey animals, my guess would be that he's forcing himself to open the eye to make sure nothing is about to eat him. Most of the time, it is probably too difficult or painful for him to open it, so it may just take the stress of handling for him to think it's worth the energy

 

[ColeCham333]

I'm so sorry to hear about your problems! That sounds extremely frustrating. I'm glad to hear you're going to the vet again tomorrow, as that will hopefully be more useful than the conjecture we can offer you here. As for the eye opening when you are handling him, I imagine that's probably because of the heightened stimuli of being outside his usual environment. Since chameleons are prey animals, my guess would be that he's forcing himself to open the eye to make sure nothing is about to eat him. Most of the time, it is probably too difficult or painful for him to open it, so it may just take the stress of handling for him to think it's worth the energy

Makes sense. Hopefully he will be able to get at least one eye back. He was fine with only the right he ate a ton and loved coming out

 

[Carlton]

A couple of ideas to consider....if there is an active infection it could be in a nasal sinus, not one or the other eye. Sinuses are connected, but if the only treatment is topical in one or the other eye, it could be it isn't reaching the actual infection or the causative bacteria isn't sensitive to the med. However, I don't see obvious signs of active infection in the eye itself. No sticky discolored matter gluing the eye shut. No discharge or swelling. I wonder if this could actually be vitamin A related. Have you ever given him a little preformed vit A in addition to his usual supplements? You don't want to overdo this, as vit A is fat soluble and persistent. I have not had to deal with this so am no expert at all. I'd suggest doing a forum search on vitamin A supplementation and eye issues.

 

[Mawtyplant]

Im thinking the exact same thing tham Carlton. Maybe your in front of a sinus infection (one sinus look blocked) Vit A can have something to do with this.

so here a "to do list"

-Go at the drug store and buy vitamin A pills, give 1/4 of the pills (1/4! be carefull too much vit A is toxic).
-Raise your temperature during the day (add an extra heat bulb and try to put a perch closer to the bulb (when chameleon fighting against disease the need to raise the metabolism)
-Feed him if possible mostly with silkworm (they naturally got an anti-inflamatory substance and a got % of water this can only be good)
-if possible go to the vet.. but if your vet haven't spot this.. maybe you should change to other vet
-You can try to buy reptaid if its still mild this can help him
-you can also dust the feeders with bee pollen (this can help too)
-give calciworm (phoenix) but only at the morning (they are hard to digest but contain perfect calcium ratio and.. antibacterial substances.. that can help too)
-raise the % of humidity during the night (with a fogger if possible but not during the day (fog is good only coupled with lower temp but can be harmfull at higher temp
-In the past i have crushed Vit C to dust my feeder too.. it help but this is non common so i can't be sure about this advice

and.. pray :/

Good luck with him! i wish hie would be ok

is he a CB of WC?

 

[ColeCham333]

Im thinking the exact same thing tham Carlton. Maybe your in front of a sinus infection (one sinus look blocked) Vit A can have something to do with this.

so here a "to do list"

-Go at the drug store and buy vitamin A pills, give 1/4 of the pills (1/4! be carefull too much vit A is toxic).
-Raise your temperature during the day (add an extra heat bulb and try to put a perch closer to the bulb (when chameleon fighting against disease the need to raise the metabolism)
-Feed him if possible mostly with silkworm (they naturally got an anti-inflamatory substance and a got % of water this can only be good)
-if possible go to the vet.. but if your vet haven't spot this.. maybe you should change to other vet
-You can try to buy reptaid if its still mild this can help him
-you can also dust the feeders with bee pollen (this can help too)
-give calciworm (phoenix) but only at the morning (they are hard to digest but contain perfect calcium ratio and.. antibacterial substances.. that can help too)
-raise the % of humidity during the night (with a fogger if possible but not during the day (fog is good only coupled with lower temp but can be harmfull at higher temp
-In the past i have crushed Vit C to dust my feeder too.. it help but this is non common so i can't be sure about this advice

and.. pray :/

Good luck with him! i wish hie would be ok

is he a CB of WC?

Very helpful thank you so much. Luckily I have an extra bulb I used to use on my beardie He is a Captive bred btw

 

[JacksJill]

Are you giving him any multivitamin supplements or gut loading his feeders? Some eye issues are related to vitamin deficiencies.

 

[timw1]

I would try vitamin A, it supports healthy skin and eyes in humans. I use soft gels from Carlson 15,000 IU Palmitate. Use very sparingly. To dose, I squeeze about a drop onto a hornworm or silkworm. My guy (also an Ambanja) was closing one eye, then the other and had a bad shed. I did some research and decided to try the vitamin A. I've given him no more than one dose a week for a total of four or five times and the problem has not reoccurred. It took about two weeks to clear up. I can't say definitively the vitamin A was what helped, but he has no issues now. Used very sparingly it can't hurt. The soft gel caps may be easier to use than the pills mentioned above.

 

[jamest0o0]

I use liquid vitamin A 8000. A drop a month. Only started doing this recently though, but so far no problems

 

[jamest0o0]

I use the liquid version that comes with a dropper.