eye irritation, possibly due to plants?

[lewboo2]

Chameleon Info:

* Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care? male panther, around 2 years old now
* Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? everyday, when i enter the room he comes to the front and trys to get out
* Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders? he ate crickets till about 8 month ago when he wouldnt look at them twice, now he only eats supers (these along with crickets are all i can get over here) these are gutloaded with green leafy veggies
* Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? calcium every other feeding day and reptivite twice a month
* Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? dripper on all day and misted 3 times a day, i make sure i spray long enough to get him drinking
* Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? looks pretty healthy, just doesnt happen all that often, maybe once a week tops, he had a fecal test last year which was clear
* History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you. upon collecting the cham the breeder told me he had lost the original cham i had a deposit on plus all of his siblings due to mouth rot, but i believe he just forgot about me to be honest

Cage Info:

* Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? wood/metal mesh enclosure, 3 solid sides, top and front meshed, 3 feet wide, 2 feet deep and 4 feet tall
* Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? reptiglo 5.0 linear tube, 100w or 60w basking light depending on the time of year, this is on a dimmer stat
* Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? 87 degrees
* Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity? 60-90% via misting
* Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? all live plants, i have 2 ficus and a schefflera
* Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? top of the enclosure is about 7 feet from the ground
* Location - Where are you geographically located? England


Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

Before i start, hes going the vets tomorrow but theres no exotic specialists in my area, and a 2-3 hour drive each way is gonna stress him out big time so i thought i would try and get a heads up to the problem.

Well the problem is two things combined, but i have a feeling the latter is due to the first.
The thing is he seems to have terribly irritable eyes, as i wrote above humidy never gets too low, i remember reading somewhere on this forum that its possible for ficus plants to cause chams irritable eyes. he's always rubbing his eyes on branches and bulging them to clean them.
The other problem is gradually he's been getting closer and closer to his food before he shoots, its now at the point where he is now coming within 3 inches of his food and still doesnt always hit it on the first go, which in turn causes his tongue to stick to the plastic dish that i offer his food to him on, he manages to pull it off with abit of effort and it retracts fine but after this happens, it kinda puts him off trying again.

Thanks for your time

 

[Carlton]

calcium every other feeding day and reptivite twice a month
looks pretty healthy, just doesnt happen all that often, maybe once a week tops, he had a fecal test last year which was clear[/COLOR]
* History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you. upon collecting the cham the breeder told me he had lost the original cham i had a deposit on plus all of his siblings due to mouth rot, but i believe he just forgot about me to be honest

Cage Info:

* Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? reptiglo 5.0 linear tube, 100w or 60w basking light depending on the time of year, this is on a dimmer stat
* Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity? 60-90% via misting
* Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? all live plants, i have 2 ficus and a schefflera


Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

Before i start, hes going the vets tomorrow but theres no exotic specialists in my area, and a 2-3 hour drive each way is gonna stress him out big time so i thought i would try and get a heads up to the problem.

Well the problem is two things combined, but i have a feeling the latter is due to the first.
The thing is he seems to have terribly irritable eyes, as i wrote above humidy never gets too low, i remember reading somewhere on this forum that its possible for ficus plants to cause chams irritable eyes. he's always rubbing his eyes on branches and bulging them to clean them.
The other problem is gradually he's been getting closer and closer to his food before he shoots, its now at the point where he is now coming within 3 inches of his food and still doesnt always hit it on the first go, which in turn causes his tongue to stick to the plastic dish that i offer his food to him on, he manages to pull it off with abit of effort and it retracts fine but after this happens, it kinda puts him off trying again.

Thanks for your time

How old is the ReptiGlo? UV producing bulbs need to be changed every few months...I've never used ReptiGlo but hear they should be changed every 4 months or so.

Chams often rub their eyes while cleaning them. If he's doing it a lot he needs more chances to clean them. Misting more lightly for a longer period and keeping the cage humidity higher helps. Ficus SAP has been known to cause eye irritation, but he'd have to get the sap from a broken twig or torn leaf into his eye directly. Rubbing the eye on a branch probably isn't the cause. Schefflera isn't an irritant. You do need to clean his branches to avoid bacteria or mold buildup, especially perches he sits on a lot. Some chams rub their vent on branches after defecating to leave scent marks.

Just one type of feeder is bound to cause some nutritional problems over time. Cut the vitamin supplement back to once every 4-6 weeks. He's an adult and doesn't need it twice a month. What's your gutload? Changing or improving the gutload contents can change the flavor of the feeder and might entice him to eating more types again.

Do you bowl feed him everything? They can lose muscle tone in their tongue if they don't have to "stretch" to reach feeders over time. I like to offer my feeders in a larger plastic storage bin instead of a small bowl. Put the bin either at the base of his plants so he can climb down to the rim and hunt the insects from there. Or, hang the bin from branches. The point is, give him chances to "hunt" more normally and really work his tongue. Build it up gradually by perch placement over the bin.

Most chams will just sleep away a car journey if you create a perch in a closed dark box by wedging a twig over some damp paper towels.

 

[lewboo2]

Thanks for the advice Carlton, his uvb was replaced 2 weeks ago, before that it was done late january.

I mainly gut load lettuce, carrot, apples and orange. I did used to do the method you just described by hanging a small tub from his branch, i did this from day one then at the same time as going off crickets he also refused the food in the tub for some strange reason. does a cham eating from short range effect there accuracy much? as it took him six tries to get one super earlier today.

Im going to collect something bigger than last time, maybe a small bucket and try feeding him from that at the bottom of the enclosure from now on too see if it helps the problem.

 

[lewboo2]

Just a quick extra on the feeder part, have you ever used butterworms? i stumbled across a U.K website that sells Silkworms when they have stock.
Unfortunately they were sold out so i did some reading up on the butterworms they sell and they are supposed to have a good calcium to phosphorus ratio although they are high in fat.

 

[Carlton]

Just a quick extra on the feeder part, have you ever used butterworms? i stumbled across a U.K website that sells Silkworms when they have stock.
Unfortunately they were sold out so i did some reading up on the butterworms they sell and they are supposed to have a good calcium to phosphorus ratio although they are high in fat.

Well, any creature can get lazy...maybe he ended up getting more lazy over time.

I haven't used butterworms.

 

[lewboo2]

just an update, took Ninja to the vet today.

He's weighing 210 grams, and apparently looking healthy apart from a slight swelling on his lip on his bottom jaw, on the inside of the mouth this tiny spot is darker in colour than the rest of his mouth so she's give me a 7 day course of 2.5% baytril, to be given in 0.08ml quantities once per day and some iodine pevidine to dilute and wash the area with. This may be the reason why hes not using his tongue so well.
I seem to remember reading on this forum that when on baytril chams need to well hydrated more so than usual.

On an upside i finally saw his fired up colours today when he was being inspected and oh my hes a stunner! He's such a placid guy that i never see these he puffed up and went a really pale blue with a white/yellow underside and chin and a nice red pattern around his eyes and spine.

 

[draetish]

Great news, I hope he gets well soon!

 

[lewboo2]

update

As the days go on Ninja's tongue seems to be gaining abit more strength.
I recieved an order of butterworms yesterday afternoon and thought i would see how he reacted to them, placed one on a branch and he got it first time and from around 7 inches away compared to the 3 inches and numerous attempts it was taking a few days ago!

There still seems to be irritation with his eyes so im gonna remove the Ficus plants, and replace with another Schefflera, maybe a small Pothos too. The automatic mister has also arrived, due to me finally being offered a job after some time. Im also going to set the mister more frequently than the 3 times daily i was doing by hand to see if that helps him with his eyes.

heres a few pictures showing his eye problems and one of his enclosure.