Eye issues + white dry skin

[alyssakayee]

Hi everyone!

I have my 1 year & 3 month old Panther Chameleon who has been having some eye issues for a little while on and off but I am now noticing small other things and need more opinions as to what could be wrong. He has seen an experienced vet twice now and has gone through a few rounds of antibiotic eye drops.

All information and pictures provided below! Please provide any thoughts or experience that could help. I appreciate it!


Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - Male furcifer pardalis (Panther Chameleon). 1 year and 3 months. This has been going on since mid/late December 2017, so going on 6-8 weeks.
• Handling - I open his cage every morning and he comes out (willingly, he tries to sneak out every chance he gets) daily for about 10-15 minutes until I put him back in his home.
• Feeding - He eats a staple diet of crickets and super worms but prefers supers. I also give him hornworms treats once or twice a month. He refuses to eat roaches. Lately he’s only been eating a couple crickets or super worms every other day but both are always available to him. Crickets are gutloaded with carrots, apples and potatoes.
• Supplements - Zoomed Repti Calcium with D3 every other feeding. Recently switched to Calcium without D3. Also Vitamin A dose this last month to try to help this issue.
• Watering - I have an AquaZamp Rain Dome going off 6 or 7 times a day for 1.5-2.5 minutes each. I also have been heavily hand misting to try to help his eye issues lately. I rarely see him drink, he’s super secretive about it but when I do, I always try to hand mist directly into his mouth as he drinks which he seems to enjoy.
• Fecal Description - His poop is completely normal and healthy but only poops about every week or week and a half. Tested negative for parasites less than 2 weeks ago!
• History - Starting in October/November 2017, he started keeping one eye (left) slightly closed which alarmed me and I took him to his first vet visit. Vet said he was completely healthy at 85 grams and gave him some antibiotic eye drops and instructions to up the humidity. The problem went away with no issues. Vet said he probably just scratched it on a branch. The newest problems started 2 months ago when I moved into a new apartment complex.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - 18in deep x 24 in wide x 36 in tall - screen exo terra cage. Added shower curtains to the sides and back to help hold in more humidity.
• Lighting - Reptisun t5 10.0 for UVB and Exo Terra Sun-Glo 75W bulb for heat. Both on from 8am to 8pm daily.
• Temperature - Basking spot is 92-95 degrees. Mid cage area is around 75 degrees. Temps overall are never lower than 70 degrees.
• Humidity - Humidity stays anywhere between 40% at night or early morning to max of 65% around the time his Aquazamp Rain Dome goes off (6 times a day for 1.5-2.5 minute intervals. I measure this with a dual analog thermometer/hygrometer mounted to the middle of the cage side.
• Plants - All fake plants/vines until yesterday, so for the first year he’s been with me it’s been all fake plants. Yesterday, I upgraded to all pine wood perches and a new Pothos plant and bromeliad.
• Placement - His cage is located on my reptile rack on the corner of my bedroom. There is a fan but is only on at night on the lowest setting. There is also a medium sized window to the left of his cage but he is on the furthest side from it as possible. Bottom of the cage is about 3-4 feet from the floor and top of his cage is about 6 feet from the floor.
• Location - Located in Dallas, Texas!

Current Problem:
Right after moving into a new apartment complex in December 2017 (6 weeks ago), I noticed he was keeping his left eye shut most of the time. I was worried so I called in another prescription of antibiotic eye drops. I did this for a couple weeks until it did not go away so I took him into the vet. He weighed a consistent 85 grams (no weight loss), tested negative for parasites and his energy and personality/attitude has not changed from his normal behavior. The vet flushed his left eye out but found nothing stuck in his eye and didn’t notice anything unusual. She said the small gland under his eye seemed a tiny bit swollen which could be a pain reaction. She prescribed 1.5 ml of oral metacam for 1.5 weeks to help with pain in case he was feeling any. Now 1.5 weeks later, his left eye seems to be fine and open daily but now the right eye is closed most of the day instead! I’m now giving him antibiotic drops in the right eye to help. The last few days I thought he might be going into a shed (last full shed was about 2 months ago) as I had noticed a white scaley shed spot on his right knee. Now I’m noticing white powdery dry looking areas around his face and eye turret as well but I am pretty confident this is not shed, it does not look like his normal shed and usually doesn’t start around his head/cheeks.

Pictures show the white scaley knee spot and dry white areas around his face. Pics below were taken tonight while was asleep and woke him up. His eye may look sunken in the picture but that’s due to him being woken from his sleep. It is not sunken in at all during the day when he’s wide awake!

Please help! Any opinions or advice are appreciated!

 

[Matt Vanilla Gorilla]

That is too much vitamin D3 and other vitamins. Only give D3 to him one feeding every other week. Give a multivitamin the opposite week one feeding for the week. Not sure if you have looked over the info in the following thread, there is some helpful stuff in there!

https://www.chameleonforums.com/thr...nced-keepers-please-share-your-wisdom.152159/

 

[alyssakayee]

That is too much vitamin D3 and other vitamins. Only give D3 to him one feeding every other week. Give a multivitamin the opposite week one feeding for the week. Not sure if you have looked over the info in the following thread, there is some helpful stuff in there!

https://www.chameleonforums.com/thr...nced-keepers-please-share-your-wisdom.152159/

Thanks so much Matt! That thread definitely had some great info and insight. I stopped using the D3 so often (haven’t used it in 2-3 weeks now) as I read it could cause issues and am now using Calcium only! I’ll also be using a multivitamin. Is there a good one you suggest?

 

[Matt Vanilla Gorilla]

There are so many! Lol, just pick one!

 

[nightanole]

https://www.chameleonforums.com/thr...an-grand-rapids-area-to-be-particular.161982/

 

[alyssakayee]

I also recently put in a new 10.0 UVB bulb instead of the 5.0 I was using since he was 3 months to a year. Could that cause eye issues?

Also, does anyone have insight as to what his white scaley spot (not shed) could be on his knee? Or the white dry spots around his head and turrets?

 

[nightanole]

The 10.0 in a 3ft cage is fine. By 12" its putting out less than a 5.0 at 6", and by 18" its not putting out much uvb at all.

Your basking bulb is just a halogen, so that shouldnt cause any issues either.

Im guessing it had a bad shed due to humidity. Its still odd since i go weeks at 25% and have fine sheds in the winter. The only other thing would be a skin infection from fungus or bacteria, but i am not an expert in that matter.

2 things i would try. Remove the basking bulb for a week. Change the mistings to twice a day for 10min, say and hour after lights on and 1 hour before lights out. 2min spurts 6 times a day might not leave enough room inbetween mists to have the cage dry out. I have to cut my misting from 6x a day in the winter to 3x a day in the summer or my sticks start rotting.

 

[Andee]

I had a halogen on Ryker, people said it was fine, it ended up burning his corneas and making him blind for the rest of his life. Because of that I cannot use artificial UVB on him either. So idk... I don't trust halogens. Remove halogen immediately, there is no need for it. A 60 watt house bulb is fine and your temps in my opinion are hitting the edge of too warm as well. I don't allow my temps to go over 90 and my chams never suffer for it. There is no reason for 10.0 uvb, they are constantly exposed to artifical UV rays through a 12 hour period and unless you have spots of complete shade up in the canopy of his cage and complete shade about 8 inches below, I only suggest 5.0. Too much artificial UV causes eye issues without enough breaks and shade. I only give my chams natural UV and sometimes they only get 1 hour a week, sometimes they get 1-4 hours a day. They do great and show better health than they have with artificial lighting.

 

[nightanole]

I had a halogen on Ryker, people said it was fine, it ended up burning his corneas and making him blind for the rest of his life. Because of that I cannot use artificial UVB on him either. So idk... I don't trust halogens. Remove halogen immediately, there is no need for it. A 60 watt house bulb is fine and your temps in my opinion are hitting the edge of too warm as well. I don't allow my temps to go over 90 and my chams never suffer for it. There is no reason for 10.0 uvb, they are constantly exposed to artifical UV rays through a 12 hour period and unless you have spots of complete shade up in the canopy of his cage and complete shade about 8 inches below, I only suggest 5.0. Too much artificial UV causes eye issues without enough breaks and shade. I only give my chams natural UV and sometimes they only get 1 hour a week, sometimes they get 1-4 hours a day. They do great and show better health than they have with artificial lighting.

Weird....

A halogen bulb is just a normal incandescent bulb filled with halogen. They just make the glass part much smaller, because it needs high heat to get the halogen to put the tungsten back on the filament so the bulb lasts longer and keeps its color.

The only thing i would think would be blinding, is if it was one of those wee halogens you can touch with your fingers and push into a socket, since those put out loads of uva. The "good" ones are a bulb in a bulb, so you can never touch the real halogen bulbs, those are covered with uv glass.

 

[Andee]

I used a halogen.... flood light I think? A 25 watt or something, was years and years ago, recommended for chams. It was the only thing that explained the sudden eye issues. He's always gotten correct supplements, amazing gutload for his insects and it was like... No build up. It's something I had struggled with. Now his worse eye has a cataract on it. His other eye can see enough shapes etc to rely on walking around but he can't see movement of prey. ... it makes me sad. But honestly the real reason it happened is still unknown. Any tests came back normal. All we know is he has light sensitivity still. And I have to force feed him but otherwise he is normal. He drinks like a normal cham, gets a shower once a day as well and gets out pretty regularly since I happen to live in Cali. He just can't feed himself.