Eye medication?

[Meow Kitty]

ok so i was refered to Terramycin Eye Ointment for a eye infection thats started/starting in my panther cham.... will this work... and how do i apply it to the chams eye ... i know he wont like it

edit: how many times... a day a week or just once no idea how to use

 

[SilverDragoness]

Depends if a bacterial infection or dry eye is present. No it won't work if that's not what is going on. It can be difficult to determine the exact cause at times. Typically eye medication in mammals is done 3-4 times daily. Not just a day a week. I would consult with a reptile veterinarian if you can instead of just trying the shotgun approach. They may recommend the same thing but at least they would be able to give you a little more info. Hope your chameleon gets to feeling better soon.

 

[jannb]

The Terramycin might work. Use it twice a day for 7 to 10 days. If you are not seeing any improvements by the 5th day I would recommend a vets visit.

 

[xanthoman]

eye issues not as straight forward as you may think,something to consider

pt1.
i'd recomend that you re-post using the entire help form and here is why;

heres the thing that a lot of people dont get. first let me say, imo, otherwise healthy chams rarely get eye issues, eye issues should imo, in most cases be considered a red flag of bigger less obvious issues that are brewing. let me use an analogy.
did you know that an adult male human can die of prostate cancer, even though the prostate has been completely removed? how is this possible?

its possible because the prostate cancer is not the actual disease, the prostate cancer is only a manifestation (ie only a symptom of the disease).

prostate disease is metabolic, meaning mostly due to diet, nutrition and to some degree genetics. prostate cancer is merely a symptom of a greater metabolic imbalance that has been building most of a mans life. if you cut the prostate out in its entirety, the metabolic issues that have been building for the mans entire life, that caused the prostate to display as cancer, are still unchanged in the mans body, waiting to wreak havoc with some other organ/body function.

this is why big medicine has such a poor track record on prostate and many other cancer issues, because the true cause of the issues is much harder to pin down than just treating the symptoms. this is true of many cancers, i believe it is also true of most cham health issues.

because if you dont fix the underlying issues that caused it in the first place, its still waiting to come back (even if you remove the cancer/symptoms). this is one of the mechanisms that makes cancer so hard to get rid of.
and imo, also, one of the reasons that makes issues of cham nutrition/supplementation, so hard to figure out.
pt2 to follow

 

[xanthoman]

pt2 more xantho ramblings

pt2
now lets look at the main reasons chameleons get eye infections;
from mites, dirt or calcium in the eye, from eye scratches, or from bacterial or fungal infections related to the above. generally speaking imo, healthy thriving chams are much more resistant to bacterial and fungal infections than unhealthy chams. what this means is that if you are relatively sure of your husbandry, to the point where you are confident that its eye issues werent caused by scratches or mites, dirt or calcium getting in the eye. then your eye issues are more than likely metabolic, meaning a significant imbalance in overall whole body chemistry.

metabolic eye issues, are often thought to be related to vitamin A issues, but vitamin A issues arent so straight forward either. imo, its rarely just an issue of too little or too much vitamin A.
vitamin A is often blamed for eye issues, but a vitamin A deficiency is not necessarily an issue of not giving enough vitamin A. imo, vitamin A deficiencies often appear in animals where the info given indicates that the animal is receiving more than enough vitaminA.

now you ask how is this possible? because other things can create scenarios where it is difficult or impossible for the animal to absorb/utilize vitamin A, or other nutrients, even though its being given theoretically more than enough.

imo, the most common and obvious example of this, would be an ongoing over-supplementation of calcium/d3, which is strongly implicated in issues of interior calcification. if an animals organs begin to calcify (for what ever reason), they begin to shut down and cease to function properly. in a situation like that, deficiencies may begin to surface, even though they were initially brought on by over supplementation.

if an animal is displaying what appears as a vitaminA deficiency, because the organs are shuting down and no longer functioning, then it wont matter how much vitamin a you give it, until you correct the issue that is causing the metabolic imbalance in the first place.

imo, what needs to happen in many of these cases,(not necessarily yours) is that they need to get less supps (even though they may be displaying as a deficiency) so that the metabolism can regain some balance and allow things like vitaminA to be absorbed/utilized again.

scenarios like this, are what make the entire supplementation dynamic so hard to pin point, because a simple d3 oversupp is rarely just a simple case of too much d3, it often relates to the calcium and water intake, calcitonin, pth, hydroxy;dihydroxycholecalciferol conversion and just about everything else having to do with whole body chemistry. and what often appears to be a simple vitaminA deficiency, is often related to d3/calcium issues, and all of the nutrition/supplementation and organs that are involved. (ie more whole body chemistry) (not implying that your animal is calcified or that advanced calcification is reversible), just merely pointing out the complexities of cham supplementation/nutrition.


so the moral of the story is, that everything is inseparably tied together. imo, the problems most often indicated are rarely just a case of
too much d3, too little vitaminA, a simple hunger strike, a simple eye or tongue problem, imo its almost always related to a much bigger issue having to do with whole body chemistry. this is why varied diet, gutloading, lighting/temp scheme and overall husbandry are so important, because you cant separate one from the others. they are all inseparably tied together.
pt3 to follow

 

[xanthoman]

pt3 the final rant.

pt3
to put terramycin eye ointment in the eye, (assumming it is ophthalmic terramycin), there is no good way. any way you do it is extremely stressful to your cham. you dont want to use q tips , syringes, or even the tube it came out of. using anything other than skin touching the eye is likely to cause more probs than it generates.

imo,the best way is to first have everything ready, handle your cham for a short while until they start to relax. there is no sneaking up on it, your not going to trick it into submission, at some point you are going to have to restrain it. a huge glob of ointment will only make a mess and cause more stress. so just put a tiny dab on your finger, not much more than a pinhead, and gently squeegee it into the eye opening, the cham will guaranteed close its eyes, so you sort of have to be a little firm but gentle, dont worry, a chams eyes can safely be carefully pushed on (using common sense of course) but a chams eye can actually recede or even carefully, safely, be pushed quite a way into the occular eye cavity (socket) without damage (assuming the eye is not so infected as to just pop or disintegrate) but thats a judgement call only the person doing the application can make. you might actually have to pull up and down on the eye turret skin as you are doing it to create (force) a slight opening of the eye slit.

when it comes time to actually do it. dont lolligag around with it, cause that will only increase the amount of time that your cham is stressed out and terrified. a little residual around the eye wont really hurt anything but you should try to use the very minimum amount possible. i have done this several times. but imo it never goes that well the first time, but you are going to need more than one app. and having excess ointment around the eye, will only attract more dirt/debris anyway.

only the keeper can make an assessment as to whether or not its worth putting your cham through. i guess the bigger point of the story is im not saying you should or shouldnt use it, im just saying that even though your cham may have an eye infection and even though thats what ophthalmic ointment is for, i wouldnt expect it to be a cure all for eye issues that are metabolically caused. in order to correct that, you will need to look at the bigger picture of over-all body chemistry, and dig deeper into your over-all cham husbandry, to determine the true root cause of the issue,

and this is why we need the help form in its entirety. jmo

of course this is jmo, and everyone is free to agree or disagree. im sure my inbox will be on fire after this one.

ps if you elect to do this, then be sure to wash your hands with anti bacterial soap both before and after. jmo

 

[xanthoman]

wow, that was exhausting, must be time 4 a nap!