Eye problems with my Fischer's...

Back from the Vets

Chris Anderson said:
Regardless of what the vet says (most are not experts on chameleons, let alone chameleon diversity and the sexing of different species), you have a female Kinyongia multituberculata. There is no question about it whatsoever.

Chris
Click to expand...

Yes, like Chris (and seeco) said, the vet (Dr.Wells of Avian & Exotics Clinic - Monterey, CA) could not tell me the sex. She said they did not get many Fischer's in their clinic, rather Veileds and other "common" species. At that point, I didn't really care what the sex was, but the fact that they could treat the eye. And since Chris is the "Dr. House of Chameleons," I will trust his diagnosis of the sex and species. Thank you :)

The time on the this forum is off, so many of you have posted before I was even back from the vets. It was in fact, an eye infection like I thought it was going to be. I asked if there was any specific cause, and they responded that it was just common bacteria found anywhere, and like many of you know, eye problems are so common in chams. She did mention that she was a bit small for her age, but she was very active and healthy (not dehydrated or skinny at all) and that I shouldn't worry about her size too much (She tried to escape and huffed at Dr. Wells many times). Dr. Wells was very kind and easy to talk to and she seemed pretty knowledgeable on chameleons basics and asked me all the typical questions--we discussed my set up, nutrition, lighting(need both UVA + UVB), etc. She drew blood, swabbed the eye (which showed bacteria), flushed out the eye, and then prescribed "Ofloxacin Ophthalmic Solution USP" (medicated eye drops) to be administrated 3 times a day. She will call me back with the results of the blood test tomorrow.

Oh I forgot to say that when we were discussing nutrition when I mentioned what I fed her, Dr. Wells said that I should be feeding her wax worms and silkworms over crickets and mealworms since they are a better source of protein and overall calories. I know since I started caring for chameleons 4 years ago, I was always told waxworms should be given as "treats," even some of you mentioned the same thing. I don't want you guys to argue over this, I just thought it a curious thing.

Thanks again for all of your guy's input, opinions, advice and well wishes. I'll update tomorrow when I get the results of the blood test.

Amber
 
Hey Amber,

It sounds like overall your vet was quite good. I do disagree with the waxworms, however. Silkworms are very healthy as a feeder but in my opinion waxworms are too fatty to be fed as a staple.

While waxworms have a very high caloric value (2.1-2.7 kcal/gram), 70-80% of that is from fat and only 20-30% is from protein. Silkworms on the other hand have a lower caloric value (0.67-1.0 kcal/gram) but 54-75% of that is from protein while 25-43% is from fat. These two articles may be helpful to you regarding considering waxworms as feeders:

http://www.chameleonnews.com/?page=article&id=98
http://www.chameleonnews.com/?page=article&id=92

Chris
 
Thanks for that info Chris :) I'll have to order some more silkworms then.

Dr. Wells called me this morning with the CBC test results and she said everything seemed normal, which I'm glad to hear. I'll be giving them a call with updates later in the week.

And yes, I liked Dr. Wells and the other workers there. I think anytime I'm down here and have any issues, I'll be bringing my cham to their clinic.
 
Sweet! Now I just need to convince you that eggs are not scary so you start to breed her!
 
It's not that eggs are scary. I just don't like the fact that they lessen the life of the females. That's why I specifically asked the guys to pick me out a male.......good job they did haha (o_0)
 
Allwalks...how is she doing?

I understand what you are saying about the eggs...I'm happy it seems that this species doesn't routinely pump out infertile clutches as some do...that makes it better for you.
 
Elizadolots said:
Allwalks...how is she doing?

I understand what you are saying about the eggs...I'm happy it seems that this species doesn't routinely pump out infertile clutches as some do...that makes it better for you.
Click to expand...


She's doing really well! She opens her eye daily and I'm still giving her the eye drops, trying to at 3 times a day, but I have class during the day so sometimes I only get to 2 times. She HATES it. She sees me coming over and she tries to escape and when I pick her up she huffs at me. I'm trying to make an appointment with a vet clinic up here so I can just fax the stuff to the clinic in Monterey. I wanna ask how long do I keep giving her the drops.
 
That's great!

With notable exceptions, they hate us. There's really no getting around that. On the best day ever, they fail to notice we are here.

Maybe you should consider bypassing the local vet and just sending pictures and questions directly to the Monterey vet? Contact that vet and see what she/he says. I would think you could send photos and your thoughts and the vet could decide based on that.
 
Call me captain obvious here but I would continue to administer drops until the symptoms clear and then at least a few days afterwards.
 
Sorry allwalks, I in no way meant to sound demeaning or rude. I have since gone over this thread and found which eye drops you are using.

My mother is an eye doctor but unfortuntely there's a huge difference between a chameleon eye and a human eye. So that was a resource I could not tap. However, ofloxacin is often used to treat and prevent eye infections associated with conjunctivitis (pink eye) and corneal ulcers caused by certain bacteria. Ofloxacin drops are an ophthalmic fluoroquinolone antibiotic. It stops or prevents bacterial infections of the eyeball by either killing susceptible bacteria or inhibiting their growth.

I think a quick call to your vet to ask how long you should continue treatment would be better than asking on this forum. Your vet has important info like the weight of your cham and the severity of the infection in the eye. Be prepared to tell her how long you have been treating (of course) :) If it has only been a few days and you're already getting results...that is fantastic! I would venture a guess that you'll probably still need to treat her another week after symptoms clear.

Hope this adds a little to the conversation.
 
Last edited:
I think contacting the vet has been the plan all along (note she wanted to fax pictures to the vet before asking the question). I asked for an update on the chameleon's condition because I was curious, that's all this little back and forth is really about.
 
CNorton said:
Sorry allwalks, I in no way meant to sound demeaning or rude. I have since gone over this thread and found which eye drops you are using.
Click to expand...

Hahaha, don't worry after I read what you wrote I realized my question/statement did sound a bit obvious...


But yea, its cuz the vet's called me from monterey and wanted me to bring her in this past saturday but when I told her I lived in and went to school in Sac, she told me I could just take her to another vet and have them fax any test results or uhhhhh the progress of the eye infection to them.

On another note, I also looked up the specifics of my Kinyongia multituberculata (thanks to chris for the scientific name) and the average length is only 18cm! So I guess she's normal size! I thought only pygmy's stayed so little. Guess I need to read up on all the different species of chams now!
 
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