lizzleberry
New Member
hi,
had pascal for about 3 months now, recently noticed his eyes seem to prefer to be closed and am wondering if this is a big problem, or a little problem
before i start - he IS going to the vets, he has been to the vets for an eye problem before and is registered with 3 different vets, i am posting my problem on here to see if it is something that might be caused by something i am doing wrong, and how to prevent it, and if it will need his regular vet, or specialist vet (saving money here, dont want to have to take him cross country unless i have to)
the similar problem he had before turned out to be a small eye infection, his left eye was closed and sunken in, he was given exocin drops 3 times a day for a week and a half and it cleared up.
now the problem seems to be slightly different,
both of his eyes occasionally seem to be closed, he rolls them around in their sockets, then opens them, or just closes them randomly then opens them. sometimes ill catch him with them closed and hell open up as soon as he realises i am there. they look slightly sunken in, but i can never really tell. i havent caught him rubbing them on anything, and he otherwise seems fine, hisses like a chameleon, no mucus round his mouth or nostrils, poop is fine, limbs are straight, skin looks okay, moving like a chameleon, no squeaky breathing etc.
i will add that for the past 3 or 4 weeks it has been too cold in there, the house is empty during the day and since i dont pay the bills i cant do anything about the heating being down during the day, so it has been an ambient temperature of 23 - 24degrees C when ive been out, when i get home ill turn my fan heater on and warm it back up, he can bask to keep warm as it is about 27 under his heat lamp, but usually when i get back he is at the other side of the flex, he basks occasionally, and throughout this cold period i have not noticed any signs of respiratory infection, he's just a bit quiet and grumpy. yesterday i bought a 150watt heat bulb and a bigger clamp, and today the ambient temperature is 26 degrees C, warmer under the lamp. so that is that problem solved, he seems happier today.
other than that slight hiccup he has pretty textbook husbandry,
38gallon flexarium as he is still small (but growing), no substrate, the bottom is newspaper which i clean out every week, he has a coleus plant which he sometimes takes bites out of (i checked, it is safe) and he also sits on the edge of the pot to eat his crickets, he has some vines and fake plants up the top, plently of places to hide in various areas of the flexarium, a basking spot roughly 20cm away from the bulb, he actively climbs on everything, likes climbing on the sides of the flex but his claws are getting to big so he gets stuck a lot which is funny to watch.
his lights are on a timer, on at 7am, off at 7pm, his heat bulb is on a thermostat and the thermometer probe for the stat us about 30cm under the bulb and set to 27degrees C, other light, obviously is a uvb one, 5.0, 26 watts, 3 months old, no filters or anything.
i dont have a mist system yet, he hates being misted and usually hides when i do it so i never see him drink, but i leave the room to give him privacy when drinking, he gets misted twice a day, a hour after waking up an an hour before going to sleep. on a particulary hot day or if i have been using the fan heater i will try and mist him in between if i am home. i spray the top of the flex so it "rains" in there when im finished, and spray all his plants, some will hold little puddles of the water so it will stay drippy in there for a while, but i generally just mist until the whole thing is dripping.
he eats a small variety of little insects, i am struggling to find the time to get to the shop at the moment so i have to get someone else to pick me up stuff, so it is pot luck whether he gets the right stuff, this weeks menu is small crickets, correct sized crickets, big locusts and he can have a wax worm at some point.
i try to gut load his crickets but it is a nightmare, i will normally shake them off the egg cup into the tub, then replace the egg cup with a jar lid full of crushed apple and potato and sometimes carrot. sometimes i dont bother doing this, but i always try to get him gut loaded stuff one week out of 2. and one week out of 2 his crickets will be dusted with t-rex chameleon dust.
i know im going to get hell for the chameleon dust, my shop recommended it, my vets agree with it, never had sign of growth deformation, bendy legs, problems moving etc. next time i go to the shop (2 weeks) i am getting him some plain suplements. his poop is fine, brown poop, an a little white bit. he eats like a pig and he adores his fortnightly wax worm.
he does get handled, after me having to pick him up 3 times a day for eye drops i figured he wouldnt hate me for holding him once a day, then i went on holiday for a week and left my sister to do his food, lights and water, and when i got back we had a very obvious hissing problem which i have never had before.he is slowly packing it in, still hisses, but after about 30 seconds he gets bored, sometimes he will just curl up on my finger and have his chin stroked which he seems to like, he never goes black, sometimes will go abit dark but never seems genuinely frightened of being handled. he's started coming up with some nice patterns, and the yellow is begining to show which is going to look nice.
a bit concerned as to why to bit between his eyes on the base of his casque is now a beigey color, it does change, but it is usually beige/brown. assuming this is normal *shrug*
but yeah
anyone know about his eye, i was thinking that because it is both eyes it would be less likely to be an infection he got from something in his flex, or sometime in his eyes, so i figured it was more likely something i was doing wrong. i started noticing him squishing his eyes closed before i changed the heat bulb yesterday, so although this new bulb is freakishly bright, i dont think that is it.
any info, suggestions would be excellent
and anyone know why that bit on his head might be beige?
also, he usually sleeps in the same place, on a hanging plant in the corner of his flex. some nights, he hangs upside down from the roof of his flex, or right on the corner on the door of it. like, 1 night every 2 weeks he will sleep funny. is this normal?
thanks
liz
had pascal for about 3 months now, recently noticed his eyes seem to prefer to be closed and am wondering if this is a big problem, or a little problem
before i start - he IS going to the vets, he has been to the vets for an eye problem before and is registered with 3 different vets, i am posting my problem on here to see if it is something that might be caused by something i am doing wrong, and how to prevent it, and if it will need his regular vet, or specialist vet (saving money here, dont want to have to take him cross country unless i have to)
the similar problem he had before turned out to be a small eye infection, his left eye was closed and sunken in, he was given exocin drops 3 times a day for a week and a half and it cleared up.
now the problem seems to be slightly different,
both of his eyes occasionally seem to be closed, he rolls them around in their sockets, then opens them, or just closes them randomly then opens them. sometimes ill catch him with them closed and hell open up as soon as he realises i am there. they look slightly sunken in, but i can never really tell. i havent caught him rubbing them on anything, and he otherwise seems fine, hisses like a chameleon, no mucus round his mouth or nostrils, poop is fine, limbs are straight, skin looks okay, moving like a chameleon, no squeaky breathing etc.
i will add that for the past 3 or 4 weeks it has been too cold in there, the house is empty during the day and since i dont pay the bills i cant do anything about the heating being down during the day, so it has been an ambient temperature of 23 - 24degrees C when ive been out, when i get home ill turn my fan heater on and warm it back up, he can bask to keep warm as it is about 27 under his heat lamp, but usually when i get back he is at the other side of the flex, he basks occasionally, and throughout this cold period i have not noticed any signs of respiratory infection, he's just a bit quiet and grumpy. yesterday i bought a 150watt heat bulb and a bigger clamp, and today the ambient temperature is 26 degrees C, warmer under the lamp. so that is that problem solved, he seems happier today.
other than that slight hiccup he has pretty textbook husbandry,
38gallon flexarium as he is still small (but growing), no substrate, the bottom is newspaper which i clean out every week, he has a coleus plant which he sometimes takes bites out of (i checked, it is safe) and he also sits on the edge of the pot to eat his crickets, he has some vines and fake plants up the top, plently of places to hide in various areas of the flexarium, a basking spot roughly 20cm away from the bulb, he actively climbs on everything, likes climbing on the sides of the flex but his claws are getting to big so he gets stuck a lot which is funny to watch.
his lights are on a timer, on at 7am, off at 7pm, his heat bulb is on a thermostat and the thermometer probe for the stat us about 30cm under the bulb and set to 27degrees C, other light, obviously is a uvb one, 5.0, 26 watts, 3 months old, no filters or anything.
i dont have a mist system yet, he hates being misted and usually hides when i do it so i never see him drink, but i leave the room to give him privacy when drinking, he gets misted twice a day, a hour after waking up an an hour before going to sleep. on a particulary hot day or if i have been using the fan heater i will try and mist him in between if i am home. i spray the top of the flex so it "rains" in there when im finished, and spray all his plants, some will hold little puddles of the water so it will stay drippy in there for a while, but i generally just mist until the whole thing is dripping.
he eats a small variety of little insects, i am struggling to find the time to get to the shop at the moment so i have to get someone else to pick me up stuff, so it is pot luck whether he gets the right stuff, this weeks menu is small crickets, correct sized crickets, big locusts and he can have a wax worm at some point.
i try to gut load his crickets but it is a nightmare, i will normally shake them off the egg cup into the tub, then replace the egg cup with a jar lid full of crushed apple and potato and sometimes carrot. sometimes i dont bother doing this, but i always try to get him gut loaded stuff one week out of 2. and one week out of 2 his crickets will be dusted with t-rex chameleon dust.
i know im going to get hell for the chameleon dust, my shop recommended it, my vets agree with it, never had sign of growth deformation, bendy legs, problems moving etc. next time i go to the shop (2 weeks) i am getting him some plain suplements. his poop is fine, brown poop, an a little white bit. he eats like a pig and he adores his fortnightly wax worm.
he does get handled, after me having to pick him up 3 times a day for eye drops i figured he wouldnt hate me for holding him once a day, then i went on holiday for a week and left my sister to do his food, lights and water, and when i got back we had a very obvious hissing problem which i have never had before.he is slowly packing it in, still hisses, but after about 30 seconds he gets bored, sometimes he will just curl up on my finger and have his chin stroked which he seems to like, he never goes black, sometimes will go abit dark but never seems genuinely frightened of being handled. he's started coming up with some nice patterns, and the yellow is begining to show which is going to look nice.
a bit concerned as to why to bit between his eyes on the base of his casque is now a beigey color, it does change, but it is usually beige/brown. assuming this is normal *shrug*
but yeah
anyone know about his eye, i was thinking that because it is both eyes it would be less likely to be an infection he got from something in his flex, or sometime in his eyes, so i figured it was more likely something i was doing wrong. i started noticing him squishing his eyes closed before i changed the heat bulb yesterday, so although this new bulb is freakishly bright, i dont think that is it.
any info, suggestions would be excellent
and anyone know why that bit on his head might be beige?
also, he usually sleeps in the same place, on a hanging plant in the corner of his flex. some nights, he hangs upside down from the roof of his flex, or right on the corner on the door of it. like, 1 night every 2 weeks he will sleep funny. is this normal?
thanks
liz
