Eyes closed during the day and lethargic chameleon :(

Peperoni

Member
Chameleon Info:

  • Your Chameleon - Veiled , male, was told 3-4 months, ive had him for one week
  • Handling - The last 3 days every day (taking him to vet, giving him anti inflammatory and eye drops)
  • Feeding - crickets and superworms. Superworms 1-2/day as a treat and crickets 6-7 depending on the size. I feed him at 10 some crickets and then let some crickets loose in his enclosure for him to hunt, i check whether he ate them and add more and i stop around 1-2 oclock. Im gut loading them with apple and mango for now, i will add some more variety.
  • Supplements - reptivite with D3 and reptical without d3. I dust with calcium without d3 in every feeding and once this week with reptivite(i will be doing it once per month in the future but ive only had him for a week)
  • Watering - i use the big dripper, i have it running the whole day and close it at night. I mist once in the morning before his lights open and once at night after his lights close for about a minute. I saw him drink a LOT the first day i got him, but he has been drinking less and less since. So just to be sure i spray some water on my finger and let it drip above him and then he always drinks a bit.
  • Fecal Description - Brown with creamy white. He has had a fecal, the vet said he has pinworms but its natural in those quantities for chameleons, and suggested to go for a second fecal next week.
  • History - got him from a pet store, not from a breeder, he looked quite thin and dehydrated.


Cage Info:

  • Cage Type - Glass exo terra terrarium 90*45*90
  • Lighting - Arcadia T5HO 6% with reflector and a samsung led bulb for basking in an exo terra dome. Schedule is 9am-9pm lights on.
  • Temperature - 23 to 29C. Lowest overnight temp is around 21. I use a temp gun and a digital probe thermometer, one probe at the basking spot and one probe at a low part of the cage.
  • Humidity - 40, max 50 during the day and 60 to 70 during the night. I mist to increase humidity, otherwise i open the cage doors for a while if theres too much humidity during the day but it has only happened once. I use a digital humidity meter (dont remember the name :p)
  • Plants - my terrarium is bioactive, i have monstera, monstera monkey mask, begonia, pothos
  • Placement - The cage is located in my office in front of a window which i keep closed with blinds on, so the temperature is unaffected. It is on a tall furniture so its at eye-level and above me. Very low traffic since im the only one to enter there and i try to avoid it as much as i can until he adjusts.
  • Location - Greece, Athens


Current Problem - The first two days of having him he was active, exploring his cage etc but the third day he became very lethargic and annoyed. I blamed it on him shedding but the next day after he had finished shedding he started closing one eye, then both. He has been doing that for a good 4 days now, and im not sure whether he is falling asleep or just closes his eyes because theres something stuck in them. He seems to be able to see fine, and when theres movement in the room he keeps his eyes open and he is alert and moving around, but once the movement stops it looks like he is falling asleep again. And thats during the whole day :(. I went to the vet and she told me he is fine, and as long as he eats and drinks i shouldnt worry. He is very eager to eat, but apart from that super lethargic. She also gave us anti inglammatory medication to give him for 3 days, which we did but nothing really changed. We also tried eye drops but chameleons have VERY waterproof eyes so we werent able to successfully do it i think. Everyone tells me that i am panicking for no reason but im pretty sure his behavior is not normal and whatever it is i need to fix it ASAP.

Thanks a lot for the help in advance :)

(the last picture is the next day after i got him eating his first cricket with me, second to last is a picture i took of him today)
 

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Hi and welcome! :) Perhaps he got a piece of shed stuck in his eye? Did your vet try flushing his eyes? Eye problems can be a tough thing to figure out. Is there perhaps another vet you could get a second opinion from? Closing eyes during the day is not normal and you are correct in being concerned. Whatever is going on, I don’t think it’s anything that you’ve caused. Perhaps he was ill before and the stress of moving to a new home brought whatever it was out.
Your husbandry looks ok except a few things. LED lights generally put off little to no heat. Your temps are good though. The Reptivite needs to be given once every two weeks. It’s a great supplement to use as it has preformed vitamin A, which is good for eye health. Also, that looks like a pretty big cricket for such a little guy. Feeders shouldn’t be any bigger than the space between the eyes. While your enclosure looks nice, it does need many more branches and vines and a bit more plant cover. I notice you have a soil substrate with drainage layer...is it bioactive?
I really hope you get your sweet little guy back to good health.
 
Hi and welcome! :) Perhaps he got a piece of shed stuck in his eye? Did your vet try flushing his eyes? Eye problems can be a tough thing to figure out. Is there perhaps another vet you could get a second opinion from? Closing eyes during the day is not normal and you are correct in being concerned. Whatever is going on, I don’t think it’s anything that you’ve caused. Perhaps he was ill before and the stress of moving to a new home brought whatever it was out.
Your husbandry looks ok except a few things. LED lights generally put off little to no heat. Your temps are good though. The Reptivite needs to be given once every two weeks. It’s a great supplement to use as it has preformed vitamin A, which is good for eye health. Also, that looks like a pretty big cricket for such a little guy. Feeders shouldn’t be any bigger than the space between the eyes. While your enclosure looks nice, it does need many more branches and vines and a bit more plant cover. I notice you have a soil substrate with drainage layer...is it bioactive?
I really hope you get your sweet little guy back to good health.
When i took him out of his container at the vet he was active and his eyes were wide open so she said that he is perfectly healthy and that there isn’t anything wrong with his eyes, that’s why she didn’t try to flush them :/ deceptive little guy!
I am kinda out of options concerning vets because before i got him i asked around and was told that this exotic vet is great (i specifically mentioned that im getting a cham). Then she ended up mentioning the name of the pet store i got him, saying that maybe i should ask them for help because they know a lot about chams 😂. I did ask them and they said the same that as long as he is eating i shouldnt be worried and they suggested antibiotic eyedrops.
Also yes, my enclosure is bioactive. I will definitely add more plants and branches, lets hope that he is more active and ends up using them/exploring. Also the second batch of feeders that i got is way smaller than the first so that’s dealt with!
Thanks so so much for your help! I just dont want to lose him because he has such an amazing personality, i feel like ive hit the chameleon jackpot with him.
 
From the way the eye is squinting in I would say there's something going on with it. I'm not a vet and can't tell you what is bothering him...sorry.
I know eye issues are such a complex matter and “diagnosing” through the internet is just a guessing game. Still, im glad that you think that there might be something going on with his eye, its pretty reassuring compared to organ/kidney failure etc. Ofc only time will tell but im waiting at the moment and trying to help with whatever im allowed to that doesn’t require a vet expertise.
 
One more comment unrelated to the eye...the cricket in the photo seems a little large for your chameleon. I would use one size smaller for now.
 
One more comment unrelated to the eye...the cricket in the photo seems a little large for your chameleon. I would use one size smaller for now.
Yup!I already got him smaller crickets. I think now its the correct size because before he would eat 3-4 of the precious batch and now he eats 10-15 every day plus 1-2 worms as a treat so that he doesn’t hate me when i put his eyedrops
 
UPDATE
Since i saw every single post on the health clinic before i asked my question just to see what could be going on with my cham, and whether the other chams with similar problems ended up dying or not (yes im anxious like that :p ) i thought its a good idea to let you know that lil Donnie is doing much better, stopped closing his eyes during the day, eats and drinks as normal! I still have no idea what it could be but my guess is that there was something stuck in both of his eyes. He doesnt move around a lot except for when i release crickets in his enclosure to hunt. But im not too concerned about that. Thanks a lot for your help again :)
 
UPDATE
Since i saw every single post on the health clinic before i asked my question just to see what could be going on with my cham, and whether the other chams with similar problems ended up dying or not (yes im anxious like that :p ) i thought its a good idea to let you know that lil Donnie is doing much better, stopped closing his eyes during the day, eats and drinks as normal! I still have no idea what it could be but my guess is that there was something stuck in both of his eyes. He doesnt move around a lot except for when i release crickets in his enclosure to hunt. But im not too concerned about that. Thanks a lot for your help again :)
Glad to hear that he’s doing better!
 
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