Help! Eyes rolling back in head, rubbing eyes on branches, mouth gaping twice

JeffJo

Member
Cage Info:
Cage Type -24x24x48 Screen cage except the door is plastic and there's another looser plastic sheet on the left side of his cage. I recently bought him off of craigslist with everything to house him.
Lighting - Reptisun 5.0 UVB hood, with another double dome with a ceramic heating bulb and flood light to provide more ambient lighting. I have them on timers to turn on when the sun rises and off when it sets
Temperature - Basking spot is at 90 fahrenheit, near floor temp is 70, overnight whole cage gets to 65-70. I use the classic zoomed gauge thermometers and then an infrared thermometer gun to check them aswell.
Humidity - General humidity is in the 70s, and I use a reptifogger on low throughout the day turning it up when I'm home, and I mist his cage a few times a day aswell.
Plants - Live plants, a ficus and pathos. I have other branches and fake vines around his cage.
Placement - The cage is in the corner of my room essentially in a closet that I keep open and I sometimes close the door if there's commotion in the room or when I have the lights on after his bed time.
Location - Boulder, Colorado, USA.

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Ambilobe Panther Chameleon, Male, About 18 months old. I've had him for about 3 weeks.
Handling - A few times a week when he allows me too, i never corner him and grab him or anything. He will sometimes climb onto my hand when feeding, and I sometimes leave his door open put another ficus in front of his cage he'll climb on, if he climbs out to the ground I'll pick him up and give him a tour of the room.
Feeding - I try to vary his diet the best I can, been feeding him mainly dubia roaches, some times mealworms and the last week he's been tearing through horn worms. I feed him around 6 of the various insects listed a day. A few when I wake up and then a few mid afternoon. Hornworms are eating the chow they came with in one of those hornworm cups, dubia roaches I feed fresh fruit and veggies every other day, and the mealworms came in that oat like stuff that they eat.
Supplements - I use repticalcium without d3 everyday on the roaches, repashy superfoods Supervite and calcium with d3 once every two weeks, so I've done it twice so far.
Watering - I have a chameleon cantina that I just got and haven't seen him drink from, I think the hum of it weirds him out, but otherwise I mist him a few times a day and he'll drink off leaves or I use a dipper. He will sometimes drink from the dripping the fogger makes on his cage.
Fecal Description - He had big white urates, and what seems to be a little softer than normal poop that slightly splats when it falls to the bottom of the cage.
History - Unknown, the guy I bought it from raved about how healthy he was and he does generally seem as such besides this problem. However right when I got him I thought something could be wrong with his eyes because they seemed a little baggy but then he started to shed so I thought that was all till now. He's otherwise very active, a good eater and relatively friendly.
Current Problem - At first he was rubbing his eyes when he shed and I thought that was the main reason but today within the last few hours I noticed he was really harshly rubbing them on branches. I sat down and watched him after feeding and he really started going at it rubbing his eyes on branches to scratch it I think, he would do that thing when they blink but slower and then sometimes stayed like that for a minute or two. He was also rolling his eyes back in his head and even clawed his left eye once. Also he started to gape his mouth after I fed him for about 30 seconds and seemed to turn a little darker(this was also after he ended up with two dubias in his mouth at once, half of one fell out and he chewed and swallowed and then gaped and turned a little darker like I said, after he went back to normal), and I might have gave him a stomach ache too, I was planning to leave tonight and be gone for tomorrow and then promptly come back but that's not definitely not happening now and he's my priority, so I really fed him a lot today(about 5 one inch to inch and a half hornworms plus 4 dubias) and that might have given him some diarrhea. He was also Also while I was writing this he had another bowel movement that was very very watery(I'll post a picture), I've pretty much fed him solely fat and juicy hornworms the last few days because I'm almost out of dubias(will get more asap) and I'm hoping thats the reason this one was so watery, not to mention the probably over feeding today. At the moment he's getting ready for bed and his timer actually went off but I haven't covered his cage because I want to keep and eye on him. He's been very active the last few hours though running through the ficus to I think scratch his eyes a bit too, though he kinda calmed down with the eye scratching and stuff the last 45 minutes. I called some vets and the only place that I could take him to tonight with the available appropriate vets is about an hour and a half drive away and I wasn't able to talk to anyone that could give me a partial diagnosis over the phone.

I tried to provide as much info as I could, and sorry it's a little all over the place, I'm just super worried about my little buddy and if I need to I'll take him tonight I certainly will, the place is open 24hr but I thought I would try this first to see if there is anything I should do in the mean time because there are places close to where I live only a 15 minute drive but they wont have the appropriate vets in till monday, and I'm assuming the whole ordeal of taking him in the car and back plus getting him poked and prodded by a vet all after he would normally be asleep would really stress him out.
Thank you in advance and quick responses would be so much appreciated.
 
Another thing I haven't used this account in a few years since I had my Jackson's that I had to give away due to moving and other circumstances. He's still shedding a bit and there is his poop from yesterday right next to his poop from today, they are also decently smelly but I'm not sure how normal or not that is. Here are some pictures:
 

Attachments

  • 20161014_184030.jpg
    20161014_184030.jpg
    282.4 KB · Views: 313
  • 20161014_184040.jpg
    20161014_184040.jpg
    259.1 KB · Views: 308
  • 20161014_185500.jpg
    20161014_185500.jpg
    198.6 KB · Views: 542
  • 20161014_185529.jpg
    20161014_185529.jpg
    376.2 KB · Views: 308
He is also comfortably sleep now with the humidifier up in case this issue is due to humidity aswell
 
He needs to seen by a vet immediately for his eye! It looks like he has a bad infection in his left eye. It is all filmed over as you can see. Also his poop does not look normal at all and it really should not smell. I would take sample of that in and have it tested for parasites.
 
I agree with @carol5208, he needs to see a vet. An eye infection can go septic without treatment. The film over his eye is an infection. I had a Cham with it as well. Once he's seen a vet and given meds then you need to up his mistings and add a good long shower every couple of days to help him clear that eye out. I had drops and an ointment I had to put in 4 times a day for a few weeks. The big thing is, this will not go away on its own.

Do you know how old the UVB light is? If you got it from his previous owner you might need to replace it, they need to be replaced every 6 months.
 
Okay, thank you guys! I'll take him to the vet asap. The previous owner said I needed to replace that UVB bulb in a month and gave me an extra one so I was going to put that in next week or so. And with the fecal, do I need to wait for him to poop and collect it then take that to the vet too, or do you think he'll go at the vets or something?
 
Well, I've gone to the vet and of course he isn't displaying any of the symptoms he was before and they don't have the specialist in right now and the one on call isn't responding so the normal vet here has been telling me that it's just because he is still shedding. Even though I said how aggressively he was scratching his eyes and rubbing them even squishing them like he was trying to get something out of it. I might get a call back from the specialist on Monday or something on the fecal samples, but so far they basically wasted my time an took my money :/. She said how he's the healthiest chameleon she's had in so she's not worried about it, but like you guys said I think this is the beginning of an eye infection and I told them that but I don't know
 
Last edited:
Well, I've gone to the vet and of course he isn't displaying any of the symptoms he was before and they don't have the specialist in right now and the one on call isn't responding so the normal vet here has been telling me that it's just because he is still shedding. Even though I said how aggressively he was scratching his eyes and rubbing them even squishing them like he was trying to get something out of it. I might get a call back from the specialist on Monday or something on the fecal samples, but so far they basically wasted my time an took my money :/. She said how he's the healthiest chameleon she's had in so she's not worried about it, but like you guys said I think this is the beginning of an eye infection and I told them that but I don't know

I think @ferretinmyshoes is very close to you, maybe even in the same city. She's a very good reptile vet. I hope she responds to this thread but she might be too busy to. Does anyone know the name of her clinic? @ChamomilleCame can you give JeffJo Dayna's phone number? I would definitely have her take a look at him. He really needs his eye looked at and his stool is really not right.
 
I think @ferretinmyshoes is very close to you, maybe even in the same city. She's a very good reptile vet. I hope she responds to this thread but she might be too busy to. Does anyone know the name of her clinic? @ChamomilleCame can you give JeffJo Dayna's phone number? I would definitely have her take a look at him. He really needs his eye looked at and his stool is really not right.
Thank you! That would be great to get in touch with her though I do have aother vet appointment tomorrow at a different place, I last went to Fort Collins and now I'm going to a place here in Boulder but I made another thread aswell about this. I took a video of him after misting him when he starts doing weird things with his eyes and it looks to me like there might be some parasites in his eye. I'm on my mobile phone right now so I'm now sure if this will work but here's the video link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6YCX-AdOOEZWGM2dm50ekRDbWc/view?usp=drivesdk
 
I don't think it is parasites. More likely debris and maybe an infection. The stool is worrying. Just make sure you get a reptile vet. I've once had a vet flush the eye by putting a catheter into the turret and flushing it. I wouldn't want anyone other than an experienced reptile vet doing something like that. Good luck. Bring a FRESH stool sample in an have them run a fecal on it.

As far as the vet, I sent a chameleon to someone in Boulder and Dayna (@ferretinmyshoes) is her vet.
 
I got in touch with Dayna, but she's about an hour away for me aswell (I had previously done that over the weekend to a different vet but I don't have time today) but I'll be taking him to a place here this afternoon. I'll call them and make sure the vet has experience with Chameleons. His condition has only gotten worse and his diarrhea is persisting. Here's some pictures of what he looks like now :(
 

Attachments

  • 20161017_102120.jpg
    20161017_102120.jpg
    336 KB · Views: 177
  • 20161017_102116.jpg
    20161017_102116.jpg
    345.2 KB · Views: 268
Last edited:
Alright, so I had him seen by Dr. Hayes at the Arapahoe animal hospital and he agreed he had an infection, probably from an injury like scratching his eyes on a branch and that it then got infected. He gave me some drops and showed me how to put them in which I'll do 3 times a day and up his mistings aswell. I still need to have his stool checked out though, once I'm able to get it to them fresh enough I'll have that done, hopefully in the next few days.
 
I got in touch with Dayna, but she's about an hour away for me aswell (I had previously done that over the weekend to a different vet but I don't have time today) but I'll be taking him to a place here this afternoon. I'll call them and make sure the vet has experience with Chameleons. His condition has only gotten worse and his diarrhea is persisting. Here's some pictures of what he looks like now :(
thats how mine was looking.Got antibiotics yesterday
 
Side question, I'm currently out of dubias and my hornworms ran out of food and started biting eachother so I threw a few leaves of spinach in there. I haven't fed any of those hornworms to him yet and then I read about how a chameleon eating spinach can cause problems with calcium absorption. Does that apply if they are eaten by feeder insects?
 
Update on my chameleon's condition! He's doing a lot better now, it turns out he didn't have an eye infection but more of a sinus infection that affected his eyes as well since they're so close to each other, according to my vet. After he reasoned that he gave me some different antibiotic drops and an oral antibiotic, I've been administering those as directed and after the first day(Wednesday) he started eating again. Now(Saturday) he isn't squinting his eyes for long periods or rolling them back or rubbing them on branches nearly at all! I recently put a different plant in his cage and he seems to love it, he's much more active than he had been and is returning to his normal happy healthy self :)
 
Thanks! Yeah I'm happy and hope he keeps improving. I also just cleaned his enclosure, for the first time since I've owned him which was about a month but judging by how dirty underneath the pots was it's been several since the previous owner cleaned it. I also found about 7 or 8 dubia roaches loose on the floor of his cage, I'm not sure how long they've been loose like that and I don't think that they're all even from while I've had him and that some of those roaches escaped in the previous owners care. I've been gut loading them and I gave them more or less the best bath you can give a roach without drowning them, dusted them and was about to feed them to my chameleon, but my gut feeling said maybe I shouldn't since they've been loose on the bottom of his cage next to poop, dirt and rotting dead leaves(which I'll prevent by cleaning much more often) for some amount of time, possibly eating anything on the floor with them. Does anyone know if they're safe after gut loading for a week, or should I toss them out?
 
Back
Top Bottom