Help PLS!!!

Yanely

Yanely

New Member
I adopted a female veiled Cham from Petco about a month ago. Her name is Mika and she is about 3 months old. She looked in good health when I got her, but now she has been worrying me with her appearance. Her eye was swollen for a couple of days, but it became better after I started giving her multivitamin and taking her outside. The problem went away but suddenly she regressed to having eye problems. Both her eyes have been closed for 3 days now. I've been force feeding her and making her drink water. I feed her meal warms and tiny frog flies. She is in a screen 18x18x36 with a live plant (chameleon save plant) fake little branches, bamboo sticks and a rock dripper. She has a basking and UVB combo light 5.0 and a piece of wood from reptile store to help with humidity. I live in souther California weather is great here so I take her out side for about 20 minutes a day! I bough spray from pets mart that help skin shedding I have used that about 4 times in a month. I don't know what I'm doing wrong :( I'm so afraid that something bad is going on with her! Her eyes are closed all day and she looks lethargic! Pls help!!! I have a vet appointment on Monday but I'm afraid of this problem progressing while we wait for our appointment. I feel horrible like I'm failing her! Pls pls pls help! AND pls only offer me advice if you are confident you know what your talking about I don't want to harm her with taking bad advise that might harm her more.
 
I'm not an expert, but there are many people here who are. I recently went through a similar thing with my veiled, and thanks to the people here, he's fine now.

The last time you saw Mika eating on her own, did she have problems? I thought my cham was having eye problems until I mentioned that he wasn't shooting his tongue very far, and would miss his food even when his eyes were both open. That turned out to be a Vit A deficiency. (Something I was able to fix without a vet)

It might have also been caused by the coil UVB bulb we were using at first. If you have one of those, I would highly suggest switching to a linear tube. Even if it's not the cause of this issue specifically, it can end up causing problems later on.

Hopefully one of the forum vets or biologists can chime in once you fill out the "How to ask for help" form. Please be as detailed as possible with that too. Make sure to include all of the brands of supplements, that shedding spray, and all of the lighting as well. Try and include as many pictures as possible.
 
Yanely said:
I feed her meal warms and tiny frog flies. She is in a screen 18x18x36 with a live plant (chameleon save plant) fake little branches, bamboo sticks and a rock dripper. She has a basking and UVB combo light 5.0 and a piece of wood from reptile store to help with humidity. I live in souther California weather is great here so I take her out side for about 20 minutes a day! I bough spray from pets mart that help skin shedding I have used that about 4 times in a month. I don't know what I'm doing wrong :( I'm so afraid that something bad is going on with her! Her eyes are closed all day and she looks lethargic! Pls help!!! I have a vet appointment on Monday but I'm afraid of this problem progressing while we wait for our appointment. I feel horrible like I'm failing her! Pls pls pls help! AND pls only offer me advice if you are confident you know what your talking about I don't want to harm her with taking bad advise that might harm her more.
Click to expand...

A few things stick out to me. First, please do fill out the help questions as others suggested. We really do need the detail to puzzle out what's going on.

It is great that you take her outside every day. That will definitely help at least during seasons the weather lets you.

I suspect her cage humidity is too low as this often leads or adds to eye problems. A piece of wood sitting in the cage isn't going to do much for humidity especially if its screen.

Not knowing what your specific lights are that could also add to the problem but we can't really tell. There are NO incandescent basking light bulbs on the market that really produce much UVB unless it is something like a PowerSun or mercury vapor lamp. These also produce a lot of heat that may be too strong for a young cham like this.

The incorrect lighting will also affect whether she can get the vitamins and nutrients from her food or not. Mealworms are not great feeder insects unless you gutload them very well and use the newly shed ones. Their exoskeletons contain a lot of chitin which is harder to digest.

This so called shed ease spray is a waste of money. If she's having trouble shedding she is dehydrated. Higher humidity from water misting, lots more live plants should help that.
 
Tyaeda said:
I'm not an expert, but there are many people here who are. I recently went through a similar thing with my veiled, and thanks to the people here, he's fine now.

The last time you saw Mika eating on her own, did she have problems? I thought my cham was having eye problems until I mentioned that he wasn't shooting his tongue very far, and would miss his food even when his eyes were both open. That turned out to be a Vit A deficiency. (Something I was able to fix without a vet)

It might have also been caused by the coil UVB bulb we were using at first. If you have one of those, I would highly suggest switching to a linear tube. Even if it's not the cause of this issue specifically, it can end up causing problems later on.

Hopefully one of the forum vets or biologists can chime in once you fill out the "How to ask for help" form. Please be as detailed as possible with that too. Make sure to include all of the brands of supplements, that shedding spray, and all of the lighting as well. Try and include as many pictures as possible.
Click to expand...

I actually saw your post when i first noticed a problem and i read everything everyone wrote back to you. I took there advise too and i started to put vitamin A in her worms and feed them to her. She seemed better after that, but suddenly she regressed to having problems with both eyes instead of just one like she had originally started. I have an appointment with vet today. She has not been able to open her eyes so this weekend i made sure to give her water with syringe and force feed her. (All tips of which i read from this webpage) I had a very worrisome weekend because i had to wait until today to be able to see vet. I even had nightmares about her dying :( Its a really crapy feeling to see her sick. I have my appointment at 2pm so wish me luck!
 
Good luck and keep us posted when you get back. My female Veild can't stand to be spayed directly. She will blink her eyes and just glar at me. Maybe the spray you were using got in her eyes...make sure to tell the vet about the spray.
 
Carlton said:
A few things stick out to me. First, please do fill out the help questions as others suggested. We really do need the detail to puzzle out what's going on.

It is great that you take her outside every day. That will definitely help at least during seasons the weather lets you.

I suspect her cage humidity is too low as this often leads or adds to eye problems. A piece of wood sitting in the cage isn't going to do much for humidity especially if its screen.

Not knowing what your specific lights are that could also add to the problem but we can't really tell. There are NO incandescent basking light bulbs on the market that really produce much UVB unless it is something like a PowerSun or mercury vapor lamp. These also produce a lot of heat that may be too strong for a young cham like this.

The incorrect lighting will also affect whether she can get the vitamins and nutrients from her food or not. Mealworms are not great feeder insects unless you gutload them very well and use the newly shed ones. Their exoskeletons contain a lot of chitin which is harder to digest.

This so called shed ease spray is a waste of money. If she's having trouble shedding she is dehydrated. Higher humidity from water misting, lots more live plants should help that.
Click to expand...

First i really want to thank you for your time. It means a lot to me, and i very much appreciate it. Thank you!

Humidity is at 68. Is that bad? I read that it should be at a range from 50-70. The UVB light that i got is a 5.0 UVB light that was recommended by a specialist at a reptile store. What UVB lights do you recommend? I am trying to figure out how to navigate through this web, since i just joined last week. I was trying to upload a picture of my set up in my post but couldn't figure it out. I will try again in a bit.

The mealworms are their main food right now so thank you for the feedback because that will change immediately.

The spray i'm not really using it because they have shedding problems i use it to prevent shedding problems. I was apparently miss informed. I will stop using that completely moving forward.
 
teejayteej said:
Good luck and keep us posted when you get back. My female Veild can't stand to be spayed directly. She will blink her eyes and just glar at me. Maybe the spray you were using got in her eyes...make sure to tell the vet about the spray.
Click to expand...

Thank you for looking out. That is very possible. I have a everything the mealworms i'm feeding, and the spray i've used, including multivitamins i bought in a container to take with me, so that vet can see them. I'll make sure to keep you posted. I REALLY appreciate your time!
 
jannb said:
Welcome to the forums. I am sorry to hear about your little girl. I find chameleons to be quite fragile and everything has to mimic their natural habitat. Filling out the Ask For Help Form and posting some pictures of her would be very helpful.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-post-photos-video-3609/

This is how I keep young veileds.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...-keepers-young-veiled-panther-chameleons.html
Click to expand...

Thank You!!! Everyday you provided me with was very informative and i will definitely take it. I am still trying to figure out navigation of this web. I just joined last week, so i have a lot to learn. I will try to post pictures.

I have a vet appointment today. Wish me luck! Ill keep you guys posted. I REALLY REALLY REALLY Appreciate your time! Thanks a million!
 
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jannb said:
Welcome to the forums. I am sorry to hear about your little girl. I find chameleons to be quite fragile and everything has to mimic their natural habitat. Filling out the Ask For Help Form and posting some pictures of her would be very helpful.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/
https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-post-photos-video-3609/

This is how I keep young veileds.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blo...-keepers-young-veiled-panther-chameleons.html
Click to expand...
 
5.0

Go with the linear bulb vs. the compact. You will get better results. Stick with a tried and true brand like Zoomed Reptisun 5.0. Make sure to only use a 5.0 & not a 10.0. The latter is NOT recommended and cause ill effects with your cham. It is alarming though that the problem resolved and then reoccured worse. Get the little guy outside as much as possible ( CA weather) & gutload with variety.
 
I wouldnt use that multivitamin especially with the sun exposure. You are probably dosing too much d3

You should get a multivitamin w/out d3 as well as a calcium w/out d3
 
junglefries said:
Go with the linear bulb vs. the compact. You will get better results. Stick with a tried and true brand like Zoomed Reptisun 5.0. Make sure to only use a 5.0 & not a 10.0. The latter is NOT recommended and cause ill effects with your cham. It is alarming though that the problem resolved and then reoccured worse. Get the little guy outside as much as possible ( CA weather) & gutload with variety.
Click to expand...

It's not true that the 10.0 causes eye problems. Perhaps you mean the coil bulbs in general? But I and many other members use the Reptisun 10.0 bulbs exclusively on all our animals, as they're stronger but well within a safe level of UVB output.

But I do agree that a linear fluorescent bulb is better than a small coil one. Better UVB distribution across the cage.
 
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