Help with new chameleon’s eye

[Ashleyh1119]

A friend of my daughters had a chameleon that she no longer wanted so we did tons of research and decided to take it in. She seems to be adjusting well, but I’m concerned about one of her eyes. It looked a little flakey 2 days ago when we got her. Today she is obviously shedding on her face and her spine, but this one eye still looks abnormal to us and we have yet to see if there’s even a healthy eye under everything. The previous owner did not have her in her possession before bringing her to us, but said she’s never noticed an eye problem (poor chameleon). Any help is appreciated!

 

[Haley Hendrix]

It just looks like she is just shedding around her eye. Can you take another picture?

 

[Ashleyh1119]

It just looks like she is just shedding around her eye. Can you take another picture?

I’ll take another one, but we can’t see the eye hole. There’s an Amber looking substance that’s been covering it. Is that part of the shed?

 

[Ares05]

More pictures of the eye and her whole body. As well as her entire setup from the lights down. Give me one moment to get you the help form.

 

[Ares05]

Please fill out this form in as much detail as possible. The crust over her eye doesn't look like shed to me but ill tag in some more experienced members for you. Welcome to the forums!

@JacksJill @kinyonga @jannb

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
• Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
• Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
• Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
• Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
• Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
• History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
• Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
• Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
• Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
• Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
• Location - Where are you geographically located?

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

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Please Note:

1. The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
2. Photos can be very helpful.

 

[kinyonga]

I'm not good with eye issues usually. Sorry.

 

[Ashleyh1119]

Please fill out this form in as much detail as possible. The crust over her eye doesn't look like shed to me but ill tag in some more experienced members for you. Welcome to the forums!

@JacksJill @kinyonga @jannb

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care? 12 month old female veiled chameleon. It’s been in my care for 3 days.
• Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon? she was rarely to never held. We haven’t attempted to hold her yet as she gets stressed when we open the door and she hisses.
• Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders? she came with a few crickets but half of them were already dead. We went to the reptile store and they were out of crickets so we bought super size mealworms and fed them apple and orange pieces. The chameleon eats anything we give her. We’ve fed more then what’s recommended but only because I didn’t know if she came to us under fed. She’s also eaten a few hornworms that we purchased as well. We will get crickets and some other beetle that they recommended when they are available from the store.
• Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule? sticky tongue farms miner-all is what they recommended. They also said to dust her food for the first few weeks since we don’t know if she’s deficient currently.
• Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking? we have a spray bottle that we spray the plants with a couple times a day. I did mist her face lightly which she tolerated to see if we could help flush whatever was going on with her eye. Yes we’ve seen her drink. She’s not shy about eating or drinking in front of us.
• Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? I don’t know anything about her feces yet. The enclosure she came in has nothing covering the bottom and a lot of different colored droppings. It’s clear they’ve been there for a while. She was eating the light colored ones when we first got her, but she stopped since there’s been plenty of meal worms to eat.
• History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you. all we know is that she came from a breeder, she was hatched mid September 2019, nothing else.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions? she’s in the medium size reptibreeze cage. We will purchase her a large one when they are in stock.
• Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule? I really don’t know what’s going on with the lighting. It has space for 2 bulbs, one is currently red and the other is a uvb heat bulb. I purchased new bulbs to change them out to both uvb. We run the lamps from the morning until she goes to sleep.
• Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps? I don’t know the temp range in the cage but she has a basking spot. Our house is kept about 74-76 day and night.
• Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity? we just spray the plants
• Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind? she currently has all plastic plants. We purchased some new stuff for great new cage, and we will get into plants once we get the cage.
• Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? we have her in my daughters room on a dresser next to the window. She runs a ceiling fan at night and during that time we’ve been covering the cage with a sheet.
• Location - Where are you geographically located? southern

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.

we are trying to figure out if her eye requires treatment or if she’s just shedding. I know her environment is not well suited, we just got her and are trying to get everything she needs. The reptile store (lllreptile) was out of everything but they’ll have what she needs in a couple days.
--------------

Please Note:

1. The more details you provide the better and more accurate help you will receive.
2. Photos can be very helpful.

 

[Gingero]

Thank you for the info and pics. I'm writing up some feedback for you now.

 

[Gingero]

1. Her eye is requires treatment and is not just from shedding.
2. Since she has only been in your care for 3 days, you can feel better knowing this was most likely the result of her previous owner and not you. If it was me, I'd take her to a vet ASAP.
3. Then I would make the changes suggested down below to her husbandry.
4. You mentioned LLL Reptile being out of stuff. Here are other places to check out: https://www.chameleonforums.com/sponsors/

Suggestions ranked in order of priority:

1. She needs a different UVB bulb ASAP. You want a T5 HO 5.0/6% linear UVB. The ones you have now don't penetrate much further than a few inches. Check out the video below for more explanation.
2. I don't have any experience with Miner-all so I'll let someone else weigh-in on that. Below is a video on the supplement schedule most of us use.
3. You'll want to get a temperature gun to make sure her basking temp isn't higher than 85F and a hygrometer to measure the humidity levels and make sure they are around 30-40%.
4. Good call getting her more bugs and gutloading them. However, I'd avoid buying mealworms in the future since they a low in nutritional value for chams. While apples and oranges are not bad, there are better things you could be gutloading with (see video).

More videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/NeptunetheChameleon?sub_confirmation=1

Helpful videos:

 

[jannb]

Thank you for taking her in. She needs a kind and loving home. I would recommend getting a good reptile vet to take a looks at her eye or take her to an eye specialist take sees reptiles and there’s not many of those. Where do you live? I might be able to help you find a good vet. There might be infection up under all that stuff on her eye. If it’s not treated and it’s infection it will spread and eventually kill her. Also, do you have a laying bin for her? It looks like she might have eggs in one of the pictures.

 

[Ashleyh1119]

1. Her eye is requires treatment and is not just from shedding.
2. Since she has only been in your care for 3 days, you can feel better knowing this was most likely the result of her previous owner and not you. If it was me, I'd take her to a vet ASAP.
3. Then I would make the changes suggested down below to her husbandry.
4. You mentioned LLL Reptile being out of stuff. Here are other places to check out: https://www.chameleonforums.com/sponsors/

Suggestions ranked in order of priority:

1. She needs a different UVB bulb ASAP. You want a T5 HO 5.0/6% linear UVB. The ones you have now don't penetrate much further than a few inches. Check out the video below for more explanation.
2. I don't have any experience with Miner-all so I'll let someone else weigh-in on that. Below is a video on the supplement schedule most of us use.
3. You'll want to get a temperature gun to make sure her basking temp isn't higher than 85F and a hygrometer to measure the humidity levels and make sure they are around 30-40%.
4. Good call getting her more bugs and gutloading them. However, I'd avoid buying mealworms in the future since they a low in nutritional value for chams. While apples and oranges are not bad, there are better things you could be gutloading with (see video).

More videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/NeptunetheChameleon?sub_confirmation=1

Helpful videos:

Shoot, the bulbs I just bought are 3% UVB I’ll reorder.

any advice on the vet? the reptile store said if I took her in there they would apply an anti microbial ointment. Is that sufficient?

advice on handling? we’re kind of afraid to try and remove her from the cage. do they bite? we will need to handle her if we take her in somewhere and also to move her to her new enclosure.

 

[Ashleyh1119]

Thank you for taking her in. She needs a kind and loving home. I would recommend getting a good reptile vet to take a looks at her eye or take her to an eye specialist take sees reptiles and there’s not many of those. Where do you live? I might be able to help you find a good vet. There might be infection up under all that stuff on her eye. If it’s not treated and it’s infection it will spread and eventually kill her. Also, do you have a laying bin for her? It looks like she might have eggs in one of the pictures.

We live in San Diego county. And no laying bin, I wasn’t even thinking about that yet, what do you see that is suggesting eggs?

 

[jannb]

We live in San Diego county. And no laying bin, I wasn’t even thinking about that yet, what do you see that is suggesting eggs?

Thomas H. Boyer, DVM
Pet Hospital of Penasquitos, 888-F Carmel Mountain Road, San Diego, CA - (858) 484-3490
Pet Hospital of Penasquitos

Dr Boyer has been seeing chameleons for many years. I’d highly recommend him.

She looks the age and the size that she could have eggs and her tummy looked big in the picture of her hanging on the stick,

 

[Ashleyh1119]

Thomas H. Boyer, DVM
Pet Hospital of Penasquitos, 888-F Carmel Mountain Road, San Diego, CA - (858) 484-3490
Pet Hospital of Penasquitos

Dr Boyer has been seeing chameleons for many years. I’d highly recommend him.

She looks the age and the size that she could have eggs and her tummy looked big in the picture of her hanging on the stick,

Oh great, I’ll give them a call tomorrow. And I went ahead and set up an egg laying bin just in case. She was really scratching her eye on the branches tonight, so hopefully I get find her some relief soon.

 

[Ashleyh1119]

We have a much happier chameleon! Her eye looks healthy, just had some shed that was stuck to it. They said to raise her humidity and it should heal up just fine. She hasn’t even hissed since we got her vision back. Yay!

 

[jannb]

She looks good now. A very pretty little girl.

 

[Ashleyh1119]

She looks good now. A very pretty little girl. ❤

Thank you! Any tips on raising the humidity? I’ma little confused about how exactly to water her. We spray all the plant matter down twice a day to the point of dripping water and droplets, and we see her drink off the leaves. Are we supposed to be spraying her as well? I’ve seen conflicting information on this. Thanks again for the help

 

[jannb]

Thank you! Any tips on raising the humidity? I’ma little confused about how exactly to water her. We spray all the plant matter down twice a day to the point of dripping water and droplets, and we see her drink off the leaves. Are we supposed to be spraying her as well? I’ve seen conflicting information on this. Thanks again for the help

I recommend using a dripper along with spraying. If she doesn’t mind being sprayed it’s ok to spray her. Some of mine get right in the mist and others run from it. Humidity doesn’t have to be that night for a veiled. It’s normal for it to drop between mistings. Mine drops to 35 or 40 sometimes.

 

[Ashleyh1119]

I recommend using a dripper along with spraying. If she doesn’t mind being sprayed it’s ok to spray her. Some of mine get right in the mist and others run from it. Humidity doesn’t have to be that night for a veiled. It’s normal for it to drop between mistings. Mine drops to 35 or 40 sometimes.

Ok great, sometimes she tolerates being sprayed and even seems to like it, other times she hisses and moves away, so I guess it depends on her mood for the day ?. We got her a fountain for her new enclosure when we can get it. They keep selling out before we get there

 

[AmandaS]

Ok great, sometimes she tolerates being sprayed and even seems to like it, other times she hisses and moves away, so I guess it depends on her mood for the day ?. We got her a fountain for her new enclosure when we can get it. They keep selling out before we get there

Fountains breed bacteria. I wouldnt use one of them. I would, however get a fogger, so you can bump her nighttime humidity up. I try to get ot as close to 100% at night as I can. Breathing in the moist foggy air will help tremendously with hydration. Daytime humidity levels can be between 30-50%.