issue with eyes

serenitystarlite

Established Member
Hi everyone. I haven't had time to post anything in awhile, but I'm having an issue with my panther chameleon's eyes. Drac, my nosy be panther has been closing one of his eyes off and on and has been trying to clean it out (bulging, rolling it around, etc).

I've been having serious issues with humidity this winter, despite having a humidifier running constantly. I put the humidifier right in front of his cage to try to help him with humidity and I just ordered and set up the Mist King this past week. I have it running 4 times per day for 1 minute. I've been misting as much as I can and still the humidity is low, like 30-40%. Obviously it goes up to 70-80% after misting, but then drops back down when the cage dries out. Even my eyes have been burning this winter, but my other chameleons that are in the same room don't have any eye issues and just shedded normally.

A few weeks ago, Drac had what looked like a small piece of skin in the eye so I removed it and his eye seemed to be a little better but recently he's been closing it again. A few times lately, I've caught him with both eyes closed and now he's been trying to clean out the other eye. I've been trying to flush out both eyes with purified bottled water and when I do, he'll keep both eyes open for awhile which leads me to believe it's a humidity/shedding issue. I looked for saline solution and haven't been able to find anything with just saline. All the clear eyes and visine have weird ingredients like astringent and blood vessel constrictors, so I didn't want to get any of them. I searched around on the forums (although you can't search for the word "eye" by itself) and have seen a few people say to use saline for contacts to flush out eyes. I did find some saline for contacts and the ingredients are "A sterile, isotonic, buffered solution that contains boric acid, sodium borate, potassium chloride, preserved with polyaminopropyl biguanide (0.00003%) and edetate disodium (0.025%)." Is this safe to use? Is there a specific type of eye drops/saline I can get for him? I haven't had a chance to check Petco/Petsmart for eye drops, but I can call around and pick something up tomorrow if I know specifically what to look for.

He hasn't shedded in awhile, so I'm thinking he's due to shed and his eyes are bothering him because they are dry. There is no discharge or gunk around the eyes and when his eyes are open, they look normal. I'll try to get some pictures up tomorrow.

So basically I'm asking what specifically can I use to flush out his eyes besides just plain water? Thanks :)
 
Hi everyone. I haven't had time to post anything in awhile, but I'm having an issue with my panther chameleon's eyes. Drac, my nosy be panther has been closing one of his eyes off and on and has been trying to clean it out (bulging, rolling it around, etc).

I've been having serious issues with humidity this winter, despite having a humidifier running constantly. I put the humidifier right in front of his cage to try to help him with humidity and I just ordered and set up the Mist King this past week. I have it running 4 times per day for 1 minute. I've been misting as much as I can and still the humidity is low, like 30-40%. Obviously it goes up to 70-80% after misting, but then drops back down when the cage dries out. Even my eyes have been burning this winter, but my other chameleons that are in the same room don't have any eye issues and just shedded normally.

A few weeks ago, Drac had what looked like a small piece of skin in the eye so I removed it and his eye seemed to be a little better but recently he's been closing it again. A few times lately, I've caught him with both eyes closed and now he's been trying to clean out the other eye. I've been trying to flush out both eyes with purified bottled water and when I do, he'll keep both eyes open for awhile which leads me to believe it's a humidity/shedding issue. I looked for saline solution and haven't been able to find anything with just saline. All the clear eyes and visine have weird ingredients like astringent and blood vessel constrictors, so I didn't want to get any of them. I searched around on the forums (although you can't search for the word "eye" by itself) and have seen a few people say to use saline for contacts to flush out eyes. I did find some saline for contacts and the ingredients are "A sterile, isotonic, buffered solution that contains boric acid, sodium borate, potassium chloride, preserved with polyaminopropyl biguanide (0.00003%) and edetate disodium (0.025%)." Is this safe to use? Is there a specific type of eye drops/saline I can get for him? I haven't had a chance to check Petco/Petsmart for eye drops, but I can call around and pick something up tomorrow if I know specifically what to look for.

He hasn't shedded in awhile, so I'm thinking he's due to shed and his eyes are bothering him because they are dry. There is no discharge or gunk around the eyes and when his eyes are open, they look normal. I'll try to get some pictures up tomorrow.

So basically I'm asking what specifically can I use to flush out his eyes besides just plain water? Thanks :)

hey starlite. first of all, how is your cham/herp room set up? are there any windows causing a draft? are you using electric heaters?
a simple solution for humidity problems with windowed rooms is wrap sealing them with shrinkwrap. an electric heater can decrease humidity in a room also.

you could try a warm-mist humidifier and put that across from the cage(s) on the other side of the room. if they fan is on high, then the high airflow could be causing him to close his eyes.. kind of how you would sticking your head out of a car window lol.

as mentioned above, turtle eye drops are a reputable remedy, but there are many plain solutions of saline. you just have to look harder. i wouldn't use a visine or clear eyes with saline in it. but a Saline to clean contact lenses.

JMHO i hope it helps, not too much about saline, but i hope it opens ideas up for you about fixing the humidity.

also too, boiling water in electric kettles in the room might work, and the reptifogger could be a benefit to you aswell.-
 
I finally found some saline with no preservatives. I used that to flush both of his eyes. He had his good eye open but has still been closing the bad eye. He did open the bad eye for awhile after I used the saline. Here are some pics:

bad eye:

l_2f42bdbc7d8143599f72ca38c2bc48c2.jpg


l_f7786733c5564afda21c1c5ca4b5d33e.jpg


l_907f248f22ce4393b6c8a2b111f4f88c.jpg


good eye:

l_cd93ea3aa8fd42e692c51fa078e9a1dc.jpg


l_7695e85933d346399ebf45519e65b3fb.jpg


drinking from the dripper:

l_e49d2dcc0d4e4a3e854242a8ae97b771.jpg


cleaning out good eye:

l_37b87c2d1723493198c7f7b0a0e7a0a6.jpg


After I used the saline, he actually sat under the dripper and let the water drip into his eyes and cleaned them both out for about 10 min while he drank. Now my left eye is burning. I have no idea what is going on with the heat in this place. I don't think adding another humidifier would make sense, I have a $50 ionic humidifier and it goes through a gallon of distilled water per day. I can turn it up a little during the day. I do sometimes use a space heater, but I've been trying to avoid using it since Drac's eye problem. I just started using the Mist King this past week and have been playing with the settings, so hopefully that will help once I figure out how long and how many times to have it go off.

I also found Zoo Med Repti-Turtle Drops on clearance at Petco for $1.20 and it came with a free bottle of Reptisafe, so I figured I might as well pick them up. Ingredients in the Turtle Drops are "Water (isotonic saline solution), solubilizing hydotrope, vitamin A palmitate in an oil base, cyanocobalamin (vitamin B12)" Would this be safe/beneficial to use?
 
Back
Top Bottom