Itchy eye?

jleahl

New Member
One of my male brevs, Dot, has been rubbing his eyes on leaves, sticks, bark, whatever. This morning, I would swear it was his right eye he was rubbing; but just now it was his left eye. I had just misted them, and he actually climbed up to the nozzle of the mister. Of course he did the gross "cleaning eyeball" thing; I noticed him moving his mouth/jaw when he did this. But even after he was relatively dry and there were no more droplets on his eye, he continued rubbing it. I lifted him out on my hand and looked closely at his eyes. While I was holding him, I noticed him blnking his left eye for a bit long, kind of squinting it for a second or two more than blinking. He is the one I saw shed most recently, about two weeks ago. He is also the larger male, but stays hidden in the pothos most of the time, as opposed to the smaller male, who roams around the tank (except for in the pothos).

Does this sound normal? Should I talk to the herp vet?
 
Sounds like he just needs a really long misting session...you can put him in the shower on a hanging plant where the water hits the side of the shower and gently bounces off the wall to hit the plant. Try that for about 30 minutes.
 
lol it's ok Will, I wouldn't have put him in the shower...I have misted him directly several times the last few days. We went away for Thanksgiving, left someone with all the critters and felt like he would do a good job...but after we got back, I misted the chams and that was the first time I've ever SEEN them drink :mad: The gecko's water dish was dry, too, so obviously I didn't emphasize water enough! But since then (Sunday) I've been misting a pretty good bit. I'll keep an eye on his eye (hehe) and see if it gets better/worse. It looks pretty normal now.
 
Sounds like just some debris caught in his eye. It's common for pygmies to rub their eyes on a stick to force whatever is bothering them out.

You can shower pygmies - I have done it with new arrivals that are dehydrated. You just have to be super careful about it. I put them in an all screen cage with some plants and barely have the shower water hit the cage. The cage does to some extent shield them from the force of the water and the cage prevents them from falling into the drain where they could be lost or drown. The water temp needs to be really low/barely warm too since they are such small critters.

-roo
 
well, I'm actually a little more concerned about Dot...he seems to be either rubbing his whole body against branches, etc., or his legs are too weak to hold him up. If I take him out, he stands erect most of the time, but when he's crawling around the tank hunting (or just strolling) it seems like his belly is on the sticks/leaves more than it's off. It still looks like he's purposely rubbing his head, but he definitely acts different from the other two chams at this point. I'm going to call the herp vet in town tomorrow, if he's open on Saturday, and see if he thinks he can treat a pygmy....but Roo, Hieka, Mike, anybody who's had brevs? Any ideas?
 
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