keratitis healing?

[sloop john b]

I have a 4 mos old panther, upon purchase was eating regularly and shooting tongue normally for food (several inches away). In my set up I was using a Zoo Med CFL 5.0, and after several weeks in my care he started closing his eyes often. After reading about the dangers of CFL on chameleons eyes, I immediately switched to a linear Zoo Med Reptisun 5.0 fluorescent. He now keeps eyes open all the time and is eating daily, however, seems to need to get very close to insects (about an inch) before shooting out his tongue. I am assuming his vision was impaired from the CFL, and he is now recovering.

My question is....if he does have either retinal damage or keratitis from the CFL, what are the chances he will improve over time?

 

[Lovereps]

If the eye issue was caused by the compact fluorescents--and it seems likely-- most animals recover within a week or 2.
These must have been some very old stock bulbs because the companies who made the eye damaging bulbs in the past either stopped making the bulbs or re-engineered them.
Here is some more info:
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/phototherapyphosphor-info.htm

For the tongue not shooting as far, it may be part of the eye trouble or it could have a different cause. Time will tell.
Here is a great blog about tongue troubles:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/232-tongue-troubles.html

 

[sloop john b]

That is incredibly helpful....thanks so much!

I have good news today...I got home from work a little early so had chance to watch him eat. I threw a cricket in the feeding dish and he quickly went over to it (good sign, obviously saw cricket moving from several inches away). He still takes forever when he gets to the food dish, or seems like forever, probably like 2 minutes. When I first got him, he would almost run to the dish and shoot immediately at a distance. Now he'll seem to focus with both eyes and move head like he is gonna strike, but then backs off. Repeats this process several times. Finally I saw him shoot the tongue and I'm happy to report it was further back, like almost two inches. Not as far as when I first got him, but still, he didn't need to get so close as last week when it was only about an inch.

So I'm hopeful this will keep getting better now...thanks again for the very informative reply, and taking the time to help me out.

ps...by the way....I bought the Zoo Med 5.0 CFL about 5 years ago at a Reptile Swap meet, so it might have been one of the earlier, problematic ones.

 

[Lovereps]

I'm glad to have helped and it's good to hear that he is obviously improving.
My wish is that everyone would ask questions and provide their chams with the care to enable them to live healthy, long lives.

5 years ago was during the years when the bad bulbs were sold.
Maybe the manufacturer would accept the bulbs back for exchange with newer bulbs?

Here is a very good Panther caresheet that you might find useful:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/caresheets/panther/