Lethargy and Slightly sunken eye

chaneycore

New Member
Chameleon Info:
  • Your Chameleon - Male Panther Chameleon (I think Nosy Be). Around 9 months old. Had for roughly 5 months.
  • Handling - Average about once a week
  • Feeding - Crickets, Superworms, Mealworms, Dubias on occasion. My chameleon does not eat immediately when food is available, he prefers to hunt. Worms and roaches along with a couple crickets go in feeder other crickets are left to roam and be hunted. New bugs added every other day as necessary. Gutloaded with Fluker's Calcium and Jurassidiet.
  • Supplements - Calcium dust every other time new crickets are added. Switch off between w/D3 and w/out. (I've been reading the site and noticed we should give less D3, that is changing next feeding).
  • Watering - Timed automatic mister and fogger machine to keep up humidity. I have seen him drink, I am not home all the time so I cannot tell you the last time, but I have most definitely seen him drink on numerous occassions.
  • Fecal Description - White and brown, appears normal. Has not been tested for parasites.
  • History - Noticed his tail was shedding today. No other history of note.

Cage Info:
  • Cage Type - Cage 24x24x48
  • Lighting - Lighting is 12 hours a day. 1 solar glo basking bulb 100W (kept 9 inches away from nearest basking area. 1 reptisun 24" terrarium hood style fixture with a 15w T8 tropical 25 bulb inside.
  • Temperature - 72 at the floor 97 at basking. Lowest overnight temp around 64 measured with 2 digital thermometers (1 at basking and 1 at lowest 1/4 of cage/the area he would go to cool off).
  • Humidity - Humidity is kept between 60% and 80% kept up with a fogger.
  • Plants - Fake foliage with a fake umbrella ficus.
  • Placement - Cage is next to our bed in the corner of our room. Sits roughly 3 ft off the ground.
  • Location - East Bay Area, CA

Current Problem - Since yesterday, I have noticed Evander with his eyes closed while the lights are on, hiding in shaded areas away from either basking or UVB bulb and low in his cage. Today, I went to check him out and he was still in roughly the same spot, low in his cage, however, I noticed his left eye was slightly sunken in. I went to take him out of his cage--which he is usually completely against and I am talking hissing and lurching and running away--and he didn't put up much of a fight. As I was holding him--he usually likes to roam around once he's out--he sat in one place and his grip felt very weak on my hand.
I am concerned he is dehydrated, and I took him into the shower with me to get some warm water, but I was very careful to not put him under the water and to lightly drip some water on his hind area and a couple drops toward his mouth area along with puddling water in my hand for him to recognize the wetness in hopes to get him to drink. He did turn to his sleepytime coloring and closed his more sunken eye.

Any ideas on what could be going on?

Thank you.
 
Cage 1.JPEG Evander.JPEG Evander 4.JPEG Evander 3.JPEG Evander 2.JPEG
 
You'll notice that his LEFT eye is more sunken than his right.
Also, the last 2 pictures are after I administered some Fluker's Repta-Boost to him and some water via syringe. I did not get as much as a full dose as he started to get too stressed out.
 
My usual herpetological vet is closed until Friday. Any suggestions in the mean time?

I’ve been thinking about manual hydration via warm shower and syringe hydration.
 
Is he still eating? Can you get horn worms?
What color are his urates?
Have you tried a dripper. I prefer trying to get water/moisture into them that way because with using a syringe it's easier to get it into the lungs if you don't know what your doing.

If it's only one eye then I don't know that it's even really dehydration....but keep in mind I'm not a vet and just giving you my best guess.
 
Is he still eating? Can you get horn worms?
What color are his urates?
Have you tried a dripper. I prefer trying to get water/moisture into them that way because with using a syringe it's easier to get it into the lungs if you don't know what your doing.

If it's only one eye then I don't know that it's even really dehydration....but keep in mind I'm not a vet and just giving you my best guess.
He is a sporadic eater as it is. I’ve noticed he has been eating from his feeder. It appears he did eat yesterday because he was given crickets and there are less in his feeder than were given.
I did notice after I let him have some time to relax and sleep last night, his other eye sunk in a bit. I was not willing to impose more stress on him by shoving a syringe in his face again. He seemed to have had enough.
Looking at his urates they seem white but it’s hard to find his most recent one since he’s a sneaky little guy.
 
Are you running a forger during the day?
I assume you mean fogger?
He gets his fogger while his lights are on
mister runs in 3 hour intervals for 1 minute each cycle. It’s usually enough to let the cage dry out before it gets wet again. Also, it’s set up to pool onto the big leaves on the fake plant.
The fogger is tied to the top of the screen and it creates a drip effect as the water pools on the screen before it drips through.
 
Update to all who are interested.

Dr. Tina Peak looked at Evander. She found him loaded with round worms that she suggests he was born with or picked up before we got him. He is on anti-biotics, laxatives, and dewormer.
 
Are you using a Solarmeter 6.5 to check your uvb levels with the solar glo bulb? These you have to be very cautious of if using without a solarmeter to know what the UVI exposure to the cham is. Over exposure is just as bad as underexposure. That and you said you were also giving D3 more frequently then you should.... You should not fog while lights are on, this puts your cham at risk for respiratory infections. Fogging should be done at night when the cage is coldest and there are no lights on.
 
Thank you everybody for your kind words. My only hope is that somebody else reads this thread and catches this before we did so maybe they can have a chance.
 
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