MissSkittles
Chameleon Enthusiast
Hey folks. Thought I'd share what’s going on with my fella Lucky’s left eye. Maybe someone has a similar experience and can offer up input or what the end result was. Maybe in the future, this can be of help to someone else who may have this issue.
As some of you know, Lucky was living wild before some kids found him crossing a street. He was sick with parasites when he came to me. He’s had a rough time adjusting to being held captive and poor guy should be named Eeyore.
I feel so bad for him.
I looked back at older pics and confirmed my memory of him having always had his left eye smaller and flatter than his right. For a little while recently, I every now and then catch him squinting with his left eye. It started being just a second or two, and he’s seemed to have no other issue, so I’ve been monitoring. Yesterday morning, before the vet visit, he was rubbing his eye against a branch, which is the first time I’ve ever seen him do that. About a week or so ago, that whole eye was bulging out, which has been coming and going. The soonest I could get him to the vet was yesterday. Unfortunately, my go-to and trusted Dr Bogoslavsky has just retired, so we had to go to the other Orlando exotics vet. Aside from his eye looking wonky, he is a strong and healthy older looking guy. Kidney values were perfect and the rest of the labs were sent out, so no results for a few days. X ray showed something not bony behind the eye. It could be inflammation, an abscesss, tumor, super deep debris maybe? Nothing came out from his eye flush. So, he’s starting Meloxicam for possible pain and inflammation and antibiotic (ceftazidine) for possible infection/abscess, but of course, an abscess would need to be cleaned out, which won’t be very easy. The only other finding is that his vision in that eye is extremely poor. Follow up is in 3-4 weeks and we’ll go from there.
This is the story so far. I will update it as more is learned. I just hope that my sweet shy guy isn’t in pain.
As some of you know, Lucky was living wild before some kids found him crossing a street. He was sick with parasites when he came to me. He’s had a rough time adjusting to being held captive and poor guy should be named Eeyore.
I feel so bad for him. I looked back at older pics and confirmed my memory of him having always had his left eye smaller and flatter than his right. For a little while recently, I every now and then catch him squinting with his left eye. It started being just a second or two, and he’s seemed to have no other issue, so I’ve been monitoring. Yesterday morning, before the vet visit, he was rubbing his eye against a branch, which is the first time I’ve ever seen him do that. About a week or so ago, that whole eye was bulging out, which has been coming and going. The soonest I could get him to the vet was yesterday. Unfortunately, my go-to and trusted Dr Bogoslavsky has just retired, so we had to go to the other Orlando exotics vet. Aside from his eye looking wonky, he is a strong and healthy older looking guy. Kidney values were perfect and the rest of the labs were sent out, so no results for a few days. X ray showed something not bony behind the eye. It could be inflammation, an abscesss, tumor, super deep debris maybe? Nothing came out from his eye flush. So, he’s starting Meloxicam for possible pain and inflammation and antibiotic (ceftazidine) for possible infection/abscess, but of course, an abscess would need to be cleaned out, which won’t be very easy. The only other finding is that his vision in that eye is extremely poor. Follow up is in 3-4 weeks and we’ll go from there.
This is the story so far. I will update it as more is learned. I just hope that my sweet shy guy isn’t in pain.
I do think you’re making the right decision at the moment 
The suspects in Lucky’s case is the same - abscess or tumor. Surgery is required to determine which and possibly remove. Since he has almost no vision in that eye, I think it’s more than an abscess. One of the things I learned when I lost 3 of my chams in a row in 2023 was that the stress of the frequent veterinary care is just as detrimental and life shortening as the health problem. Or at least that’s what I believe. As long as he doesn’t appear to be suffering pain, we’ll live with the bad eye. I do help him to eat some of his feeders. He especially loves all worms, so I need to make sure to not run out of silkies. Plus, I tried it today and it worked very well to put his dose of Metacam on a worm, rather than forcing it in his mouth.
