My chameleon is having a bit of trouble with one eye

Hello everyone,

I’m totally new to this forum. So please be patient and bear with me. I am a relatively new keeper. I have an otherwise healthy 7.5 month old Ambilobe Panther Chameleon. He’s recently been to the vet and was given a clean bill of health. Poop checked and no parasites, no tail rot, mouth or stomach rot and no lesions or sores on his body. He also had blood work checked and everything came back well and within in range. However, he did show a slight inflammatory response suggesting the onset of an infection.

This is where things get sticky, he appears normal. His eyes both seem normal but, he will spend a significant amount of time mainly in the AM but throughout the day blinking hard, sometimes puffing out the eye, and on occasion scratching the turret against a branch. It lasts for 30 seconds to a minute then it goes back to size, I inspect and his eye seems normal. Even the vet who checked him out said she felt his eye looked good. Didn’t see any cloudy retinas or pupils or cuts bruising around his eye.

This has been going on for about 3-4 weeks now, so a couple weeks back before the blood test; he was put on some eye drops of Ciprofloaxin/Ofloxac. I was instructed 2x a day 1-2 drops. My chameleon did not tolerate the drops very well, and the drops seemed to exasperate the symptoms. I consulted with his vet via phone, and she said to try once a day. So I did once a day for about two weeks, but did not notice much improvement.

Fast forward to about a week ago, I took my chameleon in because he was still having the symptoms. The vet decided to flush his eye, and culture it to check for any specific infection. Unfortunately, the culture did not yield any result which could be good, but also could be because there wasn’t enough material to culture. That’s where the CBC results come in. Because of the shape and inflammatory response of the white blood cells, it was determined that he has a very early stage of an infection. Pixle my chameleon does not gape, does not breathe heavy, he does not have any secretion from his mouth or nostrils. But the vet thinks maybe the air ducts in the eyes could be infected, or possibly got backed up with gunk or shed. That being the case he was put on a broad spectrum antibiotic (couldn’t use a more specific ax because the culture didn’t grow anything). He is now on .03ml of Enrofloaxin orally every 24 hours for the next 28 days.

My concern however is if this could be attributed do hypovitaminosis A? His vet did not seem to think so as she said both eyes would have the symptoms and that she doesn’t see vitamin A deficiency in chameleons really, because they are insectivores and their feeders have vitamin A. He currently is on Repashy’s Calcium plus at every feeding, dusted over his feeders. Then 3x a week I am also adding in Arcadia Revitalize D3. Additionally, his feeders are gut loaded with Repashy’s bug burger, carrots, apples, blueberries, oranges, and spinach.

As for his cage set up, he is in an 18x18x36”wide cage. He has a 50WReptisun basking bulb in a wide reflective zoomed dome in one corner with a branch about 7-8 inches below. I use a thermal laser gun to check temps regularly and his basking spot is at about 87 degrees. Ambient temperature is about 75, with gradients at 65 or so at the middle and bottom of the cage. I use a 36” sun blaster UVB light fixture with a 34” Reptisun T5 HO UVB linear fluorescent bulb. I use a solarmeter to regularly check his UVB levels. He is at a UVI of 1.5-2.6 depending on the area (made pockets where he can get more or less) putting him on a 3 of the Ferguson chart. I have double fixture or 2 Vivosun 24” 6500k plant grow lights, 1 24” LED 3500k grow light, and two full spectrum LED grow lamps at the top and side of the enclosure mainly for his plants. We only use live plants. He also has a little dripper dripping at 1 drop p/s in the AM and then 1 drop every 4-5 seconds in the PM. He has a mistking with two spray heads placed and pointed at plants strategically to collect water for him to drink, and also achieve spikes of humidity up to 80% 2x per day. His mister goes on at 6am for 6 minutes, 10am for 10 minutes, 2pm for 10 minutes, and 4:45pm for 5 minutes. Lights are on for 12 hours a day and come on automatically at 5am and go off at 5pm. Once lights go off, he also has a dual exhausted fogger that goes off for about 15 minutes 3x at at dawn to increase humidity and recreate the fog in the wild. I use a dual fan to create some airflow at night for the enclosure and to help lower the temperature by 10-12 degrees (F) for thermal regulation.

He is very friendly and and is handled and inspected 1x a day for 10-15 minutes. He never presents signs of distress/stress. Does not hiss, open his mouth, puff up or brighten up when held and will willingly mosey onto my hand when prompted.

Hopefully I’ve given enough background on him and his enclosure, nutrition regiment etc. I’m really hoping any experts out there have any ideas or can help me brainstorm what can be adding to his eye issue, and him closing it occasionally. Any and all help is greatly appreciated!!
 

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Hello. So sorry to hear about this. I am also new. I just started today! I don't have a great amount of experience and knowledge with chameleons, especially panthers, but if you keep on taking him to the vet and they say there is nothing wrong with him, I would guess it might just be how he was born, or your vet is dookie at his/her's job. But, don't take my word for it, as I said, I don't know the most on chameleons. By the way, that is a very pretty chameleon.
 
I dont understand or see anything wrong with his eyes... He looks great IMO and so does your setup! Chams regularly clean their eues out so are you sure your not just overlooking the issue? Your misting an awful lot though i feel like you can probably bring those times down.
 
@Kamikaze Chameleon thank you. Generally the eye looks fine, but just troubling he scratches it and puffs it that much. I do tend to be a bit of an over thinker, but wonder if because of the blood results too, something underlying could be going on. I do think I may cut down the misting times, I was suggested to up them to two longer mistings to make sure he was drinking enough water. Appreciate your thoughts and response!
 
Hi there your supplementing too much...

Here is what stands out to me.

My concern however is if this could be attributed do hypovitaminosis A? His vet did not seem to think so as she said both eyes would have the symptoms and that she doesn’t see vitamin A deficiency in chameleons really, because they are insectivores and their feeders have vitamin A. He currently is on Repashy’s Calcium plus at every feeding, dusted over his feeders. Then 3x a week I am also adding in Arcadia Revitalize D3. Repashy calcium plus has Vit A and your giving the Revitalize D3 that has A. You would not give the Arcadia with the Repashy. Some chams do not do well on the Repashy Calcium plus so people will switch to the LoD version. But this would be the only supplement used at every feeding and some chams have a hard time with it as well.

Personally I would take him off it and use all arcadia supplements. Your rotation would be Earthpro A at every feeding (this is calcium without D3 and B vitamins.) Then CalciumMg 2 times a month and the revitaliseD3 two times a month. These two get rotated week to week at one feeding only.


Additionally, his feeders are gut loaded with Repashy’s bug burger, carrots, apples, blueberries, oranges, and spinach. Spinach binds calcium
 
One other thing... Can you take a pic of how you have the lights on the top. That is a lot of light and if they are sitting right on the top this may be contributing to eye sensitivity. The UVB levels are perfect so that would not be a worry.
 
@Kamikaze Chameleon thank you. Generally the eye looks fine, but just troubling he scratches it and puffs it that much. I do tend to be a bit of an over thinker, but wonder if because of the blood results too, something underlying could be going on. I do think I may cut down the misting times, I was suggested to up them to two longer mistings to make sure he was drinking enough water. Appreciate your thoughts and response!
Wouldn't the bloodresults would show all the that?.. if the Vet says hes clear then i think your okay. Telling us what you use to supplement would help us understand better. Whens the last time he shed? It could just be itchy from dryness but if your misting that much i dont feel like that would be the case.
 
One other thing... Can you take a pic of how you have the lights on the top. That is a lot of light and if they are sitting right on the top this may be contributing to eye sensitivity. The UVB levels are perfect so that would not be a worry.

Thank you so much for your recommendation on the supplements. I actually just this morning bought that exact line up from Dragonstrand and am going to start that exact regiment when I get the supplements hopefully next. Week. As for the lights... come to think of it, his symptoms did seem to become more noticeable when I added the grow lights above the cage. Perhaps it is too much!
 

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Wouldn't the bloodresults would show all the that?.. if the Vet says hes clear then i think your okay. Telling us what you use to supplement would help us understand better. Whens the last time he shed? It could just be itchy from dryness but if your misting that much i dont feel like that would be the case.

totally understand what you mean regarding blood results. His full CBC only showed the elevation of the white cells, indicating and early onset of an infection, so more specifically that’s my concern and if that inflammatory response is causing the eye issue. No other issues with anything else on the bloodwork, and I can only trust the vet, since she is the expert.

I’m using Repashy’s Calcium plus dusted at every feeding (daily). And Arcadia Revitalize D3 3 times a week. But will actually be changing to all Arcadia supplements next week when I get the new ones in.
 
Thank you so much for your recommendation on the supplements. I actually just this morning bought that exact line up from Dragonstrand and am going to start that exact regiment when I get the supplements hopefully next. Week. As for the lights... come to think of it, his symptoms did seem to become more noticeable when I added the grow lights above the cage. Perhaps it is too much!
So while your supplementation is overdoing it and I would change that... I would switch off some of these grow lights or pull them up higher. The Dual 6500 daylight bulbs should be fine. I would raise up that LED to see if this makes a difference. You really have a ton on the top lol It would not hurt to even try going without the additional LED's to see if this stops the eye irritation.

Now per other things I am noticing... temps are a bit hot at basking. I would drop them back to low 80's.
For your misting this is a bit extreme as well. His mister goes on at 6am for 6 minutes, 10am for 10 minutes, 2pm for 10 minutes, and 4:45pm for 5 minutes. I would stop the 10am and the 2pm misting. You want the cage to dry out during the day. Having a moist hot environment grows bacteria which in turn raises your risk for him developing an Respiratory infection.

This would be a good resource for you as well. It is done by Bill Strand who has Dragon Strand. https://chameleonacademy.com/
 
So while your supplementation is overdoing it and I would change that... I would switch off some of these grow lights or pull them up higher. The Dual 6500 daylight bulbs should be fine. I would raise up that LED to see if this makes a difference. You really have a ton on the top lol It would not hurt to even try going without the additional LED's to see if this stops the eye irritation.

Now per other things I am noticing... temps are a bit hot at basking. I would drop them back to low 80's.
For your misting this is a bit extreme as well. His mister goes on at 6am for 6 minutes, 10am for 10 minutes, 2pm for 10 minutes, and 4:45pm for 5 minutes. I would stop the 10am and the 2pm misting. You want the cage to dry out during the day. Having a moist hot environment grows bacteria which in turn raises your risk for him developing an Respiratory infection.

This would be a good resource for you as well. It is done by Bill Strand who has Dragon Strand. https://chameleonacademy.com/

thank you very much! Next week when the supplements come in, I will be making the change to only Arcadia and following that regiment you recommended as well as Bill Strand. I’ve gone ahead and shut off one of the grow lights and the extra LED. And raised it about 4 inches.
Additionally, I’m going to cut back on the misting too. Thanks for all your help!
 

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