my veiled has a puffy eye, wut could it be?

*sigh* its true, they can steal a persons heart pretty quick. i used to work at petsmart and this guy brought in a baby cham. the poor thing was literally skin and bones and on the brink of death. he brought it to us to try and save and said if we can save it we can have it... needless to say i quickly spoke up for him. we tried everything for him, but he was too far gone, he died 3 days later... and the worst part, i had those 3 days off and everyone said he died the first day i had off.... that means he got left there!!!!! dead in the cage! for 3 days. grrr i was so mad... then i was sad and i cried, we tried so hard with him... thats why im doing all i can for picasso, i wanna make sure hes gonna make me smile for a very long time :)

oh btw, he has another vet apointment today with a really good vet who specifically knows chams. anyone know of some good, low stress transport methods (since im convinced his eye is messed up because of the cardboard box he was put in the first time)
 
If you have some of those reusable cloth shopping bags you could put him in one, with a stick to hold onto and maybe some paper towels then close it loosely so it's dark but not "tight"

That's such a sad story about the little chameleon.
 
Elizadolots said:
If you have some of those reusable cloth shopping bags you could put him in one, with a stick to hold onto and maybe some paper towels then close it loosely so it's dark but not "tight"

That's such a sad story about the little chameleon.
Click to expand...

i do have some of those, thanks! i wanted to avoid the card board box at all costs that sounds like it would work well... the only other option i had was a kitty litter plastic container, but i didnt want to do that either cause it may have kitty litter dust still in it... ill do the shopping bag :)

it was even more sad to see him, i had never seen such an emaciated animal in my life, he was so dehydrated and skinny, i just about cried when the guy brought him in, and i did cry when he died. his body was about as thick as my pinky finger eeepp! and he was probably 4" long, so he should have definately been fatter than that, you could literally count every one of his ribs... i named him bitsy... as in itsy bitsy, like the itsy bitsy spider cause he was so small RIP bitsy :(
 
well, im back from the vet. and $277 dollars later.... THIS BETTER WORK! lol... i guess he had an absess behind his eye (i suspect the previous owner knew about it when she sold him to me, makes sense now why she had terramycin on hand ggrrrr) anyway, the vet had to drain the stuff out of his eye (made a little inscision, EEPPP!) he got some anti biotics and they flushed his eye just in case, i also had him run tests on his poo (which he graciously offered up for me right before we left for the vet lol) the poo test came back good, said there was a small ammount of bacteria, but they said it was nothing to worry about... i would imagine poo would have at least SOME bacteria lol

anyway, now its a waiting game and two weeks worth of oral antibiotics and another $48 check up... hopefully hes on the path to recovery.

i fired his other vet and made the 45 minute drive to a place that specifically knows about chams btw, thanks "pssh"!! they really did seem to know what they were talking about, not like the other quack! well worth the trip i think, well, we will see, hopefully this works... OOOOO, also, the vet says he isnt shedding very well.... stupid crappy previous owner! lol, he had been shedding since the day i got him, which i did not know was abnormal. i have been giving him humidity showers the last few days anyway tho.... will this help? man, this guy is a train wreck! i hate cleaning up other peoples messes! especially when i dont know a whole lot about it myself, just means i gotta put in the time to learn extra quick, which so far is working.
 
I'm sure he's on the right track now. I've seen lots of posts about eye infections. I guess with such spectacular eyes, they're bound to attract problems.

Extra misting and showering should help with the shed. I'm sure as his overall health improves, he'll settle into a better shedding routine.
 
hope so :( how often do they typically shed btw? chams, and reptiles in general are all new to me, its been a learning experience, so sorry if im a little needy in the questions department... even if i did know he was not healthy when i got him, im not sure i could have walked away from him. he needed help and his previous owner just was not willing to give him that help.

should i buy a humidifier to aid him in his shedding for a few days and see if it helps?
 
Don't worry about questions...I might not answer all of them because I'm still learning myself and I don't want to give you bad information. Julirs, who's been following this thread, is far more expert.

In my experience, with mine (who aren't Veiled) they sort of shed at random....a foot here, a head there....but from pictures I've seen, Veileds may be a bit more prone to the occasional full body shed. I wouldn't be surprised if they shed 3 or 4 times a year, but it could be less. Babies shed every month or so, but Picasso seems to be fully grown so should probably settle into a more adult schedule. Again...not my area of knowledge so hopefully Julirs or Kinyonga will come by and give you a knowledgeable response.

I don't know that I would buy a humidifier just for the shedding (I think you can handle that with extra misting), but if where you live gets cold and/or dry and it wouldn't be a hardship to purchase a humidifier....I'm sure you'd find days that it was useful.
 
i worry that misting 2 or 3 times a day just isnt enough... i leave for work at 630am and dont get home till around 5pm. by time i get home his humidity is around 30% after misting its around 50-70% but the 30% is the part that worries me, especially while shedding
 
There are automatic misting systems....

I apologize for not going through the thread to see where you filled in "the form"...

I assume you have a dripper going while you are gone. That will help prevent problems.

You can increase the humidity in the enclosure by adding live plants. If you can keep them in terra cotta pots, it will help even more. You need to watch to see if he's munching the pots...I don't know if that's common, but I've seen people say their chameleons did it.

It's entirely possible that I'm insane, but both my chameleons have "twine vines" all over their cages. I get in there with the sprayer and soak those vines down....the twine absorbs water so helps hold the humidity.
 
i do have a dripper, its positioned to where the excess water falls in to a plant. there are two 3.5 foot tall live plants and one 2 foot plant (umbrella, pothos, and i forget the name of the other one but its safe for chams)... can the chams actually take a bite from the terra cotta??? nooooo, they arent that strong are they :eek:

well, ill try to see if i can find an automatic mister somewhere, sounds expensive lol, but if its what he needs then its what he needs. i want him to have the best environment possible and to get him on the right track to a healthy happy life, ive spent so much $ on him in the last week, i might as well not stop until hes perfect lol hahahaha "IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANT PICASSO???? NOWS THE TIME TO ASK!!!!" haha
 
I've just read that someone had that problem. Maybe it was a pot with a pre-existing crack or something.

A lot of people use shower curtains around 2 sides of their cages to help hold the humidity in. One person said she had used that self sticking plastic wrap to cover 2 sides. There are a lot of options before "automated mister". You might want to look at the Enclosures forum to see if you can get some ideas there.
 
okay :) thank you! ill see if i can come up with something today. the back of the cage is a solid piece of wood, so there is the front and the 2 sides that are open. ill see what i can do with them.
 
Adult Veileds seem to perpetually shed. My big 3 year old male is always shedding somewhere. You really do not have to go crazy with the misting-In a well planted cage you can get away with 2 mistings a day-just make sure the plants are good and drippy-this certainly helps with the humidity.
 
the back half of him from the hips to the tail seems leathery and is much more of a foggy color. it has been like this for about 3 days now, is that abnormal or nothing to worry about? im only asking because the vet said he was having a bad shed and is a bit patchy on the rest of his body, to be honest, ive never seen an animal shed other than a snake, so im just hoping this is not as bad as the vet is making it sound
 
The areas that are going to shed do tend to look "foggy" for a few days before it happens.

I still think Picasso is showing the effects of the bad previous owner and will settle into a normal routine in time. Julirs said it can take 3 or 4 weeks.
 
okay :) thank you for all the replies, i feel like thought he may have many problems to address, they seem like they are manageable with the extra help im getting here and from his new, more qualified vet :D
 
Picasso's update

well, as Elizadolots suggested in the PM she sent me... i decided to give an update on how picasso is doing.

HE'S DOING GREAT! he is off all meds now, poo and urates look good, eats on his own, and after buying him a new plant he climbs all over the cage like a monkey!

i have come to the conclusion that he must just have one "special" eye. none of the medicines helped. its not getting better and its not getting worse, i think one is just naturally bigger than the other, or maybe something happened to it when he was with the previous owner. his spunk is coming back now he hisses at me when i put my hand in the cage XD before he would just sit there like he didnt have the energy to care

anyway, thanks for all the help and advice guys. i wont say picasso is completely out of the woods because his appetite still isnt what it should be yet, but he is eating... so at least hes on the road to full recovery... which is good cause god he sure did cost me some bread! lol
 
Yay! There have been a couple of threads here about chameleons with one oddball eye. It does seem to happen sometimes.

I'm so glad he found his way to you.
 
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