Newly rescued panther female w/ crusty eye.

[tkilgour]

I am taking a newly acquired panther female to the vet next Wed. that I rescued. Her eye is crusted over and sunken. I noticed she can't see on that side of her head either because the eye is crusted over and sealed shut. I am curious of any suggestions some of you may have to tide her over till I get some tobramycin from the vet next Wed. The vets on the herp. finder link pretty much know nothing of chams. in my area. I have to go all the way to columbus if I want a chameleon vet or see iguana vets like a member here named Dustin Warrix mentioned. So I am going to the exotic vet that specializes in Iguanas just to get a check up and a script.

Right now, I am putting her in the shower steam for 5 min. 3 times daily, using a safe saline solution, and temporarily using an antibiotic ointment as the vet mentioned. However, I know I need Tobramycin, I just have to get a script first. In the mornings her eye is sunken and sealed shut, after the first treatment I give her, the eye slightly opens and it comes back out to normal size. So I think once she gets the tobramycin she will make a full recovery. I just want to help her before I get the good meds. So if you have any suggestions send them my way.

Also, she came this way to me. Currently, she is in a 2'x2'x4' screen with a 60 watt basking bulb and a reptisun uvb 5.0. I just rescued her from 4months of horrible care and I guess she is 1.5 yrs. old. I rarely handle her. She has a pothos plant, silk vines, and baked branches. Basking temp. is 80 - 85 F, the middle is 75F, night time is 65F. 3 mists a day for 4min. each and 3 drippings a day for 10 min. humidity is 65% at the moment, but gets as low as 50% at times and as high as 75%. She eats dubias, lateralis, crickets, silks, butters, etc. I gutload w/ kale, apples, dandelion, oranges, etc. Just for those of you that are curious.

 

[chams1]

Sounds like you are taking the appropriate steps until you can get her into a vet (although please keep us informed as to what the vet says b/c, as you stated, they may not know much about chams).

I had a couple of panthers a while back that got some crusty eye and, along with showers and added misting and ointment, I have also put a warm (not hot) washcloth over the bad eye to loosen the crust.

Also, I have used gentimycin on my chams' eyes if they have had issues. I believe this may be the same ingredients (somewhat) that is in OTC visine, but I still get it from the vet.

 

[tkilgour]

Thanks for your input!!!!!! I just wanted to update that my newly rescued female has made a huge improvement. I adopted a female ambilobe from a family that had no idea how to care for their little one. One good thing is they had the lighting correct. However, they ignored an eye infection that had begun crusting over. When I got her, she was rubbing her eye on branches and leaves until it started bleeding. She couldn't see anything on one side of her head. The eye had scabbed up badly and was sealed shut. I started giving her a 10 min. shower, 3 times daily then followed by using a safe saline solution to squirt on the closed eye. Once cleaned, I used antibiotic ointment until I could get Tobramycin from the vet. After a week her eye began making huge improvements, the scabs dissappeared, and the crustiness vanished and the eye opened. All with the antibiotic ointment. Then I got to the vet and got the tobramycin and her eye has almost made a full improvement. Just a little scaring going on, but she has the eye opened mostly and she can now see again. I am so happy, this girl will get excellent care and hopefully will live a very long life here with us.

 

[chams1]

That's excellent! Thanks for the update!