One eye closed?

[Southtown57]

* Your Chameleon - Panther chameleon, 9-10 months old, in my care for 5 months
*Handling - About 1-2 a week.
*Feeding - Gut loaded crickets with calcium supp. Calcium D supp twice a month.
*Supplements - Zoo Med calcium supps.
*Watering - Mist three times a day, also have a dripper.
*Fecal Description - Normal with white urate. Never tested for parasites.
*History - Bought from local exotic pet store.
*Cage Type - Screen cage, about three feet tall and 1 1/2 feet deep/wide.
*Lighting - Reptisun 5.0 tubular light. Heating - Zoo Med basking lamp (60w)
*Temperature - Basking spot (90F), ambient (75F), overnight (65F). Digital thermometers. 12 hour light cycles.
*Humidity - 60% from humidity gauge. Misting and humidifier.
*Plants - Fake plants/vines
*Placement - Bedroom. No fans/vents or high flow traffic. Top of cage 5 feet from floor.
*Location - WV


So I woke up to my panther chameleon keeping one eye closed (more like really squinted) but he has continued to stay like that since this morning. He keeps rubbing that side of his head/eye on his vine as well every now and then. His eye is not crusty at all nor is it swollen. It is not watering either. I don't believe this to be a lighting or hydration issue. Here are some attached to help get the picture. So any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

 

[Syn]

It's possible he got something in his eye. Has he opened his eye enough for you to tell?

 

[Southtown57]

Nope, he doesn't open past what you see in the pic.

 

[Syn]

I can't really suggest a way to open the eyelid, since I've never done it myself.

Have you tried washing it with a saline solution? Rinsing it?

 

[pssh]

You can try gently rinsing it with a saline solution so that the turret fills with the solution. It might loosen any debris that might be in it.

EDIT: woah.

 

[Southtown57]

I don't have any sterile normal saline here but I work in the hospital so I could get it and a syringe tomorrow.

 

[pssh]

Curved dental syringes work best if you can get your hands on one Drug stores are always an option if you want to do it now.

 

[Syn]

Make sure it is just saline solution and not a mixture of something else (or is that what sterile implies? )

 

[Southtown57]

Yeah sterile saline is just pure clean water.

 

[Syn]

Curved dental syringes work best if you can get your hands on one Drug stores are always an option if you want to do it now.

Here is a link if you can't get your hands on it.
http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog...cines-and-cage-cleaners/-/curved-tip-syringe/

Yeah normal saline is just sterile water.

Sterile water? I thought it was more than that. Well, now I'm confused.

 

[pssh]

Salt water so it doesn't sting/more suited for eyes. That's what I thought...

 

[Syn]

Salt water so it doesn't sting/more suited for eyes. That's what I thought...

Yeah that's what I thought.

Yup:

Saline solution is a solution of sodium chloride, or salt, in sterile water. Normal saline solution is 0.9% sodium chloride, though this refers to only one possible concentration.http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-saline-solution.htm

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-saline-solution.htm

 

[Southtown57]

Sterile water? I thought it was more than that. Well, now I'm confused.

Sterile is just a term used for meaning that it has never touched human hands and that it is free from any contaminates.

Yeah there are salt mixtures: .9 NS and also .45 NS but there is also just pure sterile water. I would have used a more accurate term if I knew we were going into details cause I used to calling water saline all the time at work. I would be using sterile water. Sorry to confuse.

 

[pssh]

Yeah, but it's not just water. It's a salt water solution. That's what she/we was(were) confused about.

 

[Southtown57]

So you guys just think it's something in it? Should I take him to the vet tomorrow?

 

[pssh]

Well, you might be able to help him get it out (if there is something in it) without a vet. But a vet check up is never a bad idea.

 

[Southtown57]

Alright thanks guys.

 

[Dave Weldon]

Howdy,

If you should decide to try to rinse-out the eye, here is a post that I made earlier this month: https://www.chameleonforums.com/saline-solution-35457/#post327298

What the heck, here's the text of the post:

Here's an example of what you can use to flush out a chameleon's eye:
http://www.cvs.com/CVSApp/catalog/sh...ump&navCount=3

If the bottle's tip creates a tight stream of liquid then you can carefully but deliberately squirt the stream directly at the chameleon's eyelid slit and literally fill-up the eye lid with the saline solution. With cooperation, some chameleons will let you gently rub the outside of the eyelid to break-up the gunk inside to aid with the flushing process. Some will even press their eye/head against your finger in order to rub their eye on their own . Dr. Greek showed me this saline squirting technique and I've used it several times helping other keeper's chameleons as well as my own and had good success. It seems to be very effective at breaking-up gunk in an infected eye before administering antibiotic drops.

Note that it is thimerosal and chlorhexidine free.

 

[Southtown57]

Well I flushed his eye out with water and he finally opened it completely for maybe a total of 5 minutes and now it's back to being closed. His eye looked completely normal. I did not see any signs of infection.

 

[Southtown57]

I took him to the vet today just to make sure nothing serious was wrong with his eye. The vet rinsed his eye out and he kept it open after that. He said that there were no signs of infection or any scratches that he could see. Well on the way home (I had him covered cause it's cold here) he fell asleep. When I woke him up to place him in his cage he will not open that eye again. So I'm lost and hopefully after a few days he will just open it.