One eye shut and inside lid swollen - advice?

ChamNewbie

New Member
He already gave me a scare a couple of weeks ago and here we are again.

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Panther, male, 9 months old. Since July 2012.

Handling - Once a week or less I pick him up to check him, move him or enter his cage to clean (with no harsh chemicals of course).

Feeding - Toggle between Crickets and hornworms. Crickets - 7 a day and hormworms 1 or 2. I gut load with Fluker's 12 oz Orange Cube Complete Cricket Diet and Fluker's 16-Ounce Cricket Quencher Calcium Fortified. Recently I added fruits.

Supplements - I dust with Reptical without D3 twice a week and with Reptical WITH D3 and Herptivite twice a month.

Watering - I have a Monsoon (timer broken) which I turn on for about 8-10 minutes twice a day depending on how long he wants it for. He will sit under it and turn dark colors. He does not like to drink from the habba mister water though and enjoys a dripper I have set up which runs twice a day at a slow pace for about an hour at a time.

Fecal Description - Not tested for parasites but uniform and similar fecal every day. Dark brown, wet, no lumps or blood. Urate is is always white, no specs of yellow or orange.

History - no previous info.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Mesh, 36" by 16"

Lighting - Lights are on for 12 hours. Reptisun 5.0 UVB (18 inch) and Exo Terra Sun-Glo Basking Spot Lamp, 100-Watt/120-Volt

Temperature - basking light gives about 90 degrees and branch is 8 inches below basking light. He is seen basking under it from time to time during the day and is not getting burned. He enjoys his ambient temperature and will move around when he gets too warm. Lowest temp is 70 degrees. He sleeps normal cycle.

Humidity - 65-90% which I measure with a humidity thermometer.

Plants - Live plant - croton.

Placement - cage is in my office. No vents next to cage and not a high traffic area. Only I am in the office. The cage is 2 feet off of the ground on a rack with a container underneath the cage to catch overflow water.

Location - I am in Miami, Florida.

Current Problem - One eye is shut and will not open at all. He tries to open it and it seems the inside layer is swollen because when the outer slit parts, all you see is white inside, not the actual eye. Any Advice.

He JUST shed and had some around the slit of one eye but it went away and I cannot remember which eye had the dangling skin but anyway he is all shed now.

Thank you
 
The white inside could be a piece of shed stuck in his eye, try increasing his mistings and humidity in his enclosure. That's my thoughts on it, though I guess it could be an infection but I doubt it. I'm sure someone will be able to help you more. Good luck
 
I would give him a nice long (20 min) warm shower. If his cage is small enough put the entire thing in and aim the spray towards the back wall. Chams will attempt to flush junk out of there eyes but they need lots of moisture to do it. In nature they do it when it rains.

Keep a really good eye on him while in the shower because if the water gets too hot it will kill him. DON'T FLUSH TOILETS OR RUN WASHERS!!!
 
thank you very much for all of your advice. He did not want to leave his sleep area this morning and I had to see what was up when it got closer to 11AM as he is usually up at around 9am. He did open his eyes once I put him back in his enclosure and when I put a superworm in there. Although, the worm fell from the branch and he has not cared to go after it, which usually he does all sorts of acrobatics to get to his food.

He is currently clinging on the tubing from the misters and dripper at the very top right corner of his habitat. hes just sitting there, the same eye closed again and not moving....

His colors look good.

I will try the warm shower - see how that works. Thanks!
 
If he doesn't want to wake up, keeps one eye closed much of the time and isn't wanting to eat, then I would definitely get him to a vet to find out if he has an infection.
He has 3 symptoms of health problems.
If it wasn't for the lost appetite and daytime sleeping, the eye issue might have been just some irritation.
Eye infections are often just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, with a respiratory infection going along with it.
Florida, like California seems to have a number of very good vets with plenty knowledge of chams.
It is important that a vet be very familiar with reptiles and ideally with chams, not just that he/she doesn't mind treating them.



Something interesting that I thought you should know about the Croton plant is that it can be irritating to skin, so maybe that is part of what initially began bothering his eye.
It's also said to be mildly toxic, so not good for chams to eat.
https://www.chameleonforums.com/pla...=scientific&view=photo&order=compatible&ltr=C

Here is a list of cham safe plants:
http://www.flchams.com/safe_plant_list.asp

This list shows safe and unsafe plants, but tells you which is which ;)
https://www.chameleonforums.com/plants/

I hope your cham is on the mend soon.
 
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