Possible eye infection??

[CarCar]

I have a year old CB female veild cham. recently (within the last week) she has been closing her eyes for up to hours on end so Ihave given her longer, more frequent baths which seem to help for a day or so then they close again. If needed I attached some info...




Cage Info:

* Cage Type - Its a Exo Terra soft sided mesh cage, dont remember the exact measurements but same at 60 gallon...sry
* Lighting - I have a Zoomed10.0 UVB and 60 watt sun glo on a 12/12 cycle.
* Temperature - daytime: 75-80 with basking at 85 and night: 65-75
* Humidity - normally at60 but I live in Houston, TX and summer is here and its getting into 85+humidity outside and of course it gets inside too.
* Plants - I did have a ficus until he ate so much of it i got worried and took it out so it would live, it has been out about a month. so as of now no
* Location - hes in a nook in our living room which does not have much traffic around but does have a air purifier about 2 feet from his cage.


Chameleon Info:

* Your Chameleon - A CB female veild,one year old
* Feeding - crickets and meal worms, both of which eat lettuce, orange cubes(not mealworms) and fruits. and an occasional waxworm or 2
* Supplements - flukers reptacal and my boyfriend just bought something new i have not even seen it yet
* Watering - I see her drink all the time, and by a drip system with about 1/2 gallon of water in it every other day. and i put her in the shower about every week and a half
* Fecal Description - always the same brown with whitish yellow bit towards one end.
*History- did take her a while to lay 44 eggs about 2 months ago, but nothing serious, other than that none
* Current Problem - Has had left eye, and lately both eyes closed for up to hours at a time, almost looks ever so slightly crusty around the outside or left eye. i will wash them out and are fine but within a day or so are closed again. please give me any info possible i would greatly appriciate it!!!!

 

[Tygerr]

Chams that keep their eyes closed do not necessarily have an eye infection. But if a cham is closing it eyes during the day, there is definitely a health issue. You should really take your cham to the vet as soon as you can. A good reptile vet should be able to diagnose what is ailing your cham.

I won't be able to tell you exactly what is wrong with your cham in this forum post, but I can point out a few husbandry issues that you could improve upon:
- you said, "I have a Zoomed10.0 UVB". The 10.0 could be a little strong in an enclosure that size. 5.0 bulbs are usually recommended. Is the UVB bulb the tube type, or a compact flourescent? The compact ones are reported to possibly cause conjunctivitis in cham eyes due to their high initial output. Read this article: http://www.uvguide.co.uk/phototherapyphosphor.htm. If you do have the compact bulb, get it out of there immediately and replace it with a tube bulb. Keepers who have done so have seen their chameleons' eye problems disappear within days of changing the bulb.

- you said, "I did have a ficus until he ate so much of it i got worried and took it out so it would live, it has been out about a month. so as of now no". Are you saying that there are no plants in your cage whatsoever? Or are there no live plants (but you do have fake ones). Without plant cover, the chameleon will have no hiding spots - it will feel very insecure. A chameleon in a bare cage is likely to be under a great deal of stress. The most common symptom of a stressed chameleon is closed eyes.
If you only have fake plants in there, you've already witnessed that Veileds like to munch on foliage - if she were to eat a fake leave, it might cause ingestion problems. Rather keep reptile-safe live plants in a Veiled's cage.
And make sure there is plenty foliage to retain humidity and give the cham a place to hide.

- you said, "crickets and meal worms, both of which eat lettuce, orange cubes(not mealworms) and fruits." Lettuce is not a great gutload. You need something with more nutritional value. Try to use greens like kale, dandelion greens or collard greens, and use fresh fruit and veg like carrots, squash or sweet potato. And if you can, try a great gutload recipe like this one: James / Wells / Lopéz Gutload

- you said, "I see her drink all the time, and by a drip system with about 1/2 gallon of water in it every other day". When you say you see her drink all the time, does that mean you are misting her every day (preferably twice a day - for long sessions)? Because you don't mention misting. A dripper every other day is not enough without daily misting.

- you said, "Fecal Description - always the same brown with whitish yellow". It shouldn't be yellow. It should be quite white. If the urates are more yellow or orange, it is a sign of possible dehydration in the cham. For an idea of what good poop should look like, take a look at the photos Julirs posted on this thread: https://www.chameleonforums.com/never-seen-him-drink-12237/

- As for your supplements, I believe Fluker's Repta-Calcium contains VitD3 in it. Chameleons can be overdosed on this if you use it too frequently. You should only be using a calcium powder with vitD3 about twice a month. But you should be dusting with a calcium powder that does not contain D3 more regularly. And you should also use a multi-vitamin, like Herptivite, to dust with once a month.

- The fact that she laid eggs not too long ago could also be an issue. Laying eggs takes a huge toll on a female's body. In fact, before UV tubes and calcium supplements started being used widely, laying eggs usually killed captive chameleons. If she didn't adequately replenish all the calcium and nutrients that were leeched from her body by the eggs, she could still be suffering the effects of laying.

Even if you correct these issues, I still think it would be wise to see a vet. And as a standard precaution, have him do a parasite check.

 

[Glittergloomgirl]

When my Chameleons were having the same issue with there eyes I took them to the vet. I told her I had been rinsing the eyes, putting in terramycin ointment. She told me the eyes looked fine, that there was an underlying cause. So she put them on a course of Baytril,but it didnt seem to help.

So I try to read more on it and decided to try giving them multivitamins and vitamin A. I did this cause they were going down quick and the baytril didnt work after the 7 day course. I discussed the mulitivtamin, vitamin A idea with my Vet and we decided to give it a try.

Here is what I did I gave the smallest possible drop of vitamin A off an insulin syringe, and 2 superworm dusted with mulitvitamin once a day for 7 days. Then I continued the same with the vitamin A but went down to 1 dusted superworm, for the second week. The third week I just gave 1 drop of the vitamin A and went back to the normal routine of Mulitivitamins once a week.

They completely bounced back and have been great since Now Im not saying this is what everyone should do, ask your vet of course. Im just sharing what worked for me

good luck!