Rehabbing a panther

[Chase]

Hello all-

I took in a panther chameleon today to help rehab for a friend. I think his eye issues are caused by the use of CFLS (compact florescent lights), and he can barely see as a result. He usually has both eyes closed during the day, and doesn't really move too much.

As part of his rehab, he will be housed outdoors for natural UV and so that he can have more water (easier to drain outside).

He has to be handfed, since he cannot see to shoot his tongue, but he still drinks normally.

I'll sort of make this like a log, and will update as things happen.

Today's log:
After getting him home, I gave him a 20 minute shower, where he drank the entire time. After getting his fill, I gave a 5 minute misting session with warm water to help clear his eyes. One eye cleared fairly well but as of now (a couple of hours since his shower) it is now closed and is filled back up with gunk. He's now asleep, and I will give him a shower tomorrow morning before putting him back out into the sun.

Chase

 

[Chase]

I will upload more pictures tomorrow. Her is a link to pictures from earlier.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/effects-cfls-143586/

Chase

 

[Carlton]

Hello all-

I took in a panther chameleon today to help rehab for a friend. I think his eye issues are caused by the use of CFLS (compact florescent lights), and he can barely see as a result. He usually has both eyes closed during the day, and doesn't really move too much.

As part of his rehab, he will be housed outdoors for natural UV and so that he can have more water (easier to drain outside).

He has to be handfed, since he cannot see to shoot his tongue, but he still drinks normally.

I'll sort of make this like a log, and will update as things happen.

Today's log:
After getting him home, I gave him a 20 minute shower, where he drank the entire time. After getting his fill, I gave a 5 minute misting session with warm water to help clear his eyes. One eye cleared fairly well but as of now (a couple of hours since his shower) it is now closed and is filled back up with gunk. He's now asleep, and I will give him a shower tomorrow morning before putting him back out into the sun.

Chase

Just an idea...there's been a great thread about vitamin A deficiencies in chams going on right now and one potential cause of eye problems in chams is thought to be lack of pre-formed A. Might be food for thought in rehabbing this guy.

 

[Chase]

Just an idea...there's been a great thread about vitamin A deficiencies in chams going on right now and one potential cause of eye problems in chams is thought to be lack of pre-formed A. Might be food for thought in rehabbing this guy.

I'm planning on giving him some better supplementation and gutloading the feeders differently as well. I'm hoping natural uv plus that will help.

Chase

 

[Lovereps]

How kind of you to help this chameleon!
It takes a very patient and kind person to regularly hand feed a cham.

You might find that it helps soothe and clean his eyes to do some gentle saline eye rinses using Bausch and Lomb Sensitive Eyes Plus solution or the CVS drug stores generic equivalent.
This solution can rinse out any debris or foreign matter and even combat mild infection, since the boric acid and saline it contains have antimicrobial properties.
http://m.cvs.com/mt/www.cvs.com/search/_/N-0?pt=global&searchTerm=Sensitive+Eyes+Plus&un_form_encoding=utf-8&un_jtt_searchCVS.x=19&un_jtt_searchCVS.y=10

http://m.cvs.com/mt/www.cvs.com/shop/product-detail/CVS-Saline-Solution-for-Sensitive-Eyes?skuId=458126&un_jtt_v_menu=exp


If you suspect that he has a vitamin A deficiency, you may be interested to know that some people have had success combatting eye troubles by using a tiny amounts from made for humans vitamin A gel caps.
A fraction of a drop on the back of 1 feeder insect, 1x a day in order to give the cham about 100 IU of vitamin A for every 50 grams of cham body weight.
If it is a vitamin A deficiency the problem can clear up in 3 or 4 days---but longer (2-3 weeks) if the deficiency went on for a long time.


I suspect that the small area of concentrated UV output has irritated many more chams' eyes than people realize.

Wishing you much success with this cham!