Senegal EYE Swollen

[Nollie123]

Please help!!!

My husband woke up this morning and noticed that our baby's eye is swollen. Her name is Nollie she is a female Senegal. We have had her about a year now when we bought her she was a baby so she is a little over a year. She is eating and drinking normally. About two weeks ago her night bulb blew out and we changed it with a different one then normal. I don't know if changing the bulb might be causing this?

 

[Ferrah88]

I cannot recommend any suggestions except for one:

You have a light on for your cham all night? Chameleons require complete darkness to get the most out of their sleep. Any kind of light, no matter how dim the bulb is, will likely bother them while they are sleeping. Therefore your cham should not have any light on while she is trying to sleep!


As far as the swollen eye goes, I would recommend filling out this form: https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/ for others to help you with your problem.
Providing pictures is also a great help in determining the cause

 

[Nollie123]

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Senegal, Femal, a little over a year
Handling - Not often once or twice a week to take out of cage and put on plant for her to bask in the sunlight (she loves it)
Feeding - Crickets about 4-7 we usually feed her around 4pm every day
Supplements - Fluckers calcium without D3
Watering - She has a drip system. We mist quite frequently probably every couple of hours for a few minutes at a time. We see her drinking from the dripper and when we mist
Fecal Description - Brown with white and a little yellow

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Screen enclosure with some plastic around the sides to keep humidity in as its winter where I live now so the humidity is hard to keep up. Not sure of the exact dimensions but its a pretty large enclosure
Lighting - Not sure exactly what bran the light is but we have a day light that we turn on around 8-9am and then turn off and put the night light bulb on
Temperature - The temp in the upper part of the cage where she is basking is anywhere between 82-90 and the floor between 75-80. The lowest overnight temp is probably 70-75
Humidity - The humidity right now is lower then usually due to it being winter it is around 40
Plants - no live plants
Placement - We have her cage in a separate cubie where our refrigerator used to be with a floor to ceiling curtain. She has her own room not high traffic
Location - Northeast in the US (Rhode Island)

Current Problem - One of her eyes is swollen ( I cant upload a photo right now because I am at work) about a two weeks ago we changed the kind of night light we used because the bulb had blown out very frequently so we changed to a different one. My husband said he hasn't seen any discharge come out of the eye but it was swollen. My poor little girl. If anyone could help it would be so appreciated

 

[Nollie123]

So my husband turned the night bulb off about 2 hours ago and just went to look at our baby and he said that the swelling has gone down a lot. He said it is still a little swollen but a lot better. I think that night bulb is no good for her, it is definitely going in the garbage. She is hanging out in the kitchen on her favorite plant taking in the sunlight

 

[Ferrah88]

So my husband turned the night bulb off about 2 hours ago and just went to look at our baby and he said that the swelling has gone down a lot. He said it is still a little swollen but a lot better. I think that night bulb is no good for her, it is definitely going in the garbage. She is hanging out in the kitchen on her favorite plant taking in the sunlight

Turning off the night bulb is good. Like I said before, chameleons have no need for a light at night! They actually require temperature drops at night, and as stated before, they need pure darkness. I'm hoping everything goes away in due time, but I'm sure someone will pipe up should they think something is wrong! It's great that things are getting better though

 

[Lovereps]

Welcome to the forum!
Senegals are great little chams.
I agree with Ferrah88 that getting rid of the night bulb is important, for the reasons mentioned.

Much of your care is very good but there are just a few things you can do to ensure she stays healthy.

Chams can develop vitamin deficiencies unless their feeder insects are fed a good diet and the insects are dusted with 2 other supplement powders--in addition to the calcium without D3 that you already use.

A good schedule is typically
Calcium without d3 every feeding like this one http://www.joshsfrogs.com/food-nutr...s/rep-cal/rep-cal-calcium-without-vit-d3.html

Calcium with d3 twice a month like this http://www.pangeareptile.com/store/rep-cal-ultrafine-calcium-with-d3.html
A multivitamin twice a month like this one http://www.joshsfrogs.com/food-nutr...nhancers/rep-cal/herptivite-multivitamin.html


Your chameleon needs a variety of feeder insects to stay healthy.
Different insects are higher/lower in various nutrients, so variety helps to prevent a vitamin/mineral deficiency.
In addition to the crickets, dubias, silkworms, hornworms, phoenixworms and blue bottle flies are all good.
This place carries a good variety of feeders:
http://mulberryfarms.com/

It is also important to feed your feeder insects nutritious food because they are what your cham gets his nutrition from.
Here is a very good writeup about these 2 things by a vet and cham keeper:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/ferretinmyshoes/560-frequently-asked-questions-nutrition.html

I don't know if your cham has a UVB bulb but it is extremely important for her to have one so that she can utilize the calcium she takes in.
Many people here use this particular bulb because it provides enough UVB without overdoing it, which can lead to eye problems:
http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog...por-bulbs/-/zoo-med-24-repti-sun-50-uvb-bulb/
The bulbs need to be replaced every 6 months because even though they will still light up, the amount of UVB they put out keeps decreasing. All UVB bulbs need to be replaced at regular intervals, not just this particular one.
Your cham has been getting UVB from being outdoors when the weather was warmer. Indoors, the sunlight passing through the glass windows contains no UVB because it gets converted into heat, instead.

If she can't absorb the calcium, she will develop MBD--a serious health problem.
Details of that are here:
https://www.chameleonforums.com/wha...ase-mbd-looks-like-how-happens-how-fix-95071/

The yellow tinge to your cham's urates means that she needs a bit more water. Home heating systems tend to dry the air far more than we realize, so the mistings that kept her hydrated during the warmer months should be more frequent or longer lasting to her remain well hydrated.
Some people here have gotten humidifiers to help keep the indoors a bit more humid for the winter.
I bought a cool mist humidifer recently to benefit my family and it helps my chams, too.

Eye issues are fairly common cham troubles and can be caused by any of several things:
1) Infection, which can be due to injury, environmental issues, nutritional deficiencies or parasite problems
2) Malnutrition which can be caused by failing to gutload feeders or failure to feed a varied diet, improper supplementation, parasites or simply a higher need for a particular nutrient in an individual chameleon
3) Irritation--sometimes a cham's eye is irritated by something in their environment, such as too little humidity, sap from a plant or a bit of something getting into the eye (shed skin, soil particle, etc.) or even a bulb that emits too much UVB.

I suggest making the few dietary and other changes she needs and keeping a close watch on her eye, in case it is an infection.

A gentle rinsing of her eye with a sterile saline solution made for eyes can sometimes prevent an infection from taking hold, if done early on.
Once the eye is actually infected, it typically requires the services of a good, reptile-knowledgeable vet to determine the cause and prescribe the right antibiotics to cure it.

You can easily treat a vitamin A deficiency at home but it is extremely important to not give too much vitamin A.
A very tiny drop of cod liver oil from cod liver oil capsules (the ones sold for people to take) can be put on the back of a feeder that you give to your cham and should correct the problem within one or 2 days.
Giving more cod liver oil or giving it more often often is NOT better and will actually cause serious health problems (liver/kidney damage).


It is a good idea to find a vet with plenty of reptile knowledge, before you absolutely need one.
ARAV vets have a special interest in reptile medicine.
Here's the ARAV list
http://www.arav.org/find-a-vet/

Hope this helps you and feel free to ask more questions.

 

[Nollie123]

That you for all that information. I am def going to work on the bulb situation and also try mixing up her diet some. When I got home from work last night my husband and myself wanted to feed her and see if she would eat. She def still has her appetite she couldnt wait for us to open the door to her cage she ran to the front and ate about 5 crickets. There is no crusting or puss coming out of the eye either. I just want me little girl to be ok. Thank you so much for the information

 

[Lovereps]

You're quite welcome.
If you make the few changes needed, you can have a long-lived cham.
The UVB bulb I linked to is available in different lengths and is possibly available at your local pet store.

I should have added that calcium with D3 can't be daily because it will cause internal organ damage (kidneys/liver).
That's why a plain calcium supplement is needed for daily use.

The supplement schedule I listed is a safe one to follow--just be sure not to dust everything until they look like ghosts

It is possible to have a sinus infection that only shows itself as a swollen/bulging eye without any discharge or crust--so please be on the lookout for any eye changes (swollen, any bump near eye, closing eye) or behavioral changes (sleeping in the daytime, loss of appetite, lethargy) and please don't delay a vet visit if things worsen.

 

[Nollie123]

Just wanted to give eberyone a heads up. My little girl is doing much better. She had her eye closed for awhile, now she has it opened fully its still a little puffy but she has it wide open, has been eating and drinking like a champ. She has actually been very affectionate as well. All she wants to do lately is climb all in her cage and when my husband or myself go in the cage to mist her she climbs right up on our hand and starts climbing all over us. She has my heart i love her so much

 

[deadhd5]

Just wanted to give eberyone a heads up. My little girl is doing much better. She had her eye closed for awhile, now she has it opened fully its still a little puffy but she has it wide open, has been eating and drinking like a champ. She has actually been very affectionate as well. All she wants to do lately is climb all in her cage and when my husband or myself go in the cage to mist her she climbs right up on our hand and starts climbing all over us. She has my heart i love her so much

Great to hear she is doing so much better (and also great to hear that she is so loved!). Could you post a picture of her eye? I know it is getting better, but it would be best if a forum member could help you rule out infection. If there is an infection present it will need to be treated with antibiotics, as infections do not clear up on there own.