Senegal with closed eye! Help!!

L

lojack13

New Member
OK, I got a Senegal Cham with an eye problem. I have only had her for about 8 days now and the last 2 days she has been flexing her eye turrets alot and closing her eyes a lot, ( I don't believe she was sleeping though ) Today she woke up and could not open one of her eyes at all. It's now been about 10 hours and it's still not open. She is eating and drinking well and is physically strong, let her climb up me today and sit on top of my head. I plan on going to a vet soon but just thought I would get some opinions tonight for consideration.


Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Senegal, Female, 6-8 months of age.
Been in my care about 8 days
Handling - I handle her once a day for about 10-15 minutes at the most just so I can clean her cage out if need be.
Feeding - Currently feeding her crickets fed with flukers High calcium cricket diet, feeding her 4-5 per day 2-3 crickets in the morning and 2-3 in the afternoon. I also dust the crickets 1-2 times per week with calcium and D3
Watering - Using a dripper system and heavily misting entire enclosure 4-5 times per day. And I do see her drinking
Fecal Description - Droppings look brown with a pure white bordering and no I have not had her tested for parasites yet.
History - I do want to note that I recently put a fake orchid in the enclosure that allowed her to get 1 inch from the basking lamp, I recently read that you do not want to let them get that close to the bulb so I removed the flower this morning and closest she can now get is 5 inches away for the bulb. She has been able to get that close to the light for 5 days now.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Enclosure is all glass sides and a glass bottom ( it is technically an aquarium, and I know I need to get something with ventilation, I let the people at the pet store sell me this) Has a screen top and is 16WX24LX16H
Lighting - Basking bulb is 75watt Exo Terra Brand and the UVB bulb is a 5.0 spiral type exo terra. She is getting about 13 hours of UVB and basking per day. Turn them on at about 8am in the morning and off at 9 pm, I might add that I have had a blue moonlight type bulb on at night, should I remove this?
Temperature - Range is about 70 at the floor, 80 mid range and about 90 in tallest basking point. The lowest overnight temp is 78 degrees because of the blue moonlight bulb. These are measured with a digital thermometer
Humidity -Is about 20-50 peaking at 70 percent right when I mist, measured with a digital hygrometer. I mist often to maintain these leves and leave a tiny amount of water upon the glass bottom of the encloure which I clean out nightly.
Plants - I am using ivy type fake plants. Currently no live plants.
Placement - Enclosure is located in my living room, high traffic, Top of the cage is probably not near high enough at about 3 1/2 feet off the ground.
Location - Located in Newark, Ohio, U.S.A.

Many thanks to all who can give suggestions!!
 
Hi, I think there are a few things you may want to reconsider, starting with not having any lights on at night. As you pointed out, a glass enclosure is not really recommended - that said, it is surprising that humidity levels are not higher in a glass enclosure... You should definitely try to avoid such low humidity levels (20%), if needed you can mist more. You can find a lot of info on proper setup in a number of threads in the forum.

Also, you need to supplement the diet with multivitamins too - one possible cause of eye problems is Vit A deficiency. Since you have only had the chameleon for 8 days, this would largely depend on how she was kept before you got her... Obviously trauma can be a cause for the problem too... A trip to the vet may be a good idea!
 
OK, I got a Senegal Cham with an eye problem. I have only had her for about 8 days now and the last 2 days she has been flexing her eye turrets alot and closing her eyes a lot, ( I don't believe she was sleeping though ) Today she woke up and could not open one of her eyes at all. It's now been about 10 hours and it's still not open. She is eating and drinking well and is physically strong, let her climb up me today and sit on top of my head. I plan on going to a vet soon but just thought I would get some opinions tonight for consideration.


Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Senegal, Female, 6-8 months of age.
Been in my care about 8 days
Handling - I handle her once a day for about 10-15 minutes at the most just so I can clean her cage out if need be.
Feeding - Currently feeding her crickets fed with flukers High calcium cricket diet, feeding her 4-5 per day 2-3 crickets in the morning and 2-3 in the afternoon. I also dust the crickets 1-2 times per week with calcium and D3 Suppliments are calcium without d3 everyday, calcium with d3 2x a month,a nd multivitamins 2x a month, of course this can vary between brands you use.
Watering - Using a dripper system and heavily misting entire enclosure 4-5 times per day. And I do see her drinking
Fecal Description - Droppings look brown with a pure white bordering and no I have not had her tested for parasites yet.
History - I do want to note that I recently put a fake orchid in the enclosure that allowed her to get 1 inch from the basking lamp, I recently read that you do not want to let them get that close to the bulb so I removed the flower this morning and closest she can now get is 5 inches away for the bulb. She has been able to get that close to the light for 5 days now.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Enclosure is all glass sides and a glass bottom ( it is technically an aquarium, and I know I need to get something with ventilation, I let the people at the pet store sell me this) Has a screen top and is 16WX24LX16H This part you already know.
Lighting - Basking bulb is 75watt Exo Terra Brand and the UVB bulb is a 5.0 spiral type exo terra. She is getting about 13 hours of UVB and basking per day. Turn them on at about 8am in the morning and off at 9 pm, I might add that I have had a blue moonlight type bulb on at night, should I remove this?It should be dark at night and have a drop in temp, if it gets below 60 you can get a ceramic heat emitter.
Temperature - Range is about 70 at the floor, 80 mid range and about 90 in tallest basking point. The lowest overnight temp is 78 degrees because of the blue moonlight bulb.90 is too hot, try 80-85, above states about the light night. These are measured with a digital thermometer
Humidity -Is about 20-50 peaking at 70 percent right when I mist, measured with a digital hygrometer. I mist often to maintain these leves and leave a tiny amount of water upon the glass bottom of the encloure which I clean out nightly. Live plants can help raise humidity.
Plants - I am using ivy type fake plants. Currently no live plants.
Placement - Enclosure is located in my living room, high traffic, Top of the cage is probably not near high enough at about 3 1/2 feet off the ground.
Location - Located in Newark, Ohio, U.S.A. Moving your chameleon to a place with less traffic may also benefit with stress.

Many thanks to all who can give suggestions!!
 
OK. Definitely ditching the night lights. Getting her on a calcium everyday D3 twice per month supplementation and I'm getting a multivitamin ASAP this is the 3 -4 time I have heard mention of Vitamin A deficiency. I'm sure the pet store was NOT feeding her multivitamins since they did not even know you should be giving her D3 twice per month and calcium everyday. They did not even mention multi vitamins either. Getting her a terrarium type enclosure for ventilation and getting some live plants as well. I'll drop back down to a 50 watt bask so the temp is not so hot.
Any suggestions on temporary eye relief? I have been told saline eye wash is good?
Karma, what size enclosure do you have for your senegals? I'm looking at one that's 18X18X24H What do you think? Unfortunately I have to order it since all our podunk pet stores don't even have anything that resembles a terrarium. Also what live plants do you suggest?
Thanks everyone!!
 
Also I would like to note that the eye does not have any liquid or seepage, nor much swelling at this point.
 
In the search bar you can find safe plants, some examples are schefflera, pothos, hibiscus, etc. Karma has a 2x2x4, he's a year and a few months old. Can you post pictures of her eyes?
 
KarmaChameleon1337 said:
In the search bar you can find safe plants, some examples are schefflera, pothos, hibiscus, etc. Karma has a 2x2x4, he's a year and a few months old. Can you post pictures of her eyes?
Click to expand...

Coo. Here is some close ups of her eyes. One pic of her good one and one of the closed one.
 

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I'm gut loading her crickets with a calcium supplement. Do you still think I should be dusting them with a calcium supplement everyday too?
 
lojack13 said:
I'm gut loading her crickets with a calcium supplement. Do you still think I should be dusting them with a calcium supplement everyday too?
Click to expand...

In fact, it wouldn't hurt to improve your gutloading too :) - https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/ferretinmyshoes/446-basics-gutloading.html. You're right, the eye doesn't look too bad, I expect if you follow the advice you've got from Karma it should clear up fairly quickly. The coil bulbs do give out a higher intensity light than the tube uv bulbs I think, so it might be a combination of strong light and low humidity that caused a little irritation. If she was sleeping in the day that would be different, but she looks ok :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Awesome. Getting calcium supplement tomorrow and multi-vitamin too. I'm going to have to find a way to suspend her basking light above the lid or something. The current enclosure is just so short that laying the lamps right on top causes her to be about 4 inches from the bulb light itself. I'll be sure to get more educated on gut-loading too. This is my first reptile ever so it's been a huge learning expierence. I'm learning something new everyday!
Going to buy a new enclosure online. Does anyone have any suggestions? Websites? I'm told mesh sided cages are the best but I just don't know how to keep humity high in those especially in my region, super dry here in the winter. Now in summer it might not be too bad.
I looked at this set up, any thoughts on this terrarium? It's got front vents. and is 18x18x24

http://www.amazon.com/Exo-Terra-Glass-Terrarium-24-Inch/dp/B000OAYXTK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325472309&sr=8-1
 
Well, if anybody is still following this thread I have good news. I used a saline eyewash on her eye today and rubber her eye with a q-tip. She actually helped me out, While I was rubbing her eye she rubbed her head right into the q-tip like she was itching her eye and bam! The eye opened. Now she closed it for awhile again and I have since done another eyewash but it's getting waaaay better. I just fed her and both her eyes were open. Just an idea to keep in mind if anyone has a Cham with a closed eye, may or may not work, but it can't hurt either.
Thanks everyone for you ideas and responses!
 
Here's some information I hope will help you ....
Appropriate cage temperatures aid in digestion and thus play a part indirectly in nutrient absorption.

Exposure to UVB from either direct sunlight or a proper UVB light allows the chameleon to produce D3 so that it can use the calcium in its system to make/keep the bones strong and be used in other systems in the chameleon as well. The UVB should not pass through glass or plastic no matter whether its from the sun or the UVB light. The most often recommended UVB light is the long linear fluorescent Repti-sun 5.0 tube light. Some of the compacts, spirals and tube lights have caused health issues, but so far there have been no bad reports against this one.

A wide variety of insects that have been well fed and gutloaded should be fed to it.

Since many of the feeder insects we use in captivity have a poor ratio of calcium to phosphorus in them, its important to dust the insects just before you feed them to the chameleon at most feedings with a phos.-free calcium powder to help make up for it. (I use Rep-cal phosphorus-free calcium).

If you also dust twice a month with a phos.-free calcium/D3 powder it will ensure that your chameleon gets some D3 without overdoing it. It leaves the chameleon to produce the rest of what it needs through its exposure to the UVB light. D3 from supplements can build up in the system but D3 produced from exposure to UVB shouldn't as long as the chameleon can move in and out of it. (I use Rep-cal phos.-free calcium/D3).

Dusting twice a month as well with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene (prOformed) source of vitamin A will ensure that the chameleon gets some vitamins without the danger of overdosing the vitamin A. PrEformed sources of vitamin A can build up in the system and may prevent the D3 from doing its job and push the chameleon towards MBD. However, there is controversy as to whether all/any chameleons can convert the beta carotene and so some people give some prEformed vitamin A once in a while. (I use herptivite which has beta carotene.)

Gutloading/feeding the insects well helps to provide what the chameleon needs. I gutload crickets, roaches, locusts, superworms, etc. with an assortment of greens (dandelions, kale, collards, endive, escarole, mustard greens, etc.) and veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, zucchini, etc.)

Calcium, phos., D3 and vitamin A are important players in bone health and other systems in the chameleon (muscles, etc.) and they need to be in balance. When trying to balance them, you need to look at the supplements, what you feed the insects and what you feed the chameleon.
Please note that various supplements have various amounts of D3 and vitamin A and so some can be given more often than others. The idea still is not to overdo the fat soluble vitamins like D3 and prEformed vitamin A.

Here are some good sites for you to read too...
http://chameleonnews.com/07FebWheelock.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200605020...Vitamin.A.html
http://web.archive.org/web/200406080...d.Calcium.html
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/
http://web.archive.org/web/200601140...ww.adcham.com/
If you can't access the sites above that have the word "archive" in you can do it through the WayBackMachine.
 
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