This is more of an info post for others that might go through the same thing. My male veiled chameleon is about 1 1/2 and he had an abscess on the bridge of his nose that caused slight swelling in the left eye in mid July. After a week on meds, it opened on its own and drained. I completed the recommended course of meds and all was fine so I went on vacation for six days and twos days home I took him for a walk and noticed the scarring on the bridge of his nose was oozing clear liquid but it wasn’t puffy. About two hours later I checked on him and the left eye had blown up. I immediately administered meds and called the vet when the swelling started going to the other eye. I took him to the er and the vet said the swelling was in the eye, the casque, and the roof of his mouth. She was honest with me that she had no idea what was going on. The abcess appeared to have healed fine so she was thinking allergic reaction or blood clot. Apparently a clot can break away from the heart and in chameleons it travels to the head. I could put him down or admit him with no guarantees. I had him admitted for tests. The next day I got a call from another vet. All the blood work came back fine. The white blood cell count was in normal range but they did see something. She seemed to think it had something to do with the original infection. They had done an ultrasound on the eye and the actual eye was ok. It was the lid and swelling that was the concern. She had gone thru my file and was secure on sending him home for me to continue care. Feeding with carnivore diet, 2syringe full daily and meds of meloxicam .03ml daily by mouth, shot of ceftazidumr 200mg/ml .3 every 72 hours and eye drops tobramycin daily. I added flushing with baush&lomb sensitive eyes saline solution to remove any dried stuff. Note flushing entailed just letting it drip onto eye and eyelid for a minute which he liked. She agreed. It was touch and go till yesterday. I caught him rubbing his eye on a stick. So I washed my hands then took him out and he layed against me and rubbed his eye in my hand then just layed with me for a while. Today I got him to eat hornworms and he is active! Here are some pics the concave ones are from today. I am sure he can see out if it.
Swollen Eye
- Thread starter MzLaurie
- Start date
MissSkittles
Chameleon Enthusiast
Oh my word! I hurt just looking at your poor guy. 
I’m really hoping something you’re doing will work for him and quickly.
I’m really hoping something you’re doing will work for him and quickly.Don’t worry, I truly believe we have turned the corner and he is getting better. He is such a trooper! It was so swollen that he had lost his stripes on the lid. Now the swelling is down a bit and the stripes are back. If he lost the lid, they would have to remove the eye. Now I have hope that won’t happen.
dinomom
Chameleon Enthusiast
Have they checked the nasolacrimal duct? If blocked fluid has nowhere to go. There could be some necrotic material in there from the previous issue
MzLaurie11
Avid Member
They did an ultrasound and everything looked good. I do think something drained into the eye and they said it was possible as there are a lot of cavaties behind the eye but all looked clear in the ultrasound
MzLaurie11
Avid Member
Update. Still healing nicely. I think the stretched out skin Around the eye will take so time to go back to normal. he also still has swelling on his casque, his jowls,neck,mouth. strange thing, the better vet shiwed me again how to give a shot in the upper lart if the arm. Original needles way too big. Since he had already had hus antibiotic, she used meloxicam anti inflammatory. Held him in her left hand and uswd two of hwr fingers to hild the arm. Then she said to always put it in paralell to his arm never straiight down into the muscle. She said i didnt have to pull back the plunger to make sure i wasnt in a vein. much better demo! The thing is right after the shot, his eye started tearing. After i got him home, i started thinking about it. The meloxicam is given by mouth. Maybe since this was a swelling response, giving by injection might be better. So i waited two days and called her. By mouth, the eye didnt tear. should i switch to injection? Had to relay info to her aid and she never got back with me. I spent 1,100. I think a call back would have been nice. Giving it to him by mouth and only 0.3ml. He is eating only hornworms and seems to have energy so i am not going to experiment on the meds as they r working slowly but surely.
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