Vitamin A and eye issues. Advice needed

PlanetRemulak

Avid Member
I’ve got Beau scheduled for a vet visit on next Monday. I’d like for him to see the vet sooner, but the exotics vet he’s being seen by works at a zoo and is only available several days out of each month (I’m looking around for other vets in the meantime).

I’ve been noticing that Beau‘s right eye has been bothering him. I caught him with it closed for a bit yesterday (he had the other eye open, but opened his right when he realized I was looking at him). He’s also been closing it and rolling it around beneath the lid periodically. I’ve been struggling to keep the humidity up in his cage between the very dry heat and the AC, and thought that his eye irritation ws a symptom of it (during the day humidity at the very top of the cage sits between 39-41%. I’ve added a 2 minute misting session at 2:30 to hopefully bring the humidity up and give him an additional opportunity to drink. At night, I’m able to get humidity to 70-75% around the middle of the cage with spikes at about 80% during mistings. The top still sits at about 60%, but I haven’t been worrying about it as he doesn’t sleep there). The irritation in just one eye had me confused however, so I did a bit of reading and am starting to wonder if it may be the sign of a vitamin A deficiency. I use Rep-cal with no D3 at every feeding except on the 1st, the 8th, the 15th and the 22nd of every month. On the 1st and the 15th, I dust with Rep-cal WITH d3. On the 8th and the 22nd, I use Herptivite with beta carotene.. so proformed A, not preformed A.

Should I be using a preformed A WITH Herptivite? Any recommendations? I’m not sure what to get, but feel like I need to correct this regardless of next week’s trip to the vet.
 
Herptivite is beta carotene only so no Preformed vit A at all... There is an ongoing debate within the hobby about if they can actually convert Beta Carotene to Vitamin A. Nothing has come of this really except two sides disagreeing.

You could drop both the rep cal with D3 and the herptivite and get Repashy Calcium plus LoD version. This would be used two times a month only say the 1st and the 15th. Then calcium without D3 at all other feedings... This would ensure that he is getting Preformed A.


Now then what your describing sounds more like he is having issues with the eye maybe something being in it or he is trying to clean it. This is what they do when they roll it around. Panthers seem to really like mistings and will clean their eyes quite often. It may be your misting sessions in the morning and evening are not long enough.
 
Herptivite is beta carotene only so no Preformed vit A at all... There is an ongoing debate within the hobby about if they can actually convert Beta Carotene to Vitamin A. Nothing has come of this really except two sides disagreeing.

You could drop both the rep cal with D3 and the herptivite and get Repashy Calcium plus LoD version. This would be used two times a month only say the 1st and the 15th. Then calcium without D3 at all other feedings... This would ensure that he is getting Preformed A.


Now then what your describing sounds more like he is having issues with the eye maybe something being in it or he is trying to clean it. This is what they do when they roll it around. Panthers seem to really like mistings and will clean their eyes quite often. It may be your misting sessions in the morning and evening are not long enough.
Just to be sure here - sorry, lol - I could stick with the Rep-cal without D3nto use regularly, and the Repashy LoD to handle his d3, multivitamin and preformed A?

His Mistking is set to go off 5 minutes in the morning, and 5 minutes at night. i just recently changed the first mist of the day from 6:30 AM to 7 when lights go on. I had it set to go off in the evening at 7:30, a half hour after lights out as well. I can increase both mistings to 6 minutes in the morning and 6 minutes in the evening if need be.

thank you for your input, @Beman!
 
Just to be sure here - sorry, lol - I could stick with the Rep-cal without D3nto use regularly, and the Repashy LoD to handle his d3, multivitamin and preformed A?

His Mistking is set to go off 5 minutes in the morning, and 5 minutes at night. i just recently changed the first mist of the day from 6:30 AM to 7 when lights go on. I had it set to go off in the evening at 7:30, a half hour after lights out as well. I can increase both mistings to 6 minutes in the morning and 6 minutes in the evening if need be.

thank you for your input, @Beman!
Correct with the supplements.

Per the misting... Play around with it. I have my basking kick on 2 hours later then my other lights. I do this because I have a longer morning misting that happens 5 minutes after my T5's start kicking on. So I need the time for my humidity levels to kick back down before I add the heat from the basking. Now Beman is up and at em pretty quickly after lights start kicking on. So he already is hanging out in the mist. Then in the evenings I have a misting kick on at 4:30 an hour after my basking light kicks off and then at 6:30 to up humidity before all lights are off at 7:00.

So you will have to play with it for your environment. But all my misting sessions are 5 minutes. But organizing my lighting to work well with my misting is how I maintain better levels because my levels can get higher then I need them to be.

Your levels are lower... So yes you can lengthen your session times. Again it is all trial and error. But I have a feeling he is not up when first misting happens and then he has already bedded down when the last session happens so he is not cleaning his eyes. If he got something stuck in it then he would have issues being able to actually get it out without the misting.
 
Correct with the supplements.

Per the misting... Play around with it. I have my basking kick on 2 hours later then my other lights. I do this because I have a longer morning misting that happens 5 minutes after my T5's start kicking on. So I need the time for my humidity levels to kick back down before I add the heat from the basking. Now Beman is up and at em pretty quickly after lights start kicking on. So he already is hanging out in the mist. Then in the evenings I have a misting kick on at 4:30 an hour after my basking light kicks off and then at 6:30 to up humidity before all lights are off at 7:00.

So you will have to play with it for your environment. But all my misting sessions are 5 minutes. But organizing my lighting to work well with my misting is how I maintain better levels because my levels can get higher then I need them to be.

Your levels are lower... So yes you can lengthen your session times. Again it is all trial and error. But I have a feeling he is not up when first misting happens and then he has already bedded down when the last session happens so he is not cleaning his eyes. If he got something stuck in it then he would have issues being able to actually get it out without the misting.
Oh gosh. I never even considered that he was not getting enough moisture to properly clean out his eye turrets (feeling pretty brain dead at the moment.. :/). You’re not wrong. His T5 kicks on at 7 am, but I think I’ll start having it go off at about 6:30 instead. I like the idea of the basking light coming on two hours later. I’ll definitely work on more mistings during the day when he’s awake and gave them scheduled around when lights go on/off. Hopefully this and the LoD resolves the weird eye issue. Thanks again!! 💙
 
Oh gosh. I never even considered that he was not getting enough moisture to properly clean out his eye turrets (feeling pretty brain dead at the moment.. :/). You’re not wrong. His T5 kicks on at 7 am, but I think I’ll start having it go off at about 6:30 instead. I like the idea of the basking light coming on two hours later. I’ll definitely work on more mistings during the day when he’s awake and gave them scheduled around when lights go on/off. Hopefully this and the LoD resolves the weird eye issue. Thanks again!! 💙
Your welcome. Remember not to base what your schedule is on what others do. My environment or the next person is not yours. As you get more and more experienced your really dialing in what your cage and environment is capable of providing. So playing with your session times and lighting times is helpful to dial things in more. In the beginning we are teaching everyone the basics, do this and get this kind of thing. Just to ensure basic husbandry is met. You are now passed the basics and into the fine tuning. :)
 
Your welcome. Remember not to base what your schedule is on what others do. My environment or the next person is not yours. As you get more and more experienced your really dialing in what your cage and environment is capable of providing. So playing with your session times and lighting times is helpful to dial things in more. In the beginning we are teaching everyone the basics, do this and get this kind of thing. Just to ensure basic husbandry is met. You are now passed the basics and into the fine tuning. :)
I’ve definitely taken this advice to heart! I’ve learned that what works for me may drown a chameleon living in a state like Florida. I’m having to mist quite a bit since things are so dry out here, but I did sort of steal your 4:30 PM misting idea. That definitely seems to help keep RH levels up well into the night.

I’m so thankful to be out of the initial anxiety stage and into the fine tuning part 😵‍ I could not have done it (with any semblance of sanity, at least) without your help. Thank you again! Sorry to keep saying that on repeat lol
 
I’ve definitely taken this advice to heart! I’ve learned that what works for me may drown a chameleon living in a state like Florida. I’m having to mist quite a bit since things are so dry out here, but I did sort of steal your 4:30 PM misting idea. That definitely seems to help keep RH levels up well into the night.

I’m so thankful to be out of the initial anxiety stage and into the fine tuning part 😵‍ I could not have done it (with any semblance of sanity, at least) without your help. Thank you again! Sorry to keep saying that on repeat lol
Monsters Inc Hug GIF
 
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