washing eyes with saline

yokman

New Member
I am wondering how you wash a chameleons eyes out with saline soulition? I bought a bottle of solution for sensitive eyes and am wanting to give my girls eyes a good cleaning. Her eyes look fine it's just every time I water her,and I water her good about 5 plus time a day and she rubs em on her vines.So I am just looking for the perfered method of washing them out with saline?
 
i purchaseda small eye dropper witha bend in the end i just hold it above my cham and when he looks up at it i let a drop fall in. he usually rubs his eye after as well, i think that his how they clear any debris away from the eye that they push out with the saline.

jmo hoj
 
IMO. The best way to give a chameleon a good eye wash. Is by putting them in the shower for about 15 minutes. They will clean out their eyes while they are in there. There are tons of theads on how to do this. To sum it it, Water at room temp, point shower head at wall, put chameleon on plant or something, let a indirect mist hit them. If they show signs of stress, get them out. Yada, yada...

Mine love taking showers.They never show stress. Besides great eye cleaning they also get hydrated in the shower.

Hope this helps:)
 
Saline solution (if thats what you have) should definitely not be administered to eyes. If you do it will cause a lot of pain. If you have some sort of eye drops, these are formulated for human eyes and again should not be used.

There are special eye drops for reptiles, the name eludes me at the moment.

If you are concerned about your chameleons' eyes, it may be an infection, your lighting setup, or any number of variables. Probably best to see a vet that specializes in reptiles.
 
I would just give them a nice shower for about 15 minutes so they can clean their eyes out. I have a misting setting on my shower head so it works great for my chams. They are getting a shower tonight. :)
 
Saline solution (if thats what you have) should definitely not be administered to eyes. If you do it will cause a lot of pain. If you have some sort of eye drops, these are formulated for human eyes and again should not be used.

There are special eye drops for reptiles, the name eludes me at the moment.

If you are concerned about your chameleons' eyes, it may be an infection, your lighting setup, or any number of variables. Probably best to see a vet that specializes in reptiles.

sorry but i dissagree. do you have any proof to support this, my guy acctually seems to enjoy it, and i know i have seen i reccomended on here before.
 
Saline solution (if thats what you have) should definitely not be administered to eyes. If you do it will cause a lot of pain. If you have some sort of eye drops, these are formulated for human eyes and again should not be used.

Saline solution is not the same as just any salt water. Commercial saline solutions are formulated to be isotonic (same concentration of NaCl as is in the plasma and body fluids) so therefore should not cause any discomfort. If it is causing a lot of pain you should be concerned about corneal abrasions or ulcers, which don't happen much to our knowledge in chams. If you just mix salt with water to make your own saline solution then yes, that would sting because you would not have the correct ratio. Formulated solutions are fine to use but try to find one that is literally saline solution and that's it. Avoid preservatives, additives, etc. if possible because we don't know what effect they may have on reptiles.
 
Saline solution is not the same as just any salt water. Commercial saline solutions are formulated to be isotonic (same concentration of NaCl as is in the plasma and body fluids) so therefore should not cause any discomfort. If you just mix salt with water to make your own saline solution then yes, that would sting because you would not have the correct ratio. Formulated solutions are fine to use but try to find one that is literally saline solution and that's it. Avoid preservatives, additives, etc. if possible because we don't know what effect they may have on reptiles.

thx ferrit i knew there was more to this
 
I do have saline solution for sensitive eyes.Brand new bottle. I have also heard it talked about on here so I got some just in case is why I was asking. I feel no need for a shower as I sit and hand spray her with about 15 to 20oz of water at a time as I feel getting there skin wet is just as important as them drinking it( I may be wrong) but it dosent hurt. Here eyes were getting burned by a wrong reptisun 10.0 bulb for lizards and not the tube kind I have now.She can see PERFECT,just ask any dubi she has came across,lol. Just wondering why she rubs her eyes when getting her water/bath sumtimes as they are clear and healthy?I also run a ultrasonic compact cold humidifier on her when her lights are on10 to 11 hours a day. Poo looks good and she is very active and eats WELL. I think we can all agree that we are always keeping an eye out for sumthing wrong and this is the only odd behavior I see in her.
 
sorry but i dissagree. do you have any proof to support this, my guy acctually seems to enjoy it, and i know i have seen i reccomended on here before.

Saline solution- http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saline_(medicine)

It's mostly used for IVs and irrigation of wounds. Anything you buy OTC will be for human use. Unless it's a product for reptile eyes, which you will notice I did suggest.

This is why I suggested not using eye drops, the liquid will get in their mouth, and in much greater concentration than a human. http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/visine.asp

Here are some results for products specifically for reptiles.

http://www.google.com/m/products?oe...oducts&ei=-WF6TdD0CNXCtwfO3fHaAw&ved=0CB4QzQM

Although we still haven't discussed underlying issues of what could be causing the eye issues.
 
I do have saline solution for sensitive eyes.Brand new bottle. I have also heard it talked about on here so I got some just in case is why I was asking. I feel no need for a shower as I sit and hand spray her with about 15 to 20oz of water at a time as I feel getting there skin wet is just as important as them drinking it( I may be wrong) but it dosent hurt. Here eyes were getting burned by a wrong reptisun 10.0 bulb for lizards and not the tube kind I have now.She can see PERFECT,just ask any dubi she has came across,lol. Just wondering why she rubs her eyes when getting her water/bath sumtimes as they are clear and healthy?I also run a ultrasonic compact cold humidifier on her when her lights are on10 to 11 hours a day. Poo looks good and she is very active and eats WELL. I think we can all agree that we are always keeping an eye out for sumthing wrong and this is the only odd behavior I see in her.

So her eyes were damaged by the bulb, probably causing irreparable damage. I don't think any sort of fluid will repair the damage.
 
I wouldn't say they were damaged as I can play dr and move my finger from left to right and vise versa and she follows. But I did have the wrong bulb on her for a week. I took her off uvb and used a plant light on her for the past 3 weeks and went back to a reptisun 10.0 long bulb this week. I am not saying ANYTHING is wrong was just wondering about SALINE SOLUTION FOR SENSITIVE EYES is all. If I felt there was a real problem she would be at the vet now. Eyes are not sunken in,no sores or skin on them,no briusing,awake ALL day and eyes and cham is active. Just likes to rub them from time to time when she gets her shower.
 
My advice would be "if it ain't broke..."

I don't think saline will work as any sort of preventative medicine.
 
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So her eyes were damaged by the bulb, probably causing irreparable damage. I don't think any sort of fluid will repair the damage.

Generally if addressed quickly the damage is reversible, or at least they recover from it very well. It's like you staring at the sun for five solid minutes and then trying to read a book. Your eyes will hurt and you will have a difficult time reading for a while afterward, but eventually your eyes will readjust and you will be able to read again just fine. Even irreparable damage isn't always catastrophic. Once the bad bulb is removed they can recover back to regular eyesight, albeit possibly with microscopic irreversible damage.

My advice would be "if it ain't broke..." I don't think saline will work as any sort of preventative medicine.

You really have a thing against eye wash...I don't think anyone was ever implying that saline solution was going to heal or prevent anything, and I don't see any problem whatsoever with using it to help chams flush out their eyes. My eyes get dry by the end of the day quite frequently lately so I very much enjoy adding drops to my eyes and I imagine that if their eyes are irritated (evidenced by rubbing eyes on branches) they would appreciate it too.
 
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