What could cause eye closing?

JCDenton

New Member
Chameleon Info:

* Ambilobe 4 months old according to the breeder. I've had it about a month and I think its true age is closer to 3 months.
* Handling - 1-2x week
* Feeding - crickets fed with water crystals and flukers high calcium gutload. from time to time I'll throw something like carrots or collared greens in there. He seems to eat about 5 appropriate sized crickets per day, more or less if they are smaller/larger than normal.
* Supplements - repcal almost every day, repcal with D3 once every week or two, herpvite twice a month
* Watering - mist king goes off 5x per day for 1-3 minutes each. Do you see your chameleon drinking? Sometimes in the morning.
* Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. They look normal, urates are white. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites? no



Cage Info:

* Cage Type - 24x24x48. floor is elevated 6 inches because of the drainage drawer under it
* Lighting -I have reptisun 5.0 tube, a 52w regular house bulb for basking, and I just added a 6500k flourescent daylight tube to try to save an ailing schleffera, but the eye closing started a few days before that.
* Temperature - coolest parts will range from 72-77 depending on ambient, basking area is low 80s.
* Humidity - 40% - 90% depending on how long it's been since the mist king sprayed. My AC runs a lot so humidity gets sucked out quickly.
* Plants - Are you using live plants? pothos and schleffera
* Placement - near a window with the blinds closed. air vents, (there is one on the other side of the room) or high traffic areas? (i am usually in the room with him but there isn't much going on since I'm on the computer) At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor? 6ft+
* Location - Where are you geographically located? texas


I've noticed that my 3-4 month male ambilobe is in the habit of closing one of his eyes and looking around with the other. Occasionally it's the left eye but usually the right, about 80% of the time. Sometimes he'll close it for as much as 10 seconds, and it seems like he pulls it inside his head because it's not nearly as bulgy when he closes it. I can't see anything physically wrong with the eye, and his lights should be fine.

He's still active, eating, and drinking. I'm at a loss here because the symptoms seem like UV damage but none of the bulbs I have could do that. From what I understand he's supposed to eat 8-10 crickets per day and he's at more like 4-5 though, between 1/4 and 1/2 inch. It's hard to monitor his intake since he won't cupfeed for the most part and is much less willing to handfeed than he used to be.
 
Personally I would take him to the vet and also take a fecal with you.

If your UVB bulb is new is puts off allot of UV and it may be to close to him. I used a weak (an old used bulb on my babies)

A 48 inch high is way to big for a 3 month old panther and he would not be able to find his food.

I would highly recommend you buy some dry gul load from Steve here on the forums (cricket crack) Personally I would not use the Flukers. Also if the feeders are too big he want eat them.

He could have parasites. I would do the vet visit and fecal right away and make sure you find a vet that's good with chameleons or you are wasting your time and money.
 
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If your UVB bulb is new is puts off allot of UV and it may be to close to him. I used a weak (an old used bulb on my babies)

Didn't know this. It's a new chameleon so obviously its a new UVB bulb too. He does spend a lot of time close to it since he basks a lot and I put it near the basking spot. I'll move it away some.

I make sure he finds his food since I put it in his favorite spots and then watch him eat.

I guess I better try to find a good vet to take him to. If he has parasites he probably came with them since I was exceedingly careful with everything I put into his cage, precisely to avoid something like this. How am I gonna get fresh chameleon poop though? By the time I see them they're always dried up already.
 
Didn't know this. It's a new chameleon so obviously its a new UVB bulb too. He does spend a lot of time close to it since he basks a lot and I put it near the basking spot. I'll move it away some.

I make sure he finds his food since I put it in his favorite spots and then watch him eat.

I guess I better try to find a good vet to take him to. If he has parasites he probably came with them since I was exceedingly careful with everything I put into his cage, precisely to avoid something like this. How am I gonna get fresh chameleon poop though? By the time I see them they're always dried up already.

Make sure the bulb is 6 to 8 inches away from him when he's in his basking spot. He should poop in the mornings right after he eats. Put it in a zip lock back with a damp tissue and it can be keep 24 hours before your vet visit but the fresher the better....some parasites wont show up in an old poop.

They often come loaded with parasites. My female had several different parasites when I bought her from a forums member and my daughter has bought form many "very reptuable" breeded that came just loaded with parasites and 3 even with coddidia. If he's only eating 5 feeders a day something is wrong......he should be eating 3 times that many. They get parasites from their feeders. I would recommend you buying from a reputable site sponsor and not a pet store and even then they can still get parasites but you have a better chance of getting clean feeders.
 
I'm pretty much stuck with pet store feeders for the summer. About 1/3 of what I ordered from ghann's showed up dead and another 1/3 died the next day. It's only gotten much hotter since then.

I wanna give him something other than crickets but I'm not sure where to order from, what size, how much, which worms would be best. I want something I can keep a while and won't get too big too fast since shipping is expensive.

I switched the positions of his lights around so that the Reptisun is far away from his basking spot for now and is also on the opposite side. He's been closing the eye way less so maybe that was the problem and the eye will get better quickly since it was caught early.
 
You need to get over night shipping when you orded feeders. Ghann's also sells superworms. I buy my worms other than supers here: coastalsilkworms.com. Your cham needs a variety of feeders and small worms would be good for him. Silkworms are excellent feeders. It's VERY hot here in FL but with overnight shipping I have not had any problems with my feeders.
 
JCDenton,
i found a really good reptile Vet here in Houston.
Dr Larry N. White
Briarcrest Veterinary Clinic
7-789-8320
he raises reptiles and knows just about everything about them
 
Fred, that is actually who I was thinking about taking him to. Have you ever actually used them? I saw their web page and was planning to call and see if they were experienced with chameleons.
 
You need to get over night shipping when you orded feeders. Ghann's also sells superworms. I buy my worms other than supers here: coastalsilkworms.com. Your cham needs a variety of feeders and small worms would be good for him. Silkworms are excellent feeders. It's VERY hot here in FL but with overnight shipping I have not had any problems with my feeders.


Can you recommend how many and what size of worms to get? I have no idea how long they'll last and how fast they grow. And should I be getting eggs, pods, worms?
 
Can you recommend how many and what size of worms to get? I have no idea how long they'll last and how fast they grow. And should I be getting eggs, pods, worms?

This is what I normally order, except I get med. size silkworms but since your guy is so little, I'd get small. If you have a Mulberry tree you can pick the leaves, wash them and feed them to the silkworms. If you can't get Mulberry leaves then you will need to buy the food. Hope this helps.

http://coastalsilkworms.com/store/shopping_cart.php
 
Dr White

Fred, that is actually who I was thinking about taking him to. Have you ever actually used them? I saw their web page and was planning to call and see if they were experienced with chameleons.

yes i have used Dr. White, he is very good. i highly recommend him. i took my jackson Chameleon to him and it was the best thing i ever did for my little guy.
 
You said..."Sometimes he'll close it for as much as 10 seconds, and it seems like he pulls it inside his head because it's not nearly as bulgy when he closes it"... does he bulge the eye out big and rotate it around? Have you tried misting it gently??
 
You said..."Sometimes he'll close it for as much as 10 seconds, and it seems like he pulls it inside his head because it's not nearly as bulgy when he closes it"... does he bulge the eye out big and rotate it around? Have you tried misting it gently??

No, he pulls the eye in when it's closed, making it flatter. Or did you mean when it's open? He still bulges it out and looks around normally when its open.

I took him to Dr. White today and he couldn't really find any problems. He's fairly certain there are no parasites because I got lucky and was able to bring in some high quality chameleon poo. Didn't think he looked malnourished either, and saw no evidence of anything wrong with the eye. He actually suggested fruit flies which I thought was a bit odd for a chameleon of this size. He did seem to know a good amount about chams though and is also only 5 minutes away and reasonably priced.

I guess now I'll do what I was planning on anyway, which is getting some various types of worms for him. It's a relief to know there are no major issues and that I'll probably just have to tweak temp/humidity/feeding.
 
He's been active and eating well but is definitely closing the right eye more than he should. Any more ideas on what the problem could be and what to do for him? I'm at a loss here because moving the light didn't fix it and I still see no signs of it being infected.
 
Can you make a video of it? Did you take him to the vets? I might of missed this I did not re-read.
 
The UVB is a tube like it's supposed to be, and I already took him to the vet who found no parasites and saw no problems with the eye. I'll try to take a vid but he tends to keep it open when there's action so he may not do it with a camera in his cage.
 
I have the same problem with my male panther. Vet yeilded no answers and also had a clean fecal. Does his cage sit across the room from the AC vent? I have noticed that when the AC kicks on, my panther will close one eye. I turned the vent around to redirect the air flow and it helped. I have also been working really hard to keep him extra hydrated. I have been giving him long showers and the eye closing is not as bad as it has been. Does he also scratch his eye on branches?
 
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