Chris Anderson
Dr. House of Chameleons
Hey everyone,
I thought I’d take a little time to share a story with you that I’ve been dealing with for the last 5 months.
I have a 6’x3’x3’ display enclosure in my living room. This was the home to my female Parson’s Chameleon (Calumma p. parsonii). Around the second weekend in February, I noticed she was moving strangely in her enclosure. I went over and she appeared to be staring out in a random direction and feeling blindly in front of her for something. Upon opening the enclosure and getting her onto my hand, she continued to behave this way. I noticed she seemed to have no response to any movement around or toward either eye. She was completely blind. Two days earlier, she was eating on her own in front of me and the day before she showed no indication of anything being wrong.
I placed her in one of my smaller 2’x2’x2’ enclosures upstairs in the chameleon room and left her overnight to see how she was doing the next morning (Monday). She went to sleep when the lights went out and woke normally when the lights came on but the next morning she continued to show no indications of the ability to visually sense any movement. I gave her a dose of 4000 I.U. Vitamin A, which Ferguson et al. have found to be a sufficient single dose to correct Vitamin A deficiency in F. pardalis. Knowing the connection between eyes and Vitamin A, I hoped this might curb or cure her condition. I then also scheduled an appointment with the Avian and Exotics vets at Florida Veterinary Specialists for the following morning.
The following day, there had been no change to her condition and she went into the vet with me. Dr. Maldonado saw her and was shocked by the case. After consulting with an onsite veterinary neurologist and a veterinary ophthalmologist, the consensus was that the eyes themselves were in excellent condition and the pupils were responsive to light stimulation yet communication between the eye and brain or the responsive unit of the brain was the issue. Blood chemistry and x-rays were taken. X-ray indicated no buildup of heavy metals and blood chemistry indicated no metabolic or nutritional causes for the issue. Poisoning or toxicity would have been indicated by metabolic abnormalities and were thus further eliminated as a potential issue. Photo-kerato-conjunctivitis or other lighting induced damage was disregarded due to the ophthalmologist’s examination and the fact that the MV bulb on the enclosure was well past its burn in and had not previously caused an issue. This left us with the possibilities of an infection of some sort that had gone to the nervous system or possibly trauma. A calcium injection was given to cover another base in addition to Vitamin A and a Fortaz treatment plan was proscribed.
Three weeks later, another blood chemistry test similarly showed no abnormal explanations for the blindness. The Fortaz treatment plan was extended and an oral steroid treatment plan was also proscribed. These treatment plans went to their completion and no change was noted. No other vets consulted around the country, including Dr. Mader, had any experience with a similar case of such sudden blindness with no obvious causes.
During this period and the period since, this female has been force fed every other day and orally supplemented with additional water to the misting system, which runs twice a day for 20 minutes each. Gradually, she appeared to have limited recognition of movement but no fine detail. This continued on until about two weeks ago when I placed some crickets into a feeder in her enclosure as I do from time to time just incase and she started to eat on her own.
After four months of blindness and force-feeding, she now is eating on her own, her vision seems to have no issues and she seems to be acting normally. No explanation of the cause of her acute blindness has been found, no knowledge of what, if any of our treatments worked or didn’t and nothing about how to prevent something like this in the future was learned. It has been reinforced for me, however, that no matter how difficult the road is, you should keep trying and you might be successful. I’ve also gained renewed respect for the incredible grip that C. parsonii have, the incredible jaw strength they have, just how difficult it can be to force them to do anything they don’t want to do and how painful they can make your attempts to do it if they get the chance.
Chris
I thought I’d take a little time to share a story with you that I’ve been dealing with for the last 5 months.
I have a 6’x3’x3’ display enclosure in my living room. This was the home to my female Parson’s Chameleon (Calumma p. parsonii). Around the second weekend in February, I noticed she was moving strangely in her enclosure. I went over and she appeared to be staring out in a random direction and feeling blindly in front of her for something. Upon opening the enclosure and getting her onto my hand, she continued to behave this way. I noticed she seemed to have no response to any movement around or toward either eye. She was completely blind. Two days earlier, she was eating on her own in front of me and the day before she showed no indication of anything being wrong.
I placed her in one of my smaller 2’x2’x2’ enclosures upstairs in the chameleon room and left her overnight to see how she was doing the next morning (Monday). She went to sleep when the lights went out and woke normally when the lights came on but the next morning she continued to show no indications of the ability to visually sense any movement. I gave her a dose of 4000 I.U. Vitamin A, which Ferguson et al. have found to be a sufficient single dose to correct Vitamin A deficiency in F. pardalis. Knowing the connection between eyes and Vitamin A, I hoped this might curb or cure her condition. I then also scheduled an appointment with the Avian and Exotics vets at Florida Veterinary Specialists for the following morning.
The following day, there had been no change to her condition and she went into the vet with me. Dr. Maldonado saw her and was shocked by the case. After consulting with an onsite veterinary neurologist and a veterinary ophthalmologist, the consensus was that the eyes themselves were in excellent condition and the pupils were responsive to light stimulation yet communication between the eye and brain or the responsive unit of the brain was the issue. Blood chemistry and x-rays were taken. X-ray indicated no buildup of heavy metals and blood chemistry indicated no metabolic or nutritional causes for the issue. Poisoning or toxicity would have been indicated by metabolic abnormalities and were thus further eliminated as a potential issue. Photo-kerato-conjunctivitis or other lighting induced damage was disregarded due to the ophthalmologist’s examination and the fact that the MV bulb on the enclosure was well past its burn in and had not previously caused an issue. This left us with the possibilities of an infection of some sort that had gone to the nervous system or possibly trauma. A calcium injection was given to cover another base in addition to Vitamin A and a Fortaz treatment plan was proscribed.
Three weeks later, another blood chemistry test similarly showed no abnormal explanations for the blindness. The Fortaz treatment plan was extended and an oral steroid treatment plan was also proscribed. These treatment plans went to their completion and no change was noted. No other vets consulted around the country, including Dr. Mader, had any experience with a similar case of such sudden blindness with no obvious causes.
During this period and the period since, this female has been force fed every other day and orally supplemented with additional water to the misting system, which runs twice a day for 20 minutes each. Gradually, she appeared to have limited recognition of movement but no fine detail. This continued on until about two weeks ago when I placed some crickets into a feeder in her enclosure as I do from time to time just incase and she started to eat on her own.
After four months of blindness and force-feeding, she now is eating on her own, her vision seems to have no issues and she seems to be acting normally. No explanation of the cause of her acute blindness has been found, no knowledge of what, if any of our treatments worked or didn’t and nothing about how to prevent something like this in the future was learned. It has been reinforced for me, however, that no matter how difficult the road is, you should keep trying and you might be successful. I’ve also gained renewed respect for the incredible grip that C. parsonii have, the incredible jaw strength they have, just how difficult it can be to force them to do anything they don’t want to do and how painful they can make your attempts to do it if they get the chance.
Chris
Like you said it's hard to determine what to do to prevent future instances...
