Baby Veiled Chameleon keeping one eye closed and now showing same signs on the other eye

[Beman]

I redid her lights. I can post a picture tomorrow. Thank you @Beman

@kinyonga Dr. Benson used to be the veterinarian at the zoo here. He came highly recommended for exotics. I got Ruby in for the first appointment available, which was a drop off. I did not get to meet him in person, but he did call me to review. His technician showed me how to give the injections. She said IM next to the spine in order to guarantee injecting into muscle. She did not specify above or below the waist. What are your concerns with above or below the waist? His office sent me a follow up text on Friday. I sent a video of her rubbing her eye against my hand and one of her rubbing her eye against the side of her cage. He suggested a recheck early this week. He saw her for the first time on 7/20.

To clarify for the Vitamin A supplement... Dr. Benson told me to order Repashy Superfood or Mazuri better bug gut loading and Repashy Vitamin A which I did. I had Reptivite and repticalcium from the petstore where my parents purchased Ruby. He said to get rid of those and only order feeders online.

My understanding from your extremely helpful advice is to use Reashy or Mazuri for gut loading. Reti Calcium without Vitamin D for every feeding and Reptivite and Vitamin A plus 2 feedings per month. Is this correct?

I am attaching photos of supplements.

So if she were mine I would drop the vitamin A... The reptivite with D3 has vitamin A and this is a fat soluble vitamin like D3 so it stores in their bodies. Too much creates toxicity and overdose. So I would do reptivite with D3 only 2 times a month and then the calcium without D3 all other feedings.

I think if your vet knew how off your UVB lighting was that he would have given feedback that direction as well. She is awfully young to be showing full blown vit A issues.

Repashy and Mazuri are great. I would not use the repashy superload for any roaches though since it is higher in protein.

 

[Hshopkins]

I took Ruby back to the vet on Tuesday. I finished making all of the changes you recommended with lighting and food on Sunday, but she did not eat for over 3 days and still had not opened her eyes.

Dr. Bentsen gave her a Vitamin A shot. I was not able to speak to him at this appointment, but his tech said she had received the first of two needed Vitamin A injections. The next one is due in two weeks.

I will keep you posted...

 

[Hshopkins]

I read a LOT of posts on this forum about Chams that were showing similar symptoms to Ruby.

I wanted to be sure to post the follow up for anyone else who may be experiencing a similar issue.

I made the husbandry changes recommended:

Day 1: stopped heat lamp
Day 3: new uvb ligjt 5.0

Day 4: stopped antibiotic per vet

Day 6: both eyes were closed and she was rubbing her head along her enclosure to gather water droplets to drink

Day 9: returned to the vet and she was given a vitamin A injection

Day 11: I started syringing pedialyte and hand feeding her Dubai and soldier fly larvae

Day: 14 she started opening one eye

Day 16: Left eye was fully open all day

Day 19: right eye fully open all day and returned to get for recommended second dose of Vitamin A injection

Day 21: she was able to shoot her tongue to eat soldier fly larvae (I had still been feeding her)

The blue bulge at the front of her eye that was her very first symptom appeared a few times after she was able to open her eyes again, but her eyes have stayed open.

She stopped rubbing her eyes.

As a side note some of the early advice I was given from multiple sources was to up her listings in case it was something stuck in her eye. This actually lead to an URI in the middle of all of this. I still had the original antibiotic, so that was administered to abate the infection. So that was a learning experience on too much moisture and the signs of an URI

Thank you so much for everyone who offered advice and helped me to help Ruby.

Picture is right after she started opening her eyes. As you can see she wasn't exactly happy that she could now see me!

 

[kinyonga]

Glad to hear she's improving!