Basking with left eye closed?

[ConfusedHornwormGuy]

I've noticed as of late my panther chameleon has been closing her left eye a lot and leaving her right eye open. She opens and uses the left eye when alerted, like if I open the enclosure for example, or if I were to hold her. Once she's relaxed however she closes the eye. I do not know if this is indicative of an issue specifically with that eye, like some foreign object or bacteria/irritation and/or dryness. Basking temps are ranging from 70-80 degrees as my basking branch is angled so she can choose her preferred temp, so I know it isn't temps, I also spray her enclosure with water once daily at least, and have a big dripper so I know she is hydrated. Her fecal matter is healthy and she was just fed a dubia cockroach yesterday and one the day prior, both undusted, and a larger feeding of 2-3 dubia roaches that were dusted with calcium 2 days ago. The two daily feedings of undusted insects were due to her hunting in her cage, she has grown so I believe the 2-3 feeders were too small and not enough for her. So this is a good thing, she is growing and eating and drinking and her stool is healthy. Overall her behavior is completely normal and seems completely healthy, no lethargy, outside of the left eye closing while leaving the right eye open and alert. Using recommended acadia bulbs and ballasts with uva and uvb bulbs in case anyone is wondering the lighting.

 

[kinyonga]

Do any of your supplements have prEformed vitamin A in them? How often do you use them if they do?

Can you take a photo of her from the front so I can see both eyes in the same photo please?

 

[ConfusedHornwormGuy]

Do any of your supplements have prEformed vitamin A in them? How often do you use them if they do?

Can you take a photo of her from the front so I can see both eyes in the same photo please?

I havent given her vitamin a this week because I gave it to her last week. I'll be giving it to her next week. The calcium dust I coat insects with is pure calcium, no vitamins. Yeah give me a minute and I'll take a pic, thank you.

 

[ConfusedHornwormGuy]

Idk if this works but I got this one just now lol, she was climbing on her lattice.

 

[kinyonga]

Perfect! I just wanted to compare the look of both eyes because it gives me more of an idea of what might be going on. I hate eye issues because there are always too many possibilities of what is going on.

 

[Gingero]

What specific Arcadia UVB bulb are you using? What specific calcium are you using?

You might find this video helpful:

 

[ConfusedHornwormGuy]

What specific Arcadia UVB bulb are you using? What specific calcium are you using?

You might find this video helpful:

Reptical and it's the 6%, which I believe is the recommended/higher of the two

 

[ConfusedHornwormGuy]

It may just be a one off thing. Like she isn't closing both of them, so perhaps resting that one eye. She is opening her eyes now, I didn't disturb her or anything just checked on her and both are open.

 

[kinyonga]

One cause of one eye being shut...
"One cause of chameleons keeping their eye closed is a vitamin A efficiency. This shows itself by the chameleon having difficulty opening its eye or using it"...
https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-medical-eye-issues/

 

[ConfusedHornwormGuy]

One cause of one eye being shut...
"One cause of chameleons keeping their eye closed is a vitamin A efficiency. This shows itself by the chameleon having difficulty opening its eye or using it"...
https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-medical-eye-issues/

This may be the cause then. I will continue to observe and make sure this doesn't become a chronic thing. If she is doing it all too much I may switch my jacksons chameleon into her enclosure and move her to the enclosure without the acadia bulb. For my jacksons I purchased a (temporary) contained UVB bulb which I know isn't sufficient but will suffice until I can get another ballast for her cage. If it ends up being a situation like that, the best thing I could do for her for the time being would be to swap her enclosure for some time to let her process out the excess. Thank you for the advice.

 

[ConfusedHornwormGuy]

One cause of one eye being shut...
"One cause of chameleons keeping their eye closed is a vitamin A efficiency. This shows itself by the chameleon having difficulty opening its eye or using it"...
https://chameleonacademy.com/chameleon-medical-eye-issues/

I believe you discovered the issue. I swapped her enclosure last night and as of now both my jacksons and panther seem to be comfortable in the swapped enclosures, fortunately. My panther is currently hiding out towards the bottom of the cage away from the light, which leads me to believe you are correct on vitamin a efficiency. I'm going to allow her to shy away from the light a bit and keep an eye on her, give her body some days to process the excess out of her system and I'll refrain from giving the multivitamin dusting for the remainder of this month, I'll resume the multivitamins on the first sunday next month. Now I just need to figure out what I'm going to do for optimal lighting for her

 

[Beman]

When you say your misting once a day.... How long are you misting for? Are you hand misting or is it an auto set up? Do you see her cleaning her eyes when the misting happens?

What is the multivitamin your using?

I really do not know why you swapped cages? And if the Jackson does not have an adequate UVB bulb then now she doesnt either.

 

[ConfusedHornwormGuy]

When you say your misting once a day.... How long are you misting for? Are you hand misting or is it an auto set up? Do you see her cleaning her eyes when the misting happens?

What is the multivitamin your using?

I really do not know why you swapped cages? And if the Jackson does not have an adequate UVB bulb then now she doesnt either.

Hand misting, she isn't hit with overspray, no eye closing. Im using a multivitamin with calcium. I specified in the posts above why I swapped cages, the lighting in my jacksons cage is different.

 

[ConfusedHornwormGuy]

Oh and the brand name of the multivitamin is herpivite

 

[kinyonga]

Did you clean everything in the cages before you swapped the chameleons? Wouldn't it have been easier to swap the lights from one cage to the other? If it was something in the cage like bacteria etc. that is causing the issue, now your Jackson's might have picked it up if you didn't clean the cages before swapping them.

If it's the light that was causing the problem, that wouldn't cause a vitamin A issue...that would involve D3.

 

[Beman]

Hand misting, she isn't hit with overspray, no eye closing. Im using a multivitamin with calcium. I specified in the posts above why I swapped cages, the lighting in my jacksons cage is different.

Oh and the brand name of the multivitamin is herpivite

Ok but I believe you are misunderstanding what @kinyonga was telling you. The lighting would have nothing to do with what is going on. UVB has nothing to do with Vitamin A deficiency.

Your herptivite does not have preformed A in it. So yes it could be a situation where she is vitamin A deficient. The only way to test that is to put her on something like repashy calcium plus LoD 2 times a month then use calcium without D3 at all other feedings. Repashy has D3 and vitamin A.

But the other thing is she does not have the ability to clean her eyes. Panthers IME like to do this. Even my Veiled will. By using a hand mister and not misting long enough giving her the option to walk into the mist she does not have the choice. So if she has something in the eye she does not have the ability to naturally clean it out.

I hope you got a fecal done on both chams prior because by switching them into each others enclosures you have just cross contaminated them both. If one or both has a parasite issue the other can now become infected. If she is dealing with an illness and that is the cause for the eye closing then you have now exposed the Jackson to her environment potentially contaminating him.

 

[ConfusedHornwormGuy]

Ok but I believe you are misunderstanding what @kinyonga was telling you. The lighting would have nothing to do with what is going on. UVB has nothing to do with Vitamin A deficiency.

Your herptivite does not have preformed A in it. So yes it could be a situation where she is vitamin A deficient. The only way to test that is to put her on something like repashy calcium plus LoD 2 times a month then use calcium without D3 at all other feedings. Repashy has D3 and vitamin A.

But the other thing is she does not have the ability to clean her eyes. Panthers IME like to do this. Even my Veiled will. By using a hand mister and not misting long enough giving her the option to walk into the mist she does not have the choice. So if she has something in the eye she does not have the ability to naturally clean it out.

I hope you got a fecal done on both chams prior because by switching them into each others enclosures you have just cross contaminated them both. If one or both has a parasite issue the other can now become infected. If she is dealing with an illness and that is the cause for the eye closing then you have now exposed the Jackson to her environment potentially contaminating him.

Well, noted on the bacterial thing. I don't believe it is bacterial though. I believe it is lighting and/or supplement related.

Since I bought my veiled and panther I've been doing the herpivite, I didn't notice it lacked the vitamin A in it so yeah you're probably right on the deficiency in the realm of vitamin a. I thought maybe she was vitamin a efficient because her lighting is really good. I think I'll swap them back, and my next feeding ill provide her with a calcium and vitamin a supplement that I have, I still need to address the lighting in my jacksons setup.

As far as fecal matter is concerned her droppings seem to be healthy, a well formed brown part, calcium and then urates

 

[Beman]

Well, noted on the bacterial thing. I don't believe it is bacterial though. I believe it is lighting and/or supplement related.

Since I bought my veiled and panther I've been doing the herpivite, I didn't notice it lacked the vitamin A in it so yeah you're probably right on the deficiency in the realm of vitamin a. I thought maybe she was vitamin a efficient because her lighting is really good. I think I'll swap them back, and my next feeding ill provide her with a calcium and vitamin a supplement that I have, I still need to address the lighting in my jacksons setup.

As far as fecal matter is concerned her droppings seem to be healthy, a well formed brown part, calcium and then urates

Ok so the only way UVB lighting can effect them is if they are far too close to a T5 bulb, wrong bulb strength, or too far away. Or if it is just the wrong lighting all together. It is then overexposure or underexposure. So with a T5 in a single bulb fixture with a 5.0 or 6% on top of the screen you want a 8-9 inch drop to basking. This puts them in the perfect exposure.

Their body naturally makes D3 through the D3 conversion cycle. This is complex and nothing I am going to try to explain here but the point to it is they do not produce more then what is needed. So this is why we only supplement with a supplement with D3 two times a month. It is the top off and insurance policy that they are getting what they need. While their body may not over produce it actually can under produce D3. So this is where the oral supplementation becomes the insurance policy. Since we can not see how their organ function is or if the conversion process is running perfectly.

Now you can not visually see that there is not a parasite issue. They can be low in numbers not causing major signs until the parasites go into over production then causing issues like appetite reduction, sluggishness, runny or smelly stool. So doing the visual check without ever getting a fecal done does not ensure anything.

As far as the Jackson. Yes, you need to buy a T5HO fixture and a 5.0 or 6% bulb. Basking again should be 8-9 inches to the branch with the fixture sitting directly on the screen, unless it is screen climbing the top. Without the proper UVB lighting you are risking major health issues. And this species is already more complex in its needs.

What is the calcium and vitamin supplement that you are going to use now? Not all supplements are created the same. It is important to know what your using and if it is ok.

 

[kinyonga]

You said..."Well, noted on the bacterial thing. I don't believe it is bacterial though. I believe it is lighting and/or supplement related"...the point is that by swapping them from one cage to the other without cleaning the cages and everything in them there could be bacteria in the cages that could transfer to the other chameleon whether it has to do with the eye or not. Some bacteria, etc will affect one chameleon and not another.

You said.."my next feeding ill provide her with a calcium and vitamin a supplement that I have"...what it th vitamin Ain the vitamin A supplement your talking about?

 

[ConfusedHornwormGuy]

You said..."Well, noted on the bacterial thing. I don't believe it is bacterial though. I believe it is lighting and/or supplement related"...the point is that by swapping them from one cage to the other without cleaning the cages and everything in them there could be bacteria in the cages that could transfer to the other chameleon whether it has to do with the eye or not. Some bacteria, etc will affect one chameleon and not another.

You said.."my next feeding ill provide her with a calcium and vitamin a supplement that I have"...what it th vitamin Ain the vitamin A supplement your talking about?

It's a vitamin a and calcium supplement, reptical

I understand what you're saying but it's too late for me to do anything about it now, like I already put them in one anothers enclosures so if there's a problem then yeah both of them will probably end up getting it.

But honestly I'm pretty sure she just is missing vitamin a, because she hasn't been getting any. Also she may have had something in her eye. I made sure she was looking at me and I sprayed a little water in her eye, I also did a long misting making sure she got some water in her eye, and she started rubbing her head against a branch on the sixe she had been keeping closed. Both of her eyes are open now and I'm not seeing her do the one eye thing. But yeah if other problems present themselves I'll take them to the vet cause at that point it would be beyond my control if it's parasites or bacteria.