Blind???

[Treyton]

I have a 6-8 month old female veild chameleon. Everything is exactly what it should be her light, supplements, cage, humidity everything is right on!! She was perfectly normal today and went to bed on time, about an hour of so after lights out she woke up and it is like she can't see, I gave her a shower and rinsed her eyes with saline , but when I dropped the saline on her eye it got stuck on the ledge so there was a bubble on her eye and it didn't even seem to both her. She moves her eyes around, and sucks them into clean them but 95% maybe even more they are open and moving around totally normal she is the exact same as always moving around normal everything it's just like she can't see. Could she have been slowly going blind and I just don't know??


Please help me!!! Has anyone heard of anything like this??I know everyone will say fill out ask for help but I have done a lot reading on here and everything is exactly right!! P

 

[yankfanthom]

I have a 6-8 month old female veild chameleon. Everything is exactly what it should be her light, supplements, cage, humidity everything is right on!! She was perfectly normal today and went to bed on time, about an hour of so after lights out she woke up and it is like she can't see, I gave her a shower and rinsed her eyes with saline , but when I dropped the saline on her eye it got stuck on the ledge so there was a bubble on her eye and it didn't even seem to both her. She moves her eyes around, and sucks them into clean them but 95% maybe even more they are open and moving around totally normal she is the exact same as always moving around normal everything it's just like she can't see. Could she have been slowly going blind and I just don't know??


Please help me!!! Has anyone heard of anything like this??I know everyone will say fill out ask for help but I have done a lot reading on here and everything is exactly right!! P

Take a small flashlight and she if she has any reaction when your look into her eye. I had a female that i received that was blind from day one and this is how I could tell.

 

[jannb]

What exactly is she doing that makes you think she's blind? Please post a few pictures of her.

 

[carol5208]

can she shoot her tongue at her food? If she can, then no way can she be blind.

 

[Draco1702]

can she shoot her tongue at her food? If she can, then no way can she be blind.

I agree - if she were blind she would be likely unable to feed. If only one of her eyes were blind, she might be able to shoot her tongue, though.

 

[carol5208]

I agree - if she were blind she would be likely unable to feed. If only one of her eyes were blind, she might be able to shoot her tongue, though.

this is true! She still would probably have bad aim though. If she can see the prey to shoot at it, even if she is off, then she is not completely blind.

 

[Carlton]

when I dropped the saline on her eye it got stuck on the ledge so there was a bubble on her eye and it didn't even seem to both her. it's just like she can't see. Could she have been slowly going blind and I just don't know??

The main reason we suggest rinsing eyes with saline is because it DOESN'T bother the cham as much as water would! This doesn't prove she is blind.

A simple way to check her vision. Let her perch calmly and test what she can see. Slowly move your hand toward her from the side. If she reacts and moves her eye to focus in on the movement she isn't blind.

 

[djfishygillz]

The main reason we suggest rinsing eyes with saline is because it DOESN'T bother the cham as much as water would! This doesn't prove she is blind.

A simple way to check her vision. Let her perch calmly and test what she can see. Slowly move your hand toward her from the side. If she reacts and moves her eye to focus in on the movement she isn't blind.

I would second this sounds like an easy way to do it...

 

[flyty808]

i have a cham who is blind. when i first got him he had slight mbd and uri and he had one blind eye and the other was bad.. i took him to the vet and we have helped his uri and his mbd is all fixed up but now he cant see out of either eye. i know this cause ive tested it with moving near him and the vet said that he is blind too. now i force feed him crickets every other day and some times he stops drinking so i have to use an syringe but for the most part he fumbles his way around the cage and drinks just fine. but i have to upset him to get him to open his mouth to feed him. when he had one eye it was easy to feed him he would open his mouth and stick his tong out like 2 in when he saw me cause he knew i would put a cricket in his mouth. the point of my story is he has been living with his handy cap(being blind) for about 10 months now. so blind chams can survive it just takes alot of help and some padding for when they fall

 

[Draco1702]

i have a cham who is blind. when i first got him he had slight mbd and uri and he had one blind eye and the other was bad.. i took him to the vet and we have helped his uri and his mbd is all fixed up but now he cant see out of either eye. i know this cause ive tested it with moving near him and the vet said that he is blind too. now i force feed him crickets every other day and some times he stops drinking so i have to use an syringe but for the most part he fumbles his way around the cage and drinks just fine. but i have to upset him to get him to open his mouth to feed him. when he had one eye it was easy to feed him he would open his mouth and stick his tong out like 2 in when he saw me cause he knew i would put a cricket in his mouth. the point of my story is he has been living with his handy cap(being blind) for about 10 months now. so blind chams can survive it just takes alot of help and some padding for when they fall

Hi Flyty, first of all, your blind chameleon is lucky to have such a dedicated owner!

I have a one-eyed chameleon and he does not eat by himself at all, so I have to hand feed him... I used to try everything to upset him so he would open his mouth... it was not easy or fun, as I am sure you have learned. After a while, I read somewhere that they can be trained to eat off your hand in a classic Pavlovian way... just teach them how to recognize the "food" sign. For instance, I tap his lip with a feeder a few times, at which point he opens his mouth. At that point I let him "explore" the feeder with his tongue. Generally he will start eating without problems. A major advantage of this approach is that you are not shoving feeders in the cham's mouth, but simply let the chameleon know they are within reach and he does the rest.