Bowser and his Eyes...

SycoSquirl

Member
Chameleon Info:

  • Your Chameleon - panther, male, hatch day was 4-17-14. Had him since sept 30 2014?
  • Handling – I hardly ever handle him because he would fight me getting him out and I didn’t want to stress him, now I can easily scoop him out for his medication
  • Feeding – Lately superworms and crickets, during the summer I get hornworms and silkworms and stick bugs for special occassion? I put in around 2-3 superworms and about 5-6 crickets a day or two depending on what he eats? No schedule and as for gutloading I haven’t been good at that part either
  • Supplements – I dust with calcium w/o d3 everyday and then Sundays I either dust with calcium with d3 or herptivite
  • Watering – I have an aquazamp low profile rain dome (2 heads) it goes off about 3-4 times a day for 2-3 minutes a piece; I will catch him drinking here and there
  • Fecal Description – Seemed normal to me, haven’t seen urate but his water system malfunctioned while he was staying at the vet so ive been doing extra waterings to get him re-hydrated

Cage Info:

  • Cage Type – reptibreze 24x24x48
  • Lighting – tropic blaze, 24” quad bulb with 1 plant bulb and 1 12% uvb, lights on about 6:40 am and lights off by 6:30 pm (going off a relative light cycle of here in NM since his cage is next to my living room window
  • Temperature – basking is between 82-90 degrees F depending on the heater in my apt, bottom stays around middle 70s either way, I measure this with 2 temp gauges inside the cage, one near the bottom and one wrapped around his basking branch (night temps range between 70-78)
  • Humidity – between 50-70% during the day, sometimes will drop to about 40% depending on the heater usage but I measure this with a guage inside the cage along one of the walls (also have 3-4 sides covered in shower curtain about 80% up the cage walls, tops are free and front door panel is free)
  • Plants – I have 3 umbrella plants and 4 pothos plants (all plants have rocks covering the dirt)
  • Placement – my cage is located in my living room, in front of my main window (the only window/place I could fit him), it is near the doorway entrance but I hardly ever leave or do much in my apt and never have guests over while he is awake so location hasn’t been a problem, the top of the cage is about 76 inches from the floor
  • Location - Albuquerque, NM
  • Medications - amikacin 50mg/ml(3rd, also administered at same time as first medication), smz/tmp .05 ml daily(2nd?), baytril 100mg/ml(1st)

Current Problem – Background: I have been taking him to the vet for a bit under a year now for an eye problem; he would scratch his eyes often and not use them so I took him in for a check up to find the next day his one eye that they “treated” was super swollen and even worse than before the vet. We performed one eye surgery and cleared out some gunk but they weren’t too concerned with it, a few months later the situation hasn’t changed so they went in for a second eye surgery in which they found an infection (black solid stuff) which they sent out for testing, it came back as Pseudomonas Aeruginosa. He recently had his 3rd eye surgery in which the results were no pus/sign of infection but the eye was filled up with a clear fluid. They think scar tissue is keeping something from draining because the eye started to fill up again soon after. They don’t want to do anything else with the eye but they suggested using eye drops on both eyes.

Current: He is not using his “good” eye at all, he scratches at his bad eye, I cant get him to eat, but I have seen him attempting to drink. Any help with what to do about his eyes please help, im really worried about him being blind the rest of his life and he isn’t even 2 years old. What is most worrisome is that he isn’t eating, ive tried to get him to hand feed from me but it just wont work, he is too scared and sick, he doesn’t even fight me anymore. So how can I get him to eat? Do I need to puree his food and syringe feed him? I really don’t want to lose yet another chameleon because he means so much to me. Any and all help will be very appreciated, anything I can do to make his life better and keep him alive in a way that isn’t making him suffer even more than he already has. I haven’t seen his normal colors in months and id love to see his greens and blues again
 
That's already a heavy medication schedule. make sure you keep him very well hydrated or it (especially the baytril) will wreak havoc on his liver and kidneys. All that medication is likely inhibiting his appetite. The most important thing is for him to get the fluids he needs and hope that the medication can kill the infection. Mix pedialyte with water and make an effort to get him to drink with a syringe or baster several times a day. that will be the most important thing.
 
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here are a couple of photos from a few months ago, ive been monitoring him very well simce i got him home on his water intake. Right now he is only on cmpd cirofloxacin (about .25 ml every other day) should i try pureeing some food for him and give it to him with the medication at the same time??
 
There's a small area on his mouth that looks like it might be infected to me. If so, it might be part of the problem and needs to be cleaned out. Chameleon pus is like cottage cheese and isn't penetrated by antibiotics.
Pseudamonas aeruginosa is difficult to get rid of. did the vet do a culture and sensitivity test?

When his mouth is opening and shutting while he's drinking, try sticking an insect BETWEEN his teeth to get him to eat.
 
The vet did a bunch of tests on him and the substances pulled from his eye both times, they haven't said anything about his mouth but I've noticed it's not so great either. As for the feeding I tried putting a superworm in his mouth (they are his favorite, surprise surprise) and he bit down once and spit it out again. Here are a couple of pictures from today image.jpeg image.jpeg
 
Will do! I'm calling them tomorrow anyways due to this weird thing from his butt area. I'll have them take a look at his mouth as well image.jpeg
 
update from the vet: unsure of what came out of his butt but isnt concerned after removal, she did think increased watering will help it out. Also she does agree that his mouth wasnt looking right and that it was probably infected, she prescribed a new oral prescription along with an oral medication. his oral medication had some extra protein added to it and she told me the medication itself has slight appetite increase as well so hoping it starts to work out for him
 
Did the vet clean the infected area of the mouth out and do a culture and sensitivity test?
The thing in the butt was a sperm plug.
I agree that the increased watering would help the chameleon .
 
Did the vet clean the infected area of the mouth out and do a culture and sensitivity test?
The thing in the butt was a sperm plug.
I agree that the increased watering would help the chameleon .
No she didn't take a culture and sensitivity test... She wet some q-tips and wiped at it a bit and gave me the oral gel to put on once a week. Is it common to have the sperm plug stick out like that? I've always seen his as a white soft like substance that eventually hardens white and this was always brown
 
As far as the stuff coming out of his cloaca, I'd bet that with all of that medication, it has some sort of side-effect and with him not eating, he might not have much excrement to excrete and just a kind of ooze?

Hope your little guy gets better though. Can't imagine what he's going through with not being able to see.
 
So i've tried everything I could think of to get him to eat, does anyone have any ideas on how to get food into him? Like is there a recipe or something to making a liquid diet for chameleons?
 
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