Eye closed after misting

[Dame of Thrones]

Hi again.

We gave Tillman a "shower" earlier and now his left eye is closed and he hasn't opened it yet. He's been rubbing his eye once in a while lately but the vet we took him to too said everything looked normal. Has anyone else experienced closed eyes after misting?

His lights went out now he's asleep but he did open it right before bed. Is that normal though?

EDITED TO ADD

Chameleon Info:

• Your Chameleon - Was tagged as a "Juvenile Veiled Chameleon". Male. Maybe 3 months?
  
• Handling - Since we upped the temperature he's a bit more hesitant to come onto our hands but he does and then climbs onto our heads. He doesn't stress about it either.
  
• Feeding - 6-9 medium crickets a day. He won't touch dubia roaches or waxworms.
  
• Supplements - Repti Calcium without D3 every feeding lightly dusted. With D3 twice a month and Multivitamin 2x a month
  
• Watering - The Little Dripper on all day. Misting 2x a day.
  
• Fecal Description - regular looking poo with a slightly yellow/white. We're working on keeping him hydrated.
  
• History - 3 weeks of ownership. He doesn't stress too much when we're around. He likes to climb up on the hubs' head.

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - Zoo Med medium mesh cage
  
• Lighting - Still waiting for T5 hood and 10.0 UVB light
  
• Temperature - Day temp: approx 76°, basking approx low 90°s, night temp goes to around 71°
  
• Humidity - Humidity 30-50%. Dripper and spraying cage 2x a day
  
• Plants - Money tree, fake plants, and vines. 3 rods to perch on across the length
  
• Placement - Cage middle of wall in warmer room of home
  
• Location - Southern California. Closer to mountain/desert region. Average temp 76° this week.

 

[Graves923]

Has he had his eye closed today at all?

How long are you misting for? You stated that you mist 2x per day with a dripper going all day. In my opinion, I dont think two misting sessions per day is enough unless they are long sprays.

 

[Decadancin]

It sounds like there could be some debris in the eye. I would try some longer misting sessions that may allow Tillman to work out whatever may be bothering him. How long are the misting sessions?

 

[Dame of Thrones]

It sounds like there could be some debris in the eye. I would try some longer misting sessions that may allow Tillman to work out whatever may be bothering him. How long are the misting sessions?

They were around 1-2 minutes. I was told to extend them to around 5 minutes long. We're going to do that tonight.

 

[Decadancin]

I would definitely extend them, at least temporarily. Hope it helps!

 

[Dame of Thrones]

I would definitely extend them, at least temporarily. Hope it helps!

Thanks! I appreciate the suggestion. Fingers crossed lil Tillman gets back to his happy, semi-grumpy self.

 

[Decadancin]

Hope so!

Just curious, where did the name come from? (If you don't mind me asking )

 

[Dame of Thrones]

Hope so!

Just curious, where did the name come from? (If you don't mind me asking )

He's my hubs' chameleon. When we first got him we were told he was a she. He wanted to name her Tilly. When I showed a pic on facebook and the spurs were explained to us, my hubs just said "oops. Looks like Tilly is a Tillman".

 

[Fiona's Mom]

Is that loose shed in two places on his side on the right side of the picture or bumps?

 

[GreenChameleons]

Looks like he’s dehydrated to me. The reason I say that is his eyes are slightly sunken in it might just be the picture but that from what I can tell. In my experience If you mist him with warm water NOT hot he will more than likely open his eye and if he starts cleaning his eye that’s a good sign which is rubbing it on a branch or or something along the lines of that. Personally I mist my chameleon several times a day with a misting system cooler days 3-5 times for a minute and a half each time. Then when I get home I mist for a long time for 5-10 minutes. Some do it differently that just how I mist mine and there will be somebody on here that will say otherwise I know and again that’s just how I ensure my chameleon is hydrated it’s just a suggestion. If all possible leave your Chameleon in a rain storm at least once a week or every other week and natural sunlight light is always best. Leave you chameleon in the sunlight for day if the temperature is right but if you do put it in the sunlight let it be a day that you can monitor it closely. Using a dropper like the person above said is a good addition to misting this way your chameleon can always drink when it thirsty at a drip a second is good on a leaf where it can see the water and where to go to get water. Some people say put a plant in the shower for 30 minutes but the problem with that is you don’t know what is in the water. If you decide to do this I would suggest testing your water to see what the city of where you live has in it. Some will say if it is safe for you to drink then it is okay for the chameleon but my take on it better safe than sorry. I hope this helps!

 

[Dame of Thrones]

Looks like he’s dehydrated to me. The reason I say that is his eyes are slightly sunken in it might just be the picture but that from what I can tell. In my experience If you mist him with warm water NOT hot he will more than likely open his eye and if he starts cleaning his eye that’s a good sign which is rubbing it on a branch or or something along the lines of that. Personally I mist my chameleon several times a day with a misting system cooler days 3-5 times for a minute and a half each time. Then when I get home I mist for a long time for 5-10 minutes. Some do it differently that just how I mist mine and there will be somebody on here that will say otherwise I know and again that’s just how I ensure my chameleon is hydrated it’s just a suggestion. If all possible leave your Chameleon in a rain storm at least once a week or every other week and natural sunlight light is always best. Leave you chameleon in the sunlight for day if the temperature is right but if you do put it in the sunlight let it be a day that you can monitor it closely. Using a dropper like the person above said is a good addition to misting this way your chameleon can always drink when it thirsty at a drip a second is good on a leaf where it can see the water and where to go to get water. Some people say put a plant in the shower for 30 minutes but the problem with that is you don’t know what is in the water. If you decide to do this I would suggest testing your water to see what the city of where you live has in it. Some will say if it is safe for you to drink then it is okay for the chameleon but my take on it better safe than sorry. I hope this helps!

Yeah we're struggling with the dehydration issue right now. We got him drinking and he looked good at his vet visit recently but now he's being stubborn about drinking again.
We haven't tried the warm water approach. Well do that tomorrow for his "shower". We mist him in the shower on a ficus plant. But we might switch to a pothos (sp?) plant as I've read that a ficus could cause an allergic type of reaction. And we use purified water.

When we got home today his right eye was closed and his left eye open. We misted him and he fell asleep like 5 minutes later! On my hand! Took me another 5 minutes to gently get him off and onto his branch. This was maybe 20 minutes before lights out.

I'm just super concerned because my hubs loves the lil guy. I swear...those lil buggers cost an arm and a leg and can be hell to keep healthy but they just curl their way into your heart.

 

[NickTide]

Doubt this is the issue but just throwing it out there.... is the water chlorinated? Is the water hard? You could try some deionized or distilled water and see if it clears up.

 

[Dame of Thrones]

Doubt this is the issue but just throwing it out there.... is the water chlorinated? Is the water hard? You could try some deionized or distilled water and see if it clears up.

I don't THINK it is. We use bottled water water, the purified kind. A local pet store told us that was okay.

 

[GreenChameleons]

Have you tried water conditioner reptisafe by zoo med it takes all the harmful things out of the water even things you wouldn’t think about

 

[GreenChameleons]

The thing about putting it in the shower is that it’s city water the idea is good but however you have no idea what they put in the water...a good real rain shower might just help your chameleon out once a week. Probably just has some crud in it’s eye just a thought

 

[Dame of Thrones]

The thing about putting it in the shower is that it’s city water the idea is good but however you have no idea what they put in the water...a good real rain shower might just help your chameleon out once a week. Probably just has some crud in it’s eye just a thought

My bad! I should have mentioned. We do the hand mister bottle when we "shower" him. The water quality is decent but not so much that I would trust using it on Tillman. We would love to give him an actual rain shower but we live in southern California. It's been like a year since we've seen an actual rainy day.

 

[GreenChameleons]

Okay the reptisafe water conditioner is good because it has a few vitamins in it and if you get on your hand you can really tell it has it really has a lot of lubercation for the sticky tongue of the chameleon. Another thing you could check out Bill Strand’s podcast the creator of Drangon Strand enclosures I just listened to one tonight good information! Another thing is you could figure out the real natural environment and replicate it as best you can. I’ve learned that if you do that the chameleon is healthier and doesn’t have many problems. Just be glad your species of chameleon doesn’t require cooler temperatures like a Jackson’s species. You might even try some vitamin E shed aid from zoo med or another brand it might help in for the eye issue and more frequently misting after spraying shed aid on your chameleon if I use shed aid I tend to mist a long time after it’s been applied with slightly warm water. Do you have a dripper? If you do you could let the dripper set right above him and set it to a drip at a drip a second they tend from my experience they usually don’t drink from misting unless they are under a leaf due to it getting in their eyes and can’t see where to get water sometimes. If you have a misting system that might help too. They can be pretty pricey but it will be worth it in the long run. Back to the natural environment of the Veiled species look at the temperature of the day and night temperatures on average on the weather channel online. Look up Yemen and Sandi Arabia that’s where the Veiled is Native to. The Vet didn’t say it has pink eye? Chameleons can get that type of infection or another type with some uvb/uva light bulbs sometimes or if it relieves itself and the fecies gets on a leaf or branch due to rubbing their eyes to clean them on branches. The reason I say check out the place where your chameleon is native to is the bacteria in its natural conditions is not as prominent and that goes for every species as well. Like for instance I have a Jackson’s species native temperature where it comes from is as low as 50 degrees at night with high humidity 80 plus at night as well. Daytime temperatures high around 75-85 degrees 85 degrees being very rare but it sometimes happens. Going high humidity at night and low temperatures keeps bracteria from growing. One question do you have a drainage system or something to keep the water from standing at the bottom? And here’s one way to get the relative humidity up is to let the enclosure dry in between mistings. I’m here to help anyway I can.

 

[kinyonga]

@Dame of Thrones ...is the chameleon still shutting it's eyes?
Could you post a few more photos of it and some of the cage please?
What UVB bulb were you using when this started?

@greenchamelons ..how long have you been keeping chameleons and what species have you kept?

 

[GreenChameleons]

@kinyonga 2 years I have kept chameleons researched various chameleon species 5 years before I started keeping them. I continue my research daily due to more information coming from people who study them in the wild. I keep only Jaskon’s chameleons as of right now. I would like to expand and start keeping Rudis chameleons when I can get ahold of a male and female. I like the live bearing species and where I live it’s easier to keep the the Jackson’s chameleons more like in mountainous regions of Kenya, Africa/Tanzania/mount meru etc. with cooler temperatures. At night I keep mine 80% humidity and the lowest temperature is 50 degrees. In the daytime I keep the basting spot at 82 degrees sustained and various temperatures on different levels as in ambient temperature ranges from 70-80degrees. The humidity is sustained at 50% in the daytime like in the wild misting with an misting system the temperature drops 10 degrees like it would in the wild when it rains. I changed the humidity from being 80% in the daytime to 50% because less potential bractria forming throughout the day. My enclosure is cleaned once a day and sterilized and with some animal safe cleaner and after treated I wash it down again before putting the chameleons back in the enclosure. I’m not sure what you are implying when you ask me how long and what species do I keep @kinyonga?

 

[Dame of Thrones]

@Dame of Thrones ...is the chameleon still shutting it's eyes?
Could you post a few more photos of it and some of the cage please?
What UVB bulb were you using when this started?

As of right now, he's opening them both most of the day. But sometimes he will have his right eye closed. Before it was his left. He hasn't lost his appetite (which is one thing we had heard to keep an eye on). And when his enclosure gets misted, he is rotating his eyes around in the socket.

I will try and get some updated photos of him when I get home tonight. He jsust got a cage upgrade (from a medium to an XL [unintentional on that size, the shop guy sold us the XL cage at the L cage price. ]).

When we first got him, he had the coiled 10.0 UVB bulb that came with the starter kit. That was for maybe 3 weeks? Now he's on the linear bulb.

Is that loose shed in two places on his side on the right side of the picture or bumps?

My apologies on completely missing your question! I feel so rude now. I took his photo with my crappy camera phone, so those are actually his white side markings.