Eye Help please!

[Miss Lily]

Well, I decided that I would go down the saline rinsing and shower methods first. Had trouble getting just plain saline solution, so, 4 chemists later I found exactly what I was looking for. It super easy to get in the right place too, but I am not sure Amy is quite so thrilled! She doesn't like showers as it is, bless her. She just sat wrapped in a towel on my lap with her eyes closed for a while after. She really isn't impressed with all this watering of her eyes. Her eyes actually seem worse now after doing that, but she did do her eye cleaning a lot while she was being showered. Having had enough frustration trying to get saline solution, I will try asking for Polysporin tomorrow, but I expect that will just draw even more blank and confused looks from the chemists than the saline did. Sometimes I hate living in the UK, even moreso this stupid little Island.

The saline was a pack of 5 plastic vials each containing 20ml and they cost me £2.70. The bottoms are square so I can stand it on end by her cage and frequently rinse her eyes throughout the day.

 

[pssh]

Maybe I missed it, but did you say which multivitamin you use? You may want to look into offering a small amount of preformed vit A (a search will help.) I've spoken to a woman whose chameleon got better after a little preformed (not beta carotene) vitamin A was given to it. She said that her chameleon's eyes were swollen and kept closing them too.

 

[ChameleonFan1989]

Does the swollen area feel hardish? I know my Chameleon that passed had an aggressive eye abcess that wouldn't go away with loads of treatment. Not saying your cham will have the same experience mine did, but abcesses seem common.

 

[Miss Lily]

Maybe I missed it, but did you say which multivitamin you use? You may want to look into offering a small amount of preformed vit A (a search will help.) I've spoken to a woman whose chameleon got better after a little preformed (not beta carotene) vitamin A was given to it. She said that her chameleon's eyes were swollen and kept closing them too.

I use Reptivite (both with and without D3) and plain calcium. Might be worth trying some Vit A - any idea where I would get it? Is it a liquid? Might have to buy online, as I had enough trouble getting the saline solution today!

Does the swollen area feel hardish? I know my Chameleon that passed had an aggressive eye abcess that wouldn't go away with loads of treatment. Not saying your cham will have the same experience mine did, but abcesses seem common.

No they are not hard at all. The bulges are quite squishy and disappear somewhere when touched, almost like a blister on our skin. She also has some gular edema today too.

 

[Hoj]

hey tiff i haveent been around much last few days sorry to see you are still haveing issues, i use vit a capsols sometimes,they are the kind you get for humans usually 1000iu per capsole,
i put a TINY ammount on the back of a feeder with a toothpic, just enough to see a shine on a small spot on the feeder, IMO

 

[Miss Lily]

Update

Well, this morning her eyes were more swollen and she was just resting her head on the vine with her eyes closed. I had to take her to the vet anyway, knowing that the reptile vet wasn't there. We saw a lovely young lady vet who though Amy was wonderful! She even took a photo of her, lol! Only trouble was when I got to the vet a the swelling had gone! I thinkit is much more obvious when she is in her viv and relaxed. Taking her out just causeds her to tense up and sukc everything in.

In the end, it was agreed to give Amy a shot of Baytril and the vet would try and contact the reptile vet and ask his advice and get back to me. I am now waiting to hear back from them about what we do next. I am carrying on with the showers twice daily as well as the mistings as usual and I am frequently rinsing her eye with the saline solution. A few people have suggested Vit A, but how do I know if she is under or overdosed with it at the moment? Do overdose/underdose present the same symptoms? I did mention vit A but as I said she has that in her dusting powder, no more was said.

 

[HerbsForMyChameleon]

Well, this morning her eyes were more swollen and she was just resting her head on the vine with her eyes closed. I had to take her to the vet anyway, knowing that the reptile vet wasn't there. We saw a lovely young lady vet who though Amy was wonderful! She even took a photo of her, lol! Only trouble was when I got to the vet a the swelling had gone! I thinkit is much more obvious when she is in her viv and relaxed. Taking her out just causeds her to tense up and sukc everything in.

In the end, it was agreed to give Amy a shot of Baytril and the vet would try and contact the reptile vet and ask his advice and get back to me. I am now waiting to hear back from them about what we do next. I am carrying on with the showers twice daily as well as the mistings as usual and I am frequently rinsing her eye with the saline solution. A few people have suggested Vit A, but how do I know if she is under or overdosed with it at the moment? Do overdose/underdose present the same symptoms? I did mention vit A but as I said she has that in her dusting powder, no more was said.

I acctually just went to the vet for similar eye problems and my vet informed me that when some faulty scientific studies were done on reptile they found that too much vit A could kill.. so most powders for reptiles now of days rarely use vit A and more likely have a small amount of the precursor beta-carotene. but this is his information. someone else here might know more about it. it does seem alot of chams on here are getting eye problems..

 

[Canny Chams]

There is alot of people who say that some chams cant convert beta carotene to vitamin A, including me. I have had a vitamin A defitincy in my collection on a cham that was being properly supplemented with beta carotene, Use calcium plus, by repashy, the ammounts in it allow for it to be a daily supplement while still containing vit A and D3, just dust with it daily and if it is a vit a problem it should get better

 

[justjumpit621]

they will probably have to asperate it and see what to do, they had to run a culture on molly's eyes to see what antibiotic to use. It definitely looks like an eye infection to me.

 

[Miss Lily]

update

Thanks everyone for your input, much appreciated.

Well, I had a phone call on Friday from the vet that we saw, and after speaking to our usual vet Amy was prescribed Chloramphenicol eye drops (don't forget we are in the UK and can't always get what you guys in the States can get). We are giving her one drop in each eye twice a day. So far things haven't improved, in fact she looks worse again today. It looks bad enough to me, goodness knows how awful it feels for her. She closes her eyes a lot, but that is understandable as the eyes are constantly moving when they are open and it must cause a lot of discomfort for her to have them open and moving constantly.

I also gave her a couple of tiny drops of cod liver oil today too and will shower her again this afternoon to encourage her to clean her eyes. Not sure if that is the best thing though, it must hurt her to keep moving them. I am going back to the vets tomorrow. Here is a new pic that I took about an hour ago. My poor baby, I hate to see her like this. It makes me cringe inside knowing how uncomfortable she must feel.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

they will probably have to asperate it and see what to do, they had to run a culture on molly's eyes to see what antibiotic to use. It definitely looks like an eye infection to me.

I agree. Poor Amy

 

[pssh]

Poor Amy!

As others have said, some people think that they cannot convert beta carotene into a preformed vit A. Beta carotene is a proformed version, so supplementing a small amount of preformed version can help (the kind you find at a store for humans.) Like hoj said, a small teeny-tiny drop using a toothpick is what you want to do. Another member I was talking to recommended doing it for a few days to see if it would help.

 

[Miss Lily]

So, could the eye infection be secondary to her Pneumonia?

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Maybe? Maybe not. Not an obvious link, but a possible one.

 

[pssh]

Did you try reptaid? I had a female with a nasty case of mouth rot that just kept coming back every few months until I used the reptaid.

 

[Miss Lily]

No. I haven't tried Reptaid yet, in fact I am not sure if you can get that over here. When Lily was poorly I could only get Critica Care Formula and I didnt even get chance to open it before she died. I can add Reptaid to the list of things to try, but if she does have a problem with her Nasolacrimal duct then it will be a vet case anyway. I am taking her in tomorrow - it may take a while to talk through everything!

Edit - whilst searching online, I remembered I have some AviPro Plus that I used in the cresties' drinking water when they had worms. http://www.internetreptile.com/vetark-avipro-plus-100g-4352-p.asp

 

[pssh]

It might be worth it to ask if they ship to the UK. http://www.reptaid.com/ It's good to have around anyways. It's lasts forever when it hasn't been opened yet!


butterworms.co.uk sell it too.

edit: check here, there's a UK seller:
http://www.reptaid.com/2retailers2.html

 

[Miss Lily]

Thank you Kara - I have used Butterworms several times before for livefood. They are also known as Lizard Lunch.

Edit - just checked their site and they are out of stock and also offline until 11th March! Typical! I will keep searching!

 

[KatCham]

Tiff I can't believe the similarities in Amy and simbas eyes ( when he was bad) his right eye was worse than the left too!
As u know I was given a combination antibiotic/steroid drops for him and was told to sterilise everything in the cage! I even bought a new mister bottle!
Couldn't get food into him so mustn't have been a vitamin thing. More than likely an infection or reaction to something. He still occasionally gets the saggy skin but his eyes haven't ballooned up again touch wood.
Let us know how it goes at the vets!
I couldn't believe it when I saw the pics of Amy then u said they went back to normal out of the cage! That's exactly what happened with simba!!!
Fingers crossed Amy gets better soon!
I'd be interested in that paper too! Intriguing!
Thinking of u n Amy hun!
Xxxxxxx

 

[Miss Lily]

I forwarded the paper to my vet along with photos. He wasn't there this morning (only found out after I took her in) and had to take her back this afternoon. Poor baby, I'm not sure how much more she can take, bless her. He had seen the photo I emailed (as usual the large swellings had gone down a lot by the time we got to the vets) and agreed to take her in and flush her eyes. It's the worst feeling in the world leaving her at the vets. I am well aware that I may have just said my last goodbye.