Eye insight and tale question.

[sonia]

Chameleon Info:

Your Chameleon - Panther chameleon, Male, approx 10 months old. I've had him since late November/December

Handling - I dont handle him. He wants nothing to do with me. And I see no reason to stress him out.

Feeding - I currently feed him the small meal worms, crickets were getting out. I will pick up a few wax worms now and then.

Supplements- daily the bugs are dusted with repti-calcium without d3. Once ever other week I use a repti-calcium with d3, and every other week I use a multi vitamin. When I use the other two, I do not use the calcium without d3 on top of these. Just use the one supplement daily.

Watering - I have an auto mister that mists for a short seconds once every hour. I do not see him drink, but I don't stare at the cage often. I only just saw him eating for the first time in an easy 2 months. However he is eating, the bowl is often empty or with a few leftovers.

Fecal Description - no parasite testing done, decals look normal.

History - nothing I can think of.

Cage Info:

Cage Type - glass door, mesh sides, home built. Dimensions is 3.5 ft tall, and then 2ft wide and 2 ft deep. Home made cage.

Lighting - he has both a heat lamp and a uvb bulb. They are in a schedule of 12 on and 12 off.

Temperature - house at night sits around 68, been a bit since I've measured in his cage to be completely honest, but I see him bask and sometimes i see him sitting elsewhere.

Humidity - with the misting system going off every hour.

Plants - no live. Fake. I did have a large fake in there, but I'm concerned maybe it been collecting water and fecal maybe giving him an infection that could be the cause. I've taken it out today. So will go get some more vines and a few smaller branches leaves to give him some privacy and hiding/comfort ect.

Placement - cage is in the living room, by the entrance so it does get passed after, but on the side we pass I have a large indoor fake tree to give the illusion of more dense forestry and not always seeing us walk by. Top of the cage measures roughly 5 ft 4 inches from the ground

Location - Canada, Ontario

Current Problem is similar to a past problem. You can read below my concern. His eye. He keeps is pretty much shut almost all the time. Mainly the right eye. He will close his left but not nearly as often.
After my last report on here I did make a vet appointment somewhere who did have experience with reptiles and exotic animals. They took blood work and flushed his eye. Said they didnt seem to see any issues. And his eye was fine for a while after. But now for about a month I'm noticing him keeping it shut.

Also curious about the end of his body, beginning if his tale. Seems too 'fat' persay.

I'm happy to visit the vet again, but wonder if I should go elsewhere as the last visit they didn't seem to see any issues however were back to a shut eye.

Any insight?

(This is from emd of April 2019)I'm concerned about his eye. The other day, last week it was bubbling essentially. I found a link on here to a YouTube video showing exactly the same thing, commenting that he is likely cleaning it. However today I'm noting he wknr open it really and I cant see the black eye, it's weird, and for the 5 minutes I stared at him, he was trying to do the cleaning action persay. I'm also noticing his tale looks bulky/swollen by the end of his body. Not sure if I'm thinking too much into it for that? Please see pictures above.

 

[JacksJill]

I don't know what to tell you about the eye but the base of his tail is easy. That's where his male reproductive organs are stored. That creates a bulge at the tail base.
I'm more concerned about the way the rest of his tail looks. Has it always been kinked like that or is that a new development.

Does he have proper lighting? What lights are you using?

 

[sonia]

I did make mention of his lighting in the full description above.

As for his tail, it's been like that for quite some time. I'm not sure how it happened.

 

[JacksJill]

What kind of UVB? If it is the coiled kind or compact florescent instead of a linear T5 florescent it may not be meeting his UVB needs.

 

[sonia]

It's a coiled lightbulb.

 

[JacksJill]

You have a nice large cage and that tiny coiled bulb doesn't penetrate very deep into the cage or cover much of an area. I would recommend switching to a linear T5 bulb and fixture for good coverage it should be close to the width of the top of your cage.
Your guy's eye health could benefit from a multi vitamin with Vitamin A as retinol. Check yours to see if it has retinol vs just beta carotene as a source of A.

 

[Lennoncham]

Don’t feed mealworms they have basically no nutritional value and can’t be gutloaded very well. Nutrition plays a big role in eye health.

Did the vet do a swab to test for bacteria?

 

[Herpcentric]

I agree with @Lennoncham. I made the mistake of feeding my girl panther mealworms along with crickets the first week i got her and she gained a little weight! Mealworms/waxworks/superworms in general should be only given as a treat maybe once weekly, twice TOPS if you give 1-2 worms those feedings even then I wouldn’t advise too many squirmy worms!

As for the crickets, them getting out is nothing new. Did you have a small tote or something you housed them in or did you drop them into the bottom of his cage and let him have at?