Eye Problem is reoccuring and worsened, awaiting vet appointment, need input.

[ChamChiefin]

Hello,
Recently I moved my Panther Chameleon to a new cage and not even a week later i notice his one eye is closed shut so i do some research and give him a few thorough showers/spray downs and his eye opens up and is working perfectly. A few days pass by and then i catch my chameleon rubbing his eyes on the cage and I am assuming the bulge in his eye comes from attempting to wash debris from his eye. About a couple of days after that I notice that his eye balls are starting to sink from his straight line of vision and i began to notice something building up under his eye lid. His vision is suffering because I noticed him completely missing his food. I attached some photos and there are not the best because my chameleon was attempting to sleep while the photos were taken but his eyes do not open up much more than what is shown in the photos. Please help me get some type of clue to the cause of this before i go into the vets I care about him very much.

 

[Carlton]

Poor guy. Definitely get him to a vet. He may be able to detect an injury or inflammation with a scope while you can't as well.

 

[lojack13]

Your vet should definitely be able to figure this one out fairly easy. If he is still eating and drinking well than I would not worry too much, but get him to a doc ASAP. My male panther had a large bulge in his eye a month ago and it turned out to just be debris built up under his lid, but this looks far different from that. I am no vet, but I'd say it may be an infection. Either infection or just trauma, I am sure your vet will prescribe some anti-inflammatory eye-drops and possibly some eye-drops to treat an infection if he/she diagnosis one.

 

[Carlton]

Your vet should definitely be able to figure this one out fairly easy. If he is still eating and drinking well than I would not worry too much, but get him to a doc ASAP. My male panther had a large bulge in his eye a month ago and it turned out to just be debris built up under his lid, but this looks far different from that. I am no vet, but I'd say it may be an infection. Either infection or just trauma, I am sure your vet will prescribe some anti-inflammatory eye-drops and possibly some eye-drops to treat an infection if he/she diagnosis one.

Um, sorry I would be worrying. Eyes can be damaged permanently fairly easily and he's obviously in discomfort. Not all vets are equally experienced with herps, and if they don't make some attempt to culture and determine the active bacteria you could go through several useless treatments. Not fun for anyone.

 

[lojack13]

Um, sorry I would be worrying. Eyes can be damaged permanently fairly easily and he's obviously in discomfort. Not all vets are equally experienced with herps, and if they don't make some attempt to culture and determine the active bacteria you could go through several useless treatments. Not fun for anyone.

When I said I would not be worried I was trying to calm the situation. They mentioned the Cham was eating, albeit with trouble because of the eye issue, but eating just the same. Had they said they were not eating, the situation would have taken on a more dire scenario. No good comes out of getting yourself worked up into a frenzy over health issues. I think we can all agree he needs a vet now, my intent was not to sugar coat the situation. It's just that when you get stressed, it makes you check on your Cham every 2 minutes, which only stresses THEM out all the more, not good for you or your Cham.

 

[mindowzzz]

I had my 3 month old cham with eye problem as well. I would not wait and get him some antibiotic eye ointment, like terramicyn or tobramycin (not solution but ointment). If he has problems eating, assist him or feed him liquid reptiboost if he is getting weak. Good luck

 

[Lovereps]

Are you sure his new plants are cham-safe plants?
Is there possibly any accumulated water beneath a plant or elsewhere --like a wet substrate or towel-- that is harboring bacteria or molds? A blocked cage drain?
Does he have new UV bulbs? Are they too strong (such as 10.0 rather than 5.0)?
The move to a new cage and the eye problem occurring might be coincidental but I suspect not.
Regardless, it's a good time to take a careful look at his care and see if anything is amiss.

In case you are interested in a bunch of eye info while you await the vet visit, below is the text of an earlier post of mine. I hope his vet visit is this week, as his eyes both look irritated to me.

"Eye issues are fairly common cham troubles and can be caused by any of several things:
1) Infection, which can be due to injury, environmental issues, nutritional deficiencies or parasite problems
2) Malnutrition which can be caused by failing to gutload feeders or failure to feed a varied diet, improper supplementation, parasites or simply a higher need for a particular nutrient in an individual chameleon
3) Irritation--sometimes a cham's eye is irritated by something in their environment, such as too little humidity, sap from a plant or a bit of something getting into the eye (shed skin, soil particle, etc.)

The first 2 problems are best treated by a vet.
It is important is to carefully review your care, whenever a health issue arises, as even infections are often caused by environmental issues.

For the third problem, gentle, repeated flushing of a cham's eye with a sterile saline solution designed for use in eyes will typically clear things up, but if there isn't substantial improvement within a day or two, it's time to see a vet.
FWIW, I've used this one http://www.bausch.com/en/Our-Product...es-Plus-Saline
It goes without saying that if there is something in your cham's environment that caused the irritation, it should be remedied.

Vitamin A treatment at home can easily do more harm than good because too much vitamin A damages the liver/kidneys, as well as doing other undesirable things.
The safest way for a corrective dose of vitamin A to be administered is by an experienced reptile vet--who will inject a measured dose of vitamin A.

The danger of simply trying this or that is possibly fixing the problem only accidentally and temporarily--or in the worst instance, delaying necessary vet treatment until permanent damage is done.

Here are 3 more posts about eye troubles and other health issues:
http://seavs.com/lizards/chameleons.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs...ns-rev1-1.html
Eye problem...

 

[ChamChiefin]

follow up

Well i took my cham to the vet today and found out that he has an eye infection. The vet prescribed drops to put in his eyes. Two drops each in both eyes twice daily. I was just wondering if dripping them into his eye like you would a human is effective and that i am not doing anything wrong. seems simple enough, but you never know. Also is there any other things that could aid in his recovery or make him more comfortable? I can post the exact name and other info for what the vet prescribed if anyone is interested.

 

[Lovereps]

Good thing you got him to the vet.
Did he just prescribe eyedrops or is he on an oral antibiotic, too?
Chams really are awful patients
I found it easiest to hold my uncooperative cham on its side and carefully place the drop on the slit in the middle of his eyelids, and keep him that way until he opens the eye, so the drop goes right into the eye as soon as he opens it.
Maybe your cham won't be as much of a pain as mine and will allow you to drip the drops right in.
A careful review of your husbandry to see what, if anything, seems likely to have caused the problem is always good.
Making sure that everything in his environment and feeders is spot on certainly won't hurt.