Eyes almost always closed! Concerned!

HMills94

New Member
* Your Chameleon - Male, Veiled chameleon, 4-5 months old, In my care about 1 1/2 months.
* Handling - Take him out a few times a week just to set him on his plant.
* Feeding - Crickets, mealworms, wax worms gut loaded with Flukers high calcium feeder food. He eats 4-5 crickets a day or 5-6 mealworms.
* Supplements - I dust with Zoo Med repti calcium without d3 every time, then twice a month he gets Rep-Cal herptivite multivitamins and Rep-Cal calcium with d3
* Watering - I use a pressurized mister on him a few me times a day and he has a little dripper thats on most of the day. When I take him out on his pothos plant I mist him there too and see him drink water pretty often.
* Fecal Description - Never had poop tested but it's solid with white urate and looks quite normal for reptile poopie
* History - Got him from petco unfortunately -.- and also got a ton of wrong info from the people there. He initially got a small burn in his side but I've been using silvadene cream on him nothing major.

Cage Info:
* Cage Type - Reptibreeze 18x18x36 all screen, no substrate
* Lighting - Zoo med double mini deep dome light fixture with 5.0 reptisun compact bulb and daylight blue 60w bulb. He's on a 12 hrs on 12 hrs off schedule. I put I blanket over part of his cage when he sleeps so my tv doesn't bother him.
* Temperature - I have a digital zoo med thermometer that I put in various places throughout his cage every so often, basking spot temp 90-100, the rest of his cage stays any where from 65 to 85 depending on what height in the cage. The coldest my room gets is 60 maybe.
* Humidity - My humidity gauge is somewhat crappy its zoo med and it's not digital, also it's lower in the cage than I'd like. I feel like I don't really get an accurate reading from it, it claims the humidity is around 70 but I really doubt it. I'd say my guess would be anywhere from 40-70 I try to mist very often.
* Plants - There is a large pothtos plant in his cage as well as a lot of fake vines and other fake plants at the top.
* Placement - In my room I have a ceiling fan I run quite often he's away from my window. His cage is sitting on plastic milk crates stacked 2 high so I'd say at about thigh high is the height of the table.
* Location - San Diego, California. This is why I'm somewhat worried about humidity, but plus side plenty of natural sun.

Current Problem - So he was coughing, we took him to the vet and they gave us antibiotic injections for RI (which breaks my heart every time I have to do it) so this was on Thursday, I've only given him his second shot so far but the problem is for the last few days he almost constantly has his eyes closed. He is a happy color and still eats and drinks, but he rubs his eyes a lot more than normal. Also does a weird smooshy eye thing where he kinda pops one or the other out and kinda rolls it around then it goes back to normal.

He also does seem a bit lethargic not a lot though, and I was just wondering is this something to do with the antibiotics or maybe the humidity. I took him and got his meds on Thursday it is now Sunday and I don't want to keep stressing him out by taking him back to the vet again to be poked at. Please help I am worried about my little guy :/ Do u think the antibiotics he's on now might fix the eye thing too? Or what do u think is up with his eyes?

Thanks
I attached a pic of his closed eye and an open one
 

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* Your Chameleon - Male, Veiled chameleon, 4-5 months old, In my care about 1 1/2 months.
* Handling - Take him out a few times a week just to set him on his plant.
* Feeding - Crickets, mealworms, wax worms gut loaded with Flukers high calcium feeder food. He eats 4-5 crickets a day or 5-6 mealworms.
* Supplements - I dust with Zoo Med repti calcium without d3 every time, then twice a month he gets Rep-Cal herptivite multivitamins and Rep-Cal calcium with d3
* Watering - I use a pressurized mister on him a few me times a day and he has a little dripper thats on most of the day. When I take him out on his pothos plant I mist him there too and see him drink water pretty often.
* Fecal Description - Never had poop tested but it's solid with white urate and looks quite normal for reptile poopie
* History - Got him from petco unfortunately -.- and also got a ton of wrong info from the people there. He initially got a small burn in his side but I've been using silvadene cream on him nothing major.

Cage Info:
* Cage Type - Reptibreeze 18x18x36 all screen, no substrate
* Lighting - Zoo med double mini deep dome light fixture with 5.0 reptisun compact bulb and daylight blue 60w bulb. He's on a 12 hrs on 12 hrs off schedule. I put I blanket over part of his cage when he sleeps so my tv doesn't bother him.
* Temperature - I have a digital zoo med thermometer that I put in various places throughout his cage every so often, basking spot temp 90-100, the rest of his cage stays any where from 65 to 85 depending on what height in the cage. The coldest my room gets is 60 maybe.
* Humidity - My humidity gauge is somewhat crappy its zoo med and it's not digital, also it's lower in the cage than I'd like. I feel like I don't really get an accurate reading from it, it claims the humidity is around 70 but I really doubt it. I'd say my guess would be anywhere from 40-70 I try to mist very often.
* Plants - There is a large pothtos plant in his cage as well as a lot of fake vines and other fake plants at the top.
* Placement - In my room I have a ceiling fan I run quite often he's away from my window. His cage is sitting on plastic milk crates stacked 2 high so I'd say at about thigh high is the height of the table.
* Location - San Diego, California. This is why I'm somewhat worried about humidity, but plus side plenty of natural sun.

Current Problem - So he was coughing, we took him to the vet and they gave us antibiotic injections for RI (which breaks my heart every time I have to do it) so this was on Thursday, I've only given him his second shot so far but the problem is for the last few days he almost constantly has his eyes closed. He is a happy color and still eats and drinks, but he rubs his eyes a lot more than normal. Also does a weird smooshy eye thing where he kinda pops one or the other out and kinda rolls it around then it goes back to normal.

He also does seem a bit lethargic not a lot though, and I was just wondering is this something to do with the antibiotics or maybe the humidity. I took him and got his meds on Thursday it is now Sunday and I don't want to keep stressing him out by taking him back to the vet again to be poked at. Please help I am worried about my little guy :/ Do u think the antibiotics he's on now might fix the eye thing too? Or what do u think is up with his eyes?

Thanks
I attached a pic of his closed eye and an open one


The "smooshy" movement that you are describing sounds to me like he is trying to clean his eyes. Chams usually clean their eyes during an extended misting session. I would try hand misting him for an extended period to see if that will help. Another option is to put him in the shower with indirect, luke warm water. In that case he should be on a plant with the water directed at the wall and then bouncing off onto the cham and plant.

Any word from the vet as to possible side effects for that antibiotic?
 
The "smooshy" movement that you are describing sounds to me like he is trying to clean his eyes. Chams usually clean their eyes during an extended misting session. I would try hand misting him for an extended period to see if that will help. Another option is to put him in the shower with indirect, luke warm water. In that case he should be on a plant with the water directed at the wall and then bouncing off onto the cham and plant.

Any word from the vet as to possible side effects for that antibiotic?
The vet didn't say anything about any side effects I should probably give her a call but I just misted him for a good couple minutes and he kept his eyes closed the whole time and he seemed like he didn't really like it :/ now he is basking with his eyes closed still. Idk I just want him to feel better :(
 
Could be a simple Vit A deficiency. It's very common. Tell me if this sounds familiar. Does he close his eye for periods of time. Anywhere from mins to hours. Then all of a sudden reopen it for a while. Then it happens all over again. This is a very common symptom. If it is a Vit A deficiency it's normally a quick fix. I do not visit this site daily so if you want to talk send me a pm.
 
If he is trying to clean his eyes and you are hand misting, you might want to try to boil some water in a kettle and then add some cold water to the misting bottle, then add the hot water, what you want to achieve is warm droplets that come out even far away. A lot of chameleons respond better to warm water mistings. If he's trying to clean his eyes I wouldn't think it would strongly be a vitamin A issue. But it could cause issues with cleaning eyes as well. A vet should be able to flush his eyes easily without anything but trying to hold him still and saline.
 
Somhes only had his eyes closed in the last couple of days since his vet visit?
What antibiotics are you using?
Does he drink well?
 
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