HELP - possible eye infection??

[Yoshi13]

Hi everyone,

Yesterday my fiancé noticed what looks like a possible eye infection. We have made a vet appointment for him but the earliest they had with their reptile specialist was Monday. Any info or opinions on what this is/what we can do would be greatly appreciated.

I have read different opinions on cleaning the eye socket with warm saline, also using warm saline on a Q tip or foam applicator. We aren't sure what approach to take. We did give him a long, warm shower and what appeared to be a little bit of leftover shed came off but the puffy and greyish area you can see in the socket looks the same. Last shed was May 16.

Again, thanks so much for any information to help us treat our little guy!

 

[Yoshi13]

Hi everyone,

Yesterday my fiancé noticed what looks like a possible eye infection. We have made a vet appointment for him but the earliest they had with their reptile specialist was Monday. Any info or opinions on what this is/what we can do would be greatly appreciated.

I have read different opinions on cleaning the eye socket with warm saline, also using warm saline on a Q tip or foam applicator. We aren't sure what approach to take. We did give him a long, warm shower and what appeared to be a little bit of leftover shed came off but the puffy and greyish area you can see in the socket looks the same. Last shed was May 16.

Again, thanks so much for any information to help us treat our little guy!

 

[jannb]

I'm not sure that you have a problem from that picture. Please post more photos of the eye.

 

[Yoshi13]

 

[Blang]

I'm not sure that you have a problem from that picture. Please post more photos of the eye.

I was thinking the same thing but didn't post! To me the eye looked normal!

 

[Yoshi13]

I guess it is somewhat difficult to tell. Hopefully this isn't overkill but I'm reposting a photo with a box around the affected area so hopefully someone can see what I am talking about. When he moves his eye to the side you can see inside the socket is somewhat puffy. It is definitely different from the other eye. Thank you SO much for the replies we really appreciate the help.

 

[Yoshi13]

Hi everyone. We managed to get a decent picture of what the concerned area is. it took two of us. The skin is discolored (grey) and appears to be tender. We were able to remove a small amount of debris from the top, looked like skin.
Please offer your advise. Thank you

 

[Kclarke02]

Hi everyone. We managed to get a decent picture of what the concerned area is. it took two of us. The skin is discolored (grey) and appears to be tender. We were able to remove a small amount of debris from the top, looked like skin.
Please offer your advise. Thank you

THat does look a little suspicious to me. I work with human eyes everyday, not reptiles, but it does appear to have some crusting even and the discoloration doesn't look normal. Is he keeping his eye turned like that most of the time? That could be a sign as well. Maybe something just scratched or poked the skin around the eye? I've seen eye drops for iguanas I think but not sure what's in them

 

[Yoshi13]

Thank you for your input. His eye is completly mobile and has not lost any function. No obvious pokes or scratches. He has been in the same enclosure for 6 months or so.

 

[Kclarke02]

Good to know he's moving it. I was thinking if it was sore maybe he was keeping it turned? Hope you get some answers soon! Keep us posted and I hope it's nothing serious! He has some awesome colors btw

 

[jannb]

I'm still not sure that he has a problem. That looks fairly normal to me.

 

[Yoshi13]

I appreciate your input as an established member of the forum. We will keep everyone posted after the vet visit on monday. Thanks!!

 

[jajeanpierre]

Hi everyone,

Yesterday my fiancé noticed what looks like a possible eye infection. We have made a vet appointment for him but the earliest they had with their reptile specialist was Monday. Any info or opinions on what this is/what we can do would be greatly appreciated.

I have read different opinions on cleaning the eye socket with warm saline, also using warm saline on a Q tip or foam applicator. We aren't sure what approach to take. We did give him a long, warm shower and what appeared to be a little bit of leftover shed came off but the puffy and greyish area you can see in the socket looks the same. Last shed was May 16.

Again, thanks so much for any information to help us treat our little guy!

i wouldn't be mucking about with the eye. You can do a lot of damage and introduce bacteria. That could be anything from a blocked tear duct to an eye or sinus infection. Let the vet do the veterinarian work.

 

[jannb]

I appreciate your input as an established member of the forum. We will keep everyone posted after the vet visit on monday. Thanks!!

Please let us know what the vet says. I hope it's nothing. I've had several panthers that had eyes that looked like your guys and my vets always says it's nothing. Here is a photo of Krayola's eye. I sent this picture to my vet and he said this
was nothing and that was three years ago. It still looks pretty much the same. I have two very experienced reptile vets so they should know.

was norma

 

[Yoshi13]

Hi Everyone,

So we are still struggling with this eye problem. There is so much conflicting information and when we took him to the vet she thought it was probably related to a shedding issue because it was pretty dry and flaky at this point, but when she cleaned the socket with saline it looked better (no flaking skin but still discoloured and inflamed skin around the eye socket) until the next morning - it was right back to the way it was previously.

She said cleaning the eye socket with a bit of saline should be fine so we have been doing that since yesterday using a soft foam makeup sponge (we read that the soft foam is better then a Q-tip and doesn't leave any cotton pieces behind). It did occur to me that it might be a blocked tear duct but if that was the case then obviously the vet didn't think so which means I either look for a different opinion or tell her I think that the tear duct might be a possibility. I'm not sure what that would look like?! Anyone with experience on that please let us know.

He does seem to be itching it a lot - like yesterday he was rubbing it on my hand. Does anyone think this is related to a Vitamin A deficiency because that seems to be the one thing everyone points to when there is an eye problem. The thing is, he gets a variety of feeders that we gutload with carrots, apples, greens (usually arugala), a dry cricket supplement and ground flax seed. He eats crickets, superworms, hornworms and butterworms. We also dust with calcium at every feeding (actually it is a liquid calcium supplement, NO D3) and also reptivite with D3 every other week 1x. She asked us a billion questions about our setup and saw no issue.

Again any information would be great. Should I be looking for another vet? She is their exotics specialist but that doesn't mean she has seen a lot of chameleons. She did say that treating with antibiotics right away would likely be a mistake since it is so hard on their systems. He is not lethargic, as energetic as usual, but constantly bulging his eye now and scratching it on stuff. I don't want to wait too long in case it gets worse and I don't want to make it worse myself by cleaning with the saline as was suggested above. Right now we decided to treat for a few days and see if the saline clears it up but any other input would be greatly appreciated. We don't want to see our little guy end up with one eye

We will post an updated picture tonight of the eye.

Thanks again everyone,

Lauren & Lukas

 

[jajeanpierre]

What light do you have? Could it have caused a sunburn to the retina? Is he sensitive to light?

As far as Vitamin a deficiency, he is likely deficient simply because its a big problem in captive chameleons. They cannot convert plant-based carotenes to Vitamin A. Vitamin A is stored in the liver and crickets don't have livers, so they are not getting much Vitamin A from the crickets.

I would be looking for another opinion. An eye infection is normally treated with ointment or drops, not a systemic treatment. I do not believe antibiotic eye drops or ointments are "hard on their system" but oral antibiotics are. Good luck.

 

[JGuinan007]

Do you use turtle drops in the eyes like once a month or every other month? I had an eye issue from the day I got my chameleon from petco I took care of that and have used the turtle drops and haven't had eye problems since. An old breeder told me about the drops was good advise for me.

 

[Yoshi13]

Hello everyone!

We just wanted to post an update on our little guy. We went back to the vet on Friday because the eye was actually looking somewhat sunken in and he seemed lethargic and grouchy which she thought was likely due to his discomfort. The vet gave Yoshi Metacam for 3 days which seems to have perked him up.

The vet also flushed his eye and she said that any possibility of a clogged tear duct was resolved by that. She prescribed a topical antibiotic drop 2x per day for 5 days to deal with what looks like crusting skin in the socket. He seems to be doing better but with the last dose of Metacam given last night I am a little concerned he might be in discomfort again. I'm not sure whether to ask for more from the vet or see how he does without it. I have read that up to 10 days on Metacam is okay for chameleons but that isn't ideal for his liver apparently. Everything about his digestion and behavior seems normal at this point except the continued eye scratching. We are just hoping at this point that between the interventions thus far that he will be back to himself soon.

Also, not to be difficult but with respect to the turtle drop suggestion the vet was very adamant about the fact that you should never use turtle drops on chams but I know that everyone has their own opinion about that. She definitely scared me out of trying them though.

The picture of him below was taken Sunday. His right eye is the one we are concerned about. Again thanks everyone for your help and advise. The vet did acknowledge that she was impressed by the information available to concerned owners online!

p.s. I apologize for the fact that the picture is turned but I can't seem to fix it!

 

[jajeanpierre]

Hello everyone!

We just wanted to post an update on our little guy. We went back to the vet on Friday because the eye was actually looking somewhat sunken in and he seemed lethargic and grouchy which she thought was likely due to his discomfort. The vet gave Yoshi Metacam for 3 days which seems to have perked him up.

The vet also flushed his eye and she said that any possibility of a clogged tear duct was resolved by that. She prescribed a topical antibiotic drop 2x per day for 5 days to deal with what looks like crusting skin in the socket. He seems to be doing better but with the last dose of Metacam given last night I am a little concerned he might be in discomfort again. I'm not sure whether to ask for more from the vet or see how he does without it. I have read that up to 10 days on Metacam is okay for chameleons but that isn't ideal for his liver apparently. Everything about his digestion and behavior seems normal at this point except the continued eye scratching. We are just hoping at this point that between the interventions thus far that he will be back to himself soon.

Also, not to be difficult but with respect to the turtle drop suggestion the vet was very adamant about the fact that you should never use turtle drops on chams but I know that everyone has their own opinion about that. She definitely scared me out of trying them though.

The picture of him below was taken Sunday. His right eye is the one we are concerned about. Again thanks everyone for your help and advise. The vet did acknowledge that she was impressed by the information available to concerned owners online!

p.s. I apologize for the fact that the picture is turned but I can't seem to fix it!View attachment 161765

What did she say "turtle drops" were and why did she say not to use them?

 

[JGuinan007]

Yes I am curious as to what problems turtle drops could cause also the breeder that told me about them said he used them for almost ten years on all the chameleons he breeds and no eye issues, I myself have used them for a year with no issues either but I would love to here what risks there may be in using them and weigh on if the risk is worth it.