indenting and closing eye

[kev barton]

hi

my male veiled chameleon is indenting his right eye and then closing it for quite a bit now. over the past hour or so he has done it quite a lot of times and for last day quite a bit.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - AX22 Vavarium
Lighting - Lucky Reptile Bright Sun UV Jungle
Temperature - 85-95 in basking and 70-80 at bottom
Humidity - i spray the vavarium twice a day, but i don't have anything to measure this
Plants - benamin fig and some plastic
Location - it has 4 air vents in back and is positioned on a table so the top of the cage is around 6ft high

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - veiled, male and 2 months
Handling - around once a week maybe twice a week
Feeding - locusts and crickets i put around 6/7 twice a day. i am gut loading with carrots and gut load formula.
Supplements - nutrobal and calypso
Watering - i mist 2/3 times a day and he drinks the water from him and leaves
Fecal Description - pale clean green occassional darker spots but only rarely
he has not been tested for parasites
History - only had 2 months
Current Problem - my male veiled chameleon is indenting his right eye and then closing it for quite a bit now. over the past hour or so he has done it quite a lot of times and for last day quite a bit.

 

[Dave Weldon]

...my male veiled chameleon is indenting his right eye and then closing it for quite a bit now. over the past hour or so he has done it quite a lot of times and for last day quite a bit.

Lighting - Lucky Reptile Bright Sun UV Jungle...

Howdy Kevin,

Although many things can result in eye closure (anything from debris in the eye to organ failure ), in this situation, I think you might want to remove the "Lucky Reptile Bright Sun UV Jungle" light. A few months ago, I did some preliminary measurements of its UVB levels and it left me concerned. The one that I tested has "cross pattern (+)" where the UVB level was very high in the "cross". If you need to stick with a mercury vapor (MV) UVB source, try the Zoomed 100W lamp or the T-Rex unit of the same wattage. Take a look at the charts: http://www.uvguide.co.uk/mercvapourfloods.htm to determine what distance you need to position it to get somewhere between 20-50uW/cm2. Be careful with MV sources, even the ones that I mentioned . On that website, you'll read that Zoomed has changed their MV lamp output levels and their UV index numbers are also getting very high too. You know what, I think you'd be better off switching to a Zoomed Reptisun 5.0 linear tube and fixture . If it really is that Lucky lamp that is causing the eye problem (possibly photo-kerato-conjunctivitis), try removing the questionable UVB source for a few days and see what happens.

 

[Titan]

Hey just a quick note. the tread above gives great advice. One thing noted
above and I have experienced In my male Panther was, he was acting the same way. After very frustrating and persistant looking (since the condition was in the one side only) We found a splinter, a very fine one, jabbed directly
into the center of that somewhat small eye. Probubly should have Vet cared that but I live hundreds of miles from any good reptile Vets. Well I got the tweezars out and pulled it out. Also medicated eye drops for days to follow for any infection. And to keep this short He is as if it has never happened! the splinter was 1/2" long and completly almost all the way straight in. So yes
check for debris in the eye. use a magnifying glass and good light if you have to.

 

[kev barton]

thanks for your replies guys.

clive is really not himself, he isn't eating much usually he eats lots infact he has grown loads, i saw his brothers and sisters the other day and they were half the size of him.

he acts a little nervous and quite slow.

he is at beginning phase of shedding again