Is her eye gone?

[Smiley]

So, the little girl I adopted (or demanded they give me, really) is doing alright; she's still alive!! She's been on her meds for one week today, and is more spunky, getting a little lighter in color, and opening her eyes more. She hasn't fallen from anything she's been established on either, so this weekend she will probably graduate to her very own screen cage (tested it on a low lemon tree on a windy day yesterday and she was able to hold on or correct herself and was put in the outdoor sunning cage all day yesterday.

But, her one eye is making me nervous. She can open both fully, and I can see her little spy eye pupil in one, but the other has always just had a milky white coating over it (picture attached) and I'm wondering if some kind of infection left her blind in that eye. If so, what's the prognosis on that? She still has one week of antibiotics, and she's been given calcium glubonate twice daily, along with her carnivore-care force fed meals.

Also, last night was the first time I've seen her even remotely green, and this morning her head (yes, that's it) turned green again after her feeding/meds. Does this mean she's starting to really feel better, or am I just pissing her off?



Her 'dead' looking eye.



Out for some sun and belly heat (she loves it, and will squish her belly as close to the brick as possible). Even had a green tinge to her spine as well after the wind died down.




Green, I'm guessing happy?, girl during her soak last night after her food/meds.

So TLDR version; worried about her eye, and wondering if the progress she's been making seems promising. Also is she ready for a screen cage of her own? The setup I plan on getting her is 2.5' 3' tall (might move Nigel into this one and give the veiled his or the outside one). Does the green mean she's feeling better? And also, after her meds/food she will do some funny business with her mouth-breathing and will sometimes spit up. Am I doing it wrong?

 

[Smiley]

And she's drinking on her own now (sometimes)!!!

 

[sharp229]

Poor girl. Looks to me like her inner eyelid is just closed. Hopefully the eye is OK, but hard to say until it opens. Is she getting preformed vitamin A? I imagine she wasn't getting any vitamins in the original conditions.

I would say the green is a good sign, but her condition is so extreme that it is hard to know exactly what is going on. She must have been in an absolutely horrific setup to get this bad, it is amazing she is alive.

It looks like you are doing a great job getting her back to health, so I would just keep it up.

 

[Lovereps]

Chameleons don't have an "inner eyelid" that some other types of lizards have.
It's possible that the infection went on so long that her cornea is scarred and you probably won't know for sure until her eyes are fully healed to whatever degree is possible.
In the wild the eye problem would be a serious risk to her safety but in captivity, it may mean you will have to feed her by hand.
What I mean is that she may only be able to eat bugs from your fingers, not a lifetime of force-feeding.
Hopefully, the cloudiness is temporary and the eye heals with the addition of some antibiotic eyedrops.

 

[werecat]

I was thinking the picture of her eye looks like when they roll their eyes within the socket so that only the white part shows. My chameleon has an eye problem and does this sometimes. However, it's not permanent, so if you are always seeing this then something could be clouding the eye. I would have a chameleon vet take a look when she gets some strength back.

As the previous poster said, she should be able to lead a decent life like this if you feed her by hand. Also, she may even be able to adapt to hunting. My chameleon seems to have limited vision I his bad eye (it may even be completely blind but we are unsure). He willingly takes food from our hands, but also still manages to hunt although his accuracy is not always great. Being in captivity allows him many other times to retry his shot. We are prepared to always feed by hand if it comes to that, but for now he manages. I think your little girl can adapt too! Just keep working on nursing her and helping her get her strength.

 

[sharp229]

Chameleons don't have an "inner eyelid" that some other types of lizards have.

Interesting, this is good to know. My veiled that had a vitamin A deficiency had an eye that would periodically look exactly like this and I read somewhere that they have an inner eyelid. It sounds like this is caused just by them rotating their eye under the eyelid then? Are there any pictures that show what the chameleon's eye looks like under the turret? Seems like that would be useful to know.

 

[Lovereps]

Interesting, this is good to know. My veiled that had a vitamin A deficiency had an eye that would periodically look exactly like this and I read somewhere that they have an inner eyelid. It sounds like this is caused just by them rotating their eye under the eyelid then? Are there any pictures that show what the chameleon's eye looks like under the turret? Seems like that would be useful to know.

Since you asked.......but be forewarned the photos are quite graphic, as they are necropsy photos https://www.chameleonforums.com/warning-graphic-photos-necropsy-panther-severe-nutritional-mbd-87186/

 

[sharp229]

Thanks for the link, that is a very informative article. Definitely very useful for understanding their anatomy and being able to better diagnose things like eye issues.