Lethargic Female Panther; oral lesion

GoodKarma19 said:
Ladies and gentlemen: we may have discovered the root cause of Lily's eye problems and ongoing general malaise! :D I've been chatting with a few wonderful people behind the scenes, and it may very well be that Lily's issues can be tracked back to UVB overexposure. This overexposure theory would explain a lot of her behavior as of late - eyes closed while basking, squinting, sensitivity to D3, not reacting to antibiotics, etc etc. Though I'm running a 5.0 UVB, her primary basking site put her head and back within 5 inches of the UVB bulb, placing her at ~ 7 UVI according to a recent UVI chart provided to me by @Beman - a bit more than double where Lily ought to be! I rigged her up a frame to raise her UVB by another 5 inches, and she already seems more comfortable. Let this serve as a cautionary tale - too much UVB is just as dangerous as not enough! I'll be getting myself a SolarMeter as soon as I can swing it. Never again!

There's no guarantee this is Lily's only problem, but we should know within the next few weeks how much of a contributing factor it was. Thanks to everyone here at the cham forums, with special thanks to @Beman, @kinyonga, and @JoXie411 for supporting Lily and I through this! :love:

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Lily's back to making her snack faces :LOL:

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Have you chatted with @Andee ??. I have not seen her in for a bit but neither with I for a long while . Ryker has this same issue . It in the end cause of blindness .
 
Kristen Wilkins said:
Have you chatted with @Andee ??. I have not seen her in for a bit but neither with I for a long while . Ryker has this same issue . It in the end cause of blindness .
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I haven't directly spoken to her, though I have read some of her struggles! I'm really hoping that I caught it early enough that it won't cause Lily any lasting harm. Both of her eyes are still focusing well, though the range of motion in her left eye appears to be compromised.

Kristen Wilkins said:
She could not use uvb bit was able to get him out daily
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Unfortunately, this would be near impossible in Canada, especially over the winter haha! Lily always has been much happier out in the natural sun, too. It's a shame!

kinyonga said:
You're welcome! I'm so glad that the cause might be found!!
She's such a character!
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Thank you Lynda!! And she really is quite the character haha! She may not be the prettiest panther, but she has personality plus! :love: I'm really hoping that this is the cause, so we can move toward a full recovery since and for all!

janjan20 said:
:love: :love: This is great news!!! So happy she’s perked up!
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Thank you! :D I'm so grateful that she's starting to feel more consistently better... it's been a hard couple of months, seeing her so obviously suffering and not knowing what was up or how to treat it when medicine failed.
 
You said..."Thank you Lynda!! And she really is quite the character haha! She may not be the prettiest panther, but she has personality plus! :love: I'm really hoping that this is the cause, so we can move toward a full recovery since and for all!"...me too!
 
GoodKarma19 said:
I haven't directly spoken to her, though I have read some of her struggles! I'm really hoping that I caught it early enough that it won't cause Lily any lasting harm. Both of her eyes are still focusing well, though the range of motion in her left eye appears to be compromised.



Unfortunately, this would be near impossible in Canada, especially over the winter haha! Lily always has been much happier out in the natural sun, too. It's a shame!



Thank you Lynda!! And she really is quite the character haha! She may not be the prettiest panther, but she has personality plus! :love: I'm really hoping that this is the cause, so we can move toward a full recovery since and for all!



Thank you! :D I'm so grateful that she's starting to feel more consistently better... it's been a hard couple of months, seeing her so obviously suffering and not knowing what was up or how to treat it when medicine failed.
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Yes that’s why I had added that . We get you weather lol . No way are they going out . I think your ice stays around longer too . I’m so happy to hear she is feeling better . Keeping positive thoughts she continues xo .
 
Lily continues to trend upward, and the swelling around her eyes is going down. It was hard for me to gauge how swollen they were before they started to look better, especially since her turrets have always been very "full" looking! Preexisting damage, perhaps? Her left eye has always been pretty screwy, and she came to me with a couple small lesions and in questionable health. She had been kept under a coil bulb for at least 4-5 months prior to me, so who knows!

Her activity levels are better than they have been, and though Lily squints and cleans her eyes a lot she seems considerably more comfortable. I'm cautiously optimistic that she'll recover, in any case! I'm not sure she'll ever be 100%, but it's something to strive toward. :)
 
GoodKarma19 said:
Lily continues to trend upward, and the swelling around her eyes is going down. It was hard for me to gauge how swollen they were before they started to look better, especially since her turrets have always been very "full" looking! Preexisting damage, perhaps? Her left eye has always been pretty screwy, and she came to me with a couple small lesions and in questionable health. She had been kept under a coil bulb for at least 4-5 months prior to me, so who knows!

Her activity levels are better than they have been, and though Lily squints and cleans her eyes a lot she seems considerably more comfortable. I'm cautiously optimistic that she'll recover, in any case! I'm not sure she'll ever be 100%, but it's something to strive toward. :)
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that is great to hear!!! I'm so glad that shes doing better!
 
GoodKarma19 said:
Lily continues to trend upward, and the swelling around her eyes is going down. It was hard for me to gauge how swollen they were before they started to look better, especially since her turrets have always been very "full" looking! Preexisting damage, perhaps? Her left eye has always been pretty screwy, and she came to me with a couple small lesions and in questionable health. She had been kept under a coil bulb for at least 4-5 months prior to me, so who knows!

Her activity levels are better than they have been, and though Lily squints and cleans her eyes a lot she seems considerably more comfortable. I'm cautiously optimistic that she'll recover, in any case! I'm not sure she'll ever be 100%, but it's something to strive toward. :)
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I'm so glad to hear that there is more improvement! Keep it up Lily!
 
Lily had the energy to do a couple full laps of her cage today, and was constantly begging for food (sorry Lily - feed days are Mon/Wed/Fri!). She closes her left (bad) eye fairly often, but her right eye is pretty consistently open and they're both looking better in general. I feel like we're officially out of the woods! :D

She's also looking a tad lumpy, though her weight remains consistent. Not sure if it's just the angle, with her contorting herself like that!

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Recovery in progress! Lily's left eye is doing so much better than it was, and while her right eye is still notably swollen it doesn't appear to be as irritated. I'm keeping an eye on her left nostril and mouth - there's still some puffiness present, and while her mouth is scarred over I I worry about it. She having a terrible patchy shed right now that just doesn't want to come off nicely, but otherwise she appears to be doing really well! Her energy levels are the highest I've ever seen them, and Lily has been all over her cage checking things out.

She really is an odd duck, and keeps patrolling down to the substrate level and squashing her turtle vine. She'll just sit right there at the front left, and watch me. The longest I've caught I've watching me was a solid half hour. Maybe I should put a skirt around the bottom of her cage? I don't seem to be disturbing her, but I don't want to stress her out! After eyeballing me she'll do a full lap around the bottom and go back to the top, and repeat the whole process a couple times a day. At this point I'm so out of touch with normal adult female chameleon behaviour that I'm not sure what to think of it. She seems to be quite restless, but I highly doubt she's gravid given her current weight. She's down about 10 grams, though I'm not 100% sure I trust my scale. The fat pads in her casque are noticeably less prominent, though, so it could well be accurate! Receptive, perhaps? Scouting for good laying spots? Just enjoying her newfound energy? Who knows. I'm just happy that she's feeling a little better!

Left eye and mouth lesion:

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Front:

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Right eye (still pretty puffy; couldn't get a good shot):

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Walling around, doing normal chameleon things for the first time in forever. If she keeps this up, I'll be getting her a cage upgrade in the summer!

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It's been a long road and the journey isn't over yet, but I think we nailed it with the cause to Lily's ailments being UVB overexposure!
 
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janjan20 said:
Go Lily!!! Great progress report!!!
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kinyonga said:
I'm so glad she's doing so well. I was worried for quite a while that you were going to lose her. Keep it up Lily!
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Thank you ladies! :D

I thought for sure that I was going to lose her on more than one occasion, and was pretty sure I'd never see her recover to the point of being "normal". Lily's like a whole new cham! So crazy active today, too - she's moving around more than Kismet! It'll probably be awhile until she's at 100%, but this is by far the best I've seen her energy-wise. Just gotta play the waiting game, keep an eye on her. I think it's pretty safe to say that she's through the worst of it now, though!
 
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