Pixle_lava_ny_manga
New Member
Hello everyone,
I’m totally new to this forum. So please be patient and bear with me. I am a relatively new keeper. I have an otherwise healthy 7.5 month old Ambilobe Panther Chameleon. He’s recently been to the vet and was given a clean bill of health. Poop checked and no parasites, no tail rot, mouth or stomach rot and no lesions or sores on his body. He also had blood work checked and everything came back well and within in range. However, he did show a slight inflammatory response suggesting the onset of an infection.
This is where things get sticky, he appears normal. His eyes both seem normal but, he will spend a significant amount of time mainly in the AM but throughout the day blinking hard, sometimes puffing out the eye, and on occasion scratching the turret against a branch. It lasts for 30 seconds to a minute then it goes back to size, I inspect and his eye seems normal. Even the vet who checked him out said she felt his eye looked good. Didn’t see any cloudy retinas or pupils or cuts bruising around his eye.
This has been going on for about 3-4 weeks now, so a couple weeks back before the blood test; he was put on some eye drops of Ciprofloaxin/Ofloxac. I was instructed 2x a day 1-2 drops. My chameleon did not tolerate the drops very well, and the drops seemed to exasperate the symptoms. I consulted with his vet via phone, and she said to try once a day. So I did once a day for about two weeks, but did not notice much improvement.
Fast forward to about a week ago, I took my chameleon in because he was still having the symptoms. The vet decided to flush his eye, and culture it to check for any specific infection. Unfortunately, the culture did not yield any result which could be good, but also could be because there wasn’t enough material to culture. That’s where the CBC results come in. Because of the shape and inflammatory response of the white blood cells, it was determined that he has a very early stage of an infection. Pixle my chameleon does not gape, does not breathe heavy, he does not have any secretion from his mouth or nostrils. But the vet thinks maybe the air ducts in the eyes could be infected, or possibly got backed up with gunk or shed. That being the case he was put on a broad spectrum antibiotic (couldn’t use a more specific ax because the culture didn’t grow anything). He is now on .03ml of Enrofloaxin orally every 24 hours for the next 28 days.
My concern however is if this could be attributed do hypovitaminosis A? His vet did not seem to think so as she said both eyes would have the symptoms and that she doesn’t see vitamin A deficiency in chameleons really, because they are insectivores and their feeders have vitamin A. He currently is on Repashy’s Calcium plus at every feeding, dusted over his feeders. Then 3x a week I am also adding in Arcadia Revitalize D3. Additionally, his feeders are gut loaded with Repashy’s bug burger, carrots, apples, blueberries, oranges, and spinach.
As for his cage set up, he is in an 18x18x36”wide cage. He has a 50WReptisun basking bulb in a wide reflective zoomed dome in one corner with a branch about 7-8 inches below. I use a thermal laser gun to check temps regularly and his basking spot is at about 87 degrees. Ambient temperature is about 75, with gradients at 65 or so at the middle and bottom of the cage. I use a 36” sun blaster UVB light fixture with a 34” Reptisun T5 HO UVB linear fluorescent bulb. I use a solarmeter to regularly check his UVB levels. He is at a UVI of 1.5-2.6 depending on the area (made pockets where he can get more or less) putting him on a 3 of the Ferguson chart. I have double fixture or 2 Vivosun 24” 6500k plant grow lights, 1 24” LED 3500k grow light, and two full spectrum LED grow lamps at the top and side of the enclosure mainly for his plants. We only use live plants. He also has a little dripper dripping at 1 drop p/s in the AM and then 1 drop every 4-5 seconds in the PM. He has a mistking with two spray heads placed and pointed at plants strategically to collect water for him to drink, and also achieve spikes of humidity up to 80% 2x per day. His mister goes on at 6am for 6 minutes, 10am for 10 minutes, 2pm for 10 minutes, and 4:45pm for 5 minutes. Lights are on for 12 hours a day and come on automatically at 5am and go off at 5pm. Once lights go off, he also has a dual exhausted fogger that goes off for about 15 minutes 3x at at dawn to increase humidity and recreate the fog in the wild. I use a dual fan to create some airflow at night for the enclosure and to help lower the temperature by 10-12 degrees (F) for thermal regulation.
He is very friendly and and is handled and inspected 1x a day for 10-15 minutes. He never presents signs of distress/stress. Does not hiss, open his mouth, puff up or brighten up when held and will willingly mosey onto my hand when prompted.
Hopefully I’ve given enough background on him and his enclosure, nutrition regiment etc. I’m really hoping any experts out there have any ideas or can help me brainstorm what can be adding to his eye issue, and him closing it occasionally. Any and all help is greatly appreciated!!
I’m totally new to this forum. So please be patient and bear with me. I am a relatively new keeper. I have an otherwise healthy 7.5 month old Ambilobe Panther Chameleon. He’s recently been to the vet and was given a clean bill of health. Poop checked and no parasites, no tail rot, mouth or stomach rot and no lesions or sores on his body. He also had blood work checked and everything came back well and within in range. However, he did show a slight inflammatory response suggesting the onset of an infection.
This is where things get sticky, he appears normal. His eyes both seem normal but, he will spend a significant amount of time mainly in the AM but throughout the day blinking hard, sometimes puffing out the eye, and on occasion scratching the turret against a branch. It lasts for 30 seconds to a minute then it goes back to size, I inspect and his eye seems normal. Even the vet who checked him out said she felt his eye looked good. Didn’t see any cloudy retinas or pupils or cuts bruising around his eye.
This has been going on for about 3-4 weeks now, so a couple weeks back before the blood test; he was put on some eye drops of Ciprofloaxin/Ofloxac. I was instructed 2x a day 1-2 drops. My chameleon did not tolerate the drops very well, and the drops seemed to exasperate the symptoms. I consulted with his vet via phone, and she said to try once a day. So I did once a day for about two weeks, but did not notice much improvement.
Fast forward to about a week ago, I took my chameleon in because he was still having the symptoms. The vet decided to flush his eye, and culture it to check for any specific infection. Unfortunately, the culture did not yield any result which could be good, but also could be because there wasn’t enough material to culture. That’s where the CBC results come in. Because of the shape and inflammatory response of the white blood cells, it was determined that he has a very early stage of an infection. Pixle my chameleon does not gape, does not breathe heavy, he does not have any secretion from his mouth or nostrils. But the vet thinks maybe the air ducts in the eyes could be infected, or possibly got backed up with gunk or shed. That being the case he was put on a broad spectrum antibiotic (couldn’t use a more specific ax because the culture didn’t grow anything). He is now on .03ml of Enrofloaxin orally every 24 hours for the next 28 days.
My concern however is if this could be attributed do hypovitaminosis A? His vet did not seem to think so as she said both eyes would have the symptoms and that she doesn’t see vitamin A deficiency in chameleons really, because they are insectivores and their feeders have vitamin A. He currently is on Repashy’s Calcium plus at every feeding, dusted over his feeders. Then 3x a week I am also adding in Arcadia Revitalize D3. Additionally, his feeders are gut loaded with Repashy’s bug burger, carrots, apples, blueberries, oranges, and spinach.
As for his cage set up, he is in an 18x18x36”wide cage. He has a 50WReptisun basking bulb in a wide reflective zoomed dome in one corner with a branch about 7-8 inches below. I use a thermal laser gun to check temps regularly and his basking spot is at about 87 degrees. Ambient temperature is about 75, with gradients at 65 or so at the middle and bottom of the cage. I use a 36” sun blaster UVB light fixture with a 34” Reptisun T5 HO UVB linear fluorescent bulb. I use a solarmeter to regularly check his UVB levels. He is at a UVI of 1.5-2.6 depending on the area (made pockets where he can get more or less) putting him on a 3 of the Ferguson chart. I have double fixture or 2 Vivosun 24” 6500k plant grow lights, 1 24” LED 3500k grow light, and two full spectrum LED grow lamps at the top and side of the enclosure mainly for his plants. We only use live plants. He also has a little dripper dripping at 1 drop p/s in the AM and then 1 drop every 4-5 seconds in the PM. He has a mistking with two spray heads placed and pointed at plants strategically to collect water for him to drink, and also achieve spikes of humidity up to 80% 2x per day. His mister goes on at 6am for 6 minutes, 10am for 10 minutes, 2pm for 10 minutes, and 4:45pm for 5 minutes. Lights are on for 12 hours a day and come on automatically at 5am and go off at 5pm. Once lights go off, he also has a dual exhausted fogger that goes off for about 15 minutes 3x at at dawn to increase humidity and recreate the fog in the wild. I use a dual fan to create some airflow at night for the enclosure and to help lower the temperature by 10-12 degrees (F) for thermal regulation.
He is very friendly and and is handled and inspected 1x a day for 10-15 minutes. He never presents signs of distress/stress. Does not hiss, open his mouth, puff up or brighten up when held and will willingly mosey onto my hand when prompted.
Hopefully I’ve given enough background on him and his enclosure, nutrition regiment etc. I’m really hoping any experts out there have any ideas or can help me brainstorm what can be adding to his eye issue, and him closing it occasionally. Any and all help is greatly appreciated!!
