Panther chameleon eye issue

[Cory.D]

• Your Chameleon - Panther, Male, 1 year old. Ive had him 6-7 months.
• Handling - Not to frequently, maybe once a week. He isnt a big fan.
• Feeding - Crickets, Super worms, horn worms, discoids. I typically offer every other day crickets and supers as the main. Hornworms and discoids as i come across them.
• Supplements - Repashy calcium plus loD and reptivite vitamins without d3. Repashy dusted every feeding. Reptivite couple times a month.
• Watering - Fogger at night, dripper and hand misting. I spray his cage down before his lights come on in the mornings and as they shut off at night. 45 seconds or so, until his plants are pretty wet. I'm getting a automatic mist system this week. I sometimes see him drink from the dripper.
• Fecal Description - Last poop i seen was as he was pooping a 1 day ago, it was wet and solid. White and dark poop. Has not been tested for parasites.
• History - no issues before now

Cage Info:

• Cage Type - reptibreeze xl. 2 1/2 sides have window film on them.
• Lighting - 40 watt basking light, zoo med t5 5.0 h/o uvb and arcadia jungle dawn. Basking light comes on at 7am - 10am. All other lights are 7am - 7pm. The room he is in is slightly warmer so i don't want to overdue his basking light and make the ambient temps even higher.
• Temperature - Ambient is around 78, night drops to 73-74. Basking is 85. Temp gun and digital thermometers
• Humidity - 40-50 during the day. Night is 60-70. Trying to get it higher at night without overheating the enclosure with enclosing more of the screen.
• Plants - Pothos, polka dots and a monstera. He does not try to eat plants.
• Placement - enclosed garage, small vent and fan around him to help with ventilation as it stays a little warmer out there now that it is summer. Its not in a high traffic room and sits floor level.
• Location - Central Florida

I noticed last Wednesday that he started favoring/shutting his right eye. He is still eating and active and will open it and look around but then closes it for periods at a time. When the eye is shut it kinda looks a little sunken in. His other eye seems fine. When the eye is open it looks clear, no discharge or anything. I have seen him try and rub his face on branches.

Photo 1 - left eye side shot
Photo 2 - Right eye side shot
Photo 3 - Starting to close it again
Photo 4 - cage setup

 

[CalamityCrow]

Welcome to the forum! You have a gorgeous boy!

The first thing that sticks out to me is your supplementation - are you putting repashy plus LoD on your feeders every feeding?

If that's the case, he's probably been overdosed on vitamins. For every daily feeding, you should be using pure calcium, no vitamin D or A or anything - just calcium. Then, twice a month (Say, 1st and 15th) you'll lightly dust your feeders with the repashy plus. You can skip the reptivite because the repashy should be a complete vitamin.

When they overdose on vitamins, it can cause eye issues (just like a lack of supplementation can do). I suspect he may be a bit overdosed on things and because they're fat-soluble, recovery can take a few weeks. Shift to ONLY calcium on your feeders for maybe a month, and see if the eye issue clears itself up.

Second, there are a couple husbandry items I'd shift a bit. To start, the superworms should be treats, not staples. I'd say discoids and crickets (adding black soldier fly larvae and/or silkworms would be great too!) should be your staple feeders, hornworms for hydration, and supers only once or so a week, as a treat. Chams can get real addicted to them and they're unfortunately not super nutritious and carry a lot of fat. Your cham looks to be a good weight right now though, so you're not bad off currently.

You may also want to get him off the floor if possible. They're arboreal by nature, and so a slightly higher cage will encourage feelings of safety and thus lower stress. My enclosure tops out at about 7' over my head and my cham is very thankful for it haha.

 

[Cory.D]

Thank you for the reply! I will make the changes asap. I believe lifting the enclosure up off the ground will help my ambient temps too.

 

[SteveH]

Thank you for the reply! I will make the changes asap. I believe lifting the enclosure up off the ground will help my ambient temps too.

I agree with the supplements comment. Try changing it to calcium without D3 every feeding and your vitamins twice a month. I would also try to lower the ambiant temps down to around 74.