Sambava Still not Opening Eye....

[chameleonsPR]

Still my Sambava Gomez is not opening his eye. he will open it when i do the gentamicin drops and move around for a while with it open, then he will close it back. He is also getting baytril orally one drop. i forced fed him yesterday 8 crickets and 1 superworm. the day before he ate six wax worms and 2 superworms also force fed, he had not eaten for about 5-7 days. What is the best % baytril to use and what is the dillution for oral for a 200g Panther. My doctor gave me a little and is almost gone , but i believe he gave it to light , he doesnt know much about chams. The did a stool sample on monday but it was frozen from before so it didnt work i am waiting for another stool to take it fresh. I am believing it my be parasites but still need the fresh poop to check.

Daily Procedure
Morning : Eye Rinse , Getamicin 2 Drops , Baytril Orally
Noon: Shower 30-40 minutes
Afternoon: Eye Rinse , Gentamicin 2 drops

Age 9- 11 months
Cage : 2 X 2 X 4 Screen
Water : 3 daily 4 minute cycles of inline water system with timer.
Lighting : Natural Sunlight
Branches : Falmboyan Tree Branches
Plants: Pothos, and Umbrella Plant
Temperature 85 High - 71 at night
Sumplements: Herptivite , Rep Cal D3 and Miner- ALL Red Cover every other day alternate them.

 

[CleanLineChameleons]

Does he have a URI? If he does you are working against yourself with the 30 to 40 minute showers. Is he a WC is that why you don't know his age? If so when did you get him?

-chris

 

[chameleonsPR]

He is Captive Bred and i believe he is 9-10 months i have to check with my papers in my house. The doctor cheked for URI with a stethoscope , but really he doesnt now much about them. What is the best way to check for URI. What medicine is recomended for URI also what is the best % baytril to use for infection given orally.

Thanks

 

[CleanLineChameleons]

I would go to another vet. Check for a URI by looking in his mouth...if you see a lot of bubble (almost like foamy soap) then he has a URI, also you will notice your cham gasping and popping when he breaths. You haven't said any of this so I honestly don't think it is a URI, but a cham with his eyes closed during the day is not a healthy cham. So, I suggest going to see another vet. Also, you said that he gets natural sunlight...does this mean you are keeping him outside and if so where do you live? He should have a basking area of at least 90F. You said you are giving him eye drops...does his eyes look to be swollen shut or be very dry looking clinched tight?

Eyes being closed during the day is the first sign that something in your care is not agreeing with the chameleon. I would stop the force feeding and the baytril, normally the force feeding is last resort and with the number of insects you are feeding him he is surely getting stressed. If you want to get something in him mash up crickets and add a little ensure and give him food through a dropper. I have had to force feed before and I couldn't image forcing 8 and 9 feeders to a cham in a day.

Give us a little more info and maybe some pics so we can get a little better of an idea of the condition of the cham.

-chris

 

[chameleonsPR]

Sambava not opening eyes.

Ok , The sambava chameleon is getting eye drops of gentamicin twice a day , plus he is getting 1 shower of 30 minutes , plus 1cc oraly of baytril 2.25%. The oral baytril started yesterday friday morning. He opens the eye when i grab him or right after i put the drops and might stay open, his left eye is always open. I dont really force feed since i just pull very lightly on his was and he opens up i place the meal and he swallows, no force at all but this is the only way i make sure he eats. it takes me maybe 10 minutes.

Now look at this my other panther BB ambilobe, i have notice every once in a while with one of his eyes closed since thursday. Not as often as the sambava but started recently , i started him in baytril, showers and Gentamicin just in case but he looks better. Yesterday i place him in a ficus iin my terrace and a little anole got in the tree and the BB Ambilobe swallowed it completly. And suddenly today i noticed my male veiled with one of his eyes also closed , i cleaned his cage entirely today and gave him a shower. I am starting to beleive it my be the cold weather that we are having here and cold drafts lately. This 3 cages are in an area were they are getting an unusual amount of cold drafts since around easter. I am thinking of covering them with a tarp at night just to eliminate the drafts at night what you think. Vet check the sambava on thursday and he said it look like he had infection , no worms or parasites.

The pics are of the Samava when he has the right eye closed and the other pic is when he has his it open once in a while and right after i place the gentamicin drops.

 

[CleanLineChameleons]

Ok...stop the baytril please...it is a strong drug and you have not described anything that would need baytril. It sounds to me like it is the amount of humidity, especially if it is drafty and all your animals are starting to get it. Where do you live?

-chris

 

[Nicodemayo]

This definitely sounds like a humidity issue to me too. Chris is right, unless you know for sure he has URI, they symptoms your describing do not indicate the presence of something requiring baytril.

 

[chameleonsPR]

Sambava

ok i live in San Juan Puerto Rico, I had increased the water time to 10 minutes every interval i had it before for 4 minutes every interval and it is program for 3 intervals. I am going to stop the baytril on the BB Ambilobe , but waht do i do with the Sambava. The BB started with the symptoms as soon as i changed the cycle from 4 minutes to 10 minutes which was done last weekend. Today i changed it back to the original setting of 4 minutes. I also covered the BB Ambilobe cage with a clear tarp at least to hold the drafts tonight, tomorrow i will start covering the samabava cage also every night until the drafts diminish. The other change i did before i saw the samabava symtpoms was changing his branches from an Exo Terra Vine to NAtural Branches from a Flamboyan Tree wich i cleaned might that cause the Sambava Problem. What should i do for the Humidity Issues ? How do i correct this remember they are outdoor on screen cages. Should i also stop giving the Sambava Baytril , what about the drops of gentamicin. Do i continue the showers? Tommorow will post pics of cages.

 

[bucky]

So humidity could cause eye problems? Cause currently,Louie has gotten better from his eye problems,but he is still closing his eye. How do you decrease the humidity?

 

[dodolah]

Hi Bucky,
eye problem is not specifically caused by humidity.
closing eyes simply means there is something wrong.
It's not specific to a certain disease.

I have a chameleon who close his eye that turn out to have a parasite.
think of it like getting a headache in human.
It could mean a lot of different things.

 

[chameleonsPR]

Sambava not opening eyes.

Ok so this morning i check the hygrometer near the cage and it is posting 76 degrees farenheight and 71% humitidy and still the rain machines havent gone on for the day. I think this my be to high and might be causing some probelms. The sambava is progressing he has been since morning wit his eye mostly open. I think i am going to have to bring them in for a while. How do i lower the humidity. Thanks for the help

 

[Dave Weldon]

Still my Sambava Gomez is not opening his eye.
Age 9- 11 months
Lighting : Natural Sunlight
Temperature 85 High - 71 at night
Sumplements: Herptivite , Rep Cal D3 and Miner- ALL Red Cover every other day alternate them.

Howdy,

Like Dodolah said, eye closure is more often a symptom related to general health than it is an eye infection. Why one eye and then later two eyes closing? I'd speculate that just like their eyes can work independently, they may close each one based on different levels or types of illness. If you told me that the eye(s) had a milky look to them, I'd say that you needed Gentamicin. As was mentioned, it's probably time to stop all of the medication. Baytril has its own set of side-effects and they may compound the health situation.

Your temperatures and humidity are probably as close to your chameleon's natural conditions as any of us could create. 70% is fine. 71F at night could even be lower without problems. 85F daytime temp is ok so long as they can find full shade when desired.

So what's wrong with both of them? My money is bet on your supplementation schedule. One just took longer to show the symptoms than the other. You're giving RepCal Ca/D3 too often. Any D3 is too often with them getting natural UVB exposure on a daily basis . Miner-All (O) ["O" meaning that it's for chameleons kept Outside thus no added D3.], which is the one with the "red label" should be their only supplemented calcium source. Normally I would recommend that you use Miner-All (O) maybe once or twice a week with gutloaded, high quality feeders that have a typical commercial feeder calcium to phosphorus ratio. In your case, you might want to stop all supplementation for 3-4 weeks and let levels get lower while watching for changes, hopefully improvements. Try Herptivite once or twice a month after stopping for a month.

Your first photo shows gular edema. That can be brought-on by over-supplementation. Fluids are building-up in the chest cavity and sloshing forward into the gular region when he is tipped head-down.

Summary:

For the next 3-4 weeks, stop all supplementation.
Make sure full shade is available, especially when above 80F.

If you want your vet to do something, have a blood test done to check for kidney function,and calcium to phosphorus ratios and overall levels. Otherwise, skip the blood test and just wait to see what reducing supplementation does.

Continue with lots of misting to help them flush the excess supplements out of their systems.

 

[bucky]

whats weird is that when I took Louie to a herp vet(knows all about chameleons)she said that it was his kidney not working and suggested I give him a little bit more calcium.

 

[CleanLineChameleons]

Dave is right. I also noticed the edema but the second pic looked ok and I didn't want to put everything on your plate at once. The edema is defininately from your supplementing schedule. I am still leaning towards low humitity/drafts as a problem. Your humidity right now is at 50% which is fine but if their is a constant draft on them I feel it can cause eye issues. I would not put a tarp over them at night because it will hold in the humitity but also bacteria which can cause problems. I would see if I could put a barrier so there is not a constant draft as well as bump down your supplementing.

-chris

 

[chameleonsPR]

Sambava not opening eye

Also the sambava released spermplug on Friday I don't know if it has to do with it. Today i return to my cage area around 3:00 pm and the temp has changed quite a bit , it is really hot today. I placed the thermo/hygrometer and the bottom of cage and it was posting 98.8 degrees, 37 % humidity. i have other two thermometers which were porsting higher temps of 103.1 in the floor but the sensor was in the metal screen were the temp go higher. i am posting pics of Gomez after shower and drops he is looking much better and keeps his eye open for a very long time as long as he is not in the cage were he tends to close it. I have him in my terrace in a ficus where he can take sun if he wants. I also cut some plants last week around the cages which gave them some shade. I think the problem might be this high temps , because it isnt unsual here but lately it is gfetting very hot in the daytime and very cold at night. Local weather channel for 00968 zipcode is posting 86 farenheight and 55 humidityand says it feels like 89 degrees. Why is is so different form the temps in the cages. I will stop all supplements , but i am starting to beleive it can be the temps which are all over lately. I will try to shade the are as it was before. The other pics are of the Panther Cages and the other two are of 2 veiled cages beside them.

Thanks for everything you been great

 

[bucky]

Ya,i notice outside of the cage Louie has his eyes opened,not in the cage.