Small Scab and Eye Rubbing

[GlennFrog]

Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - Female Veiled Chameleon, Est. Age 3-4 months, I've had her for about three weeks.
Handling - I handle her as little as possible; I've tried the shower method to get her hydrated but other than that the handling has been minimal.
Feeding - I feed her 5-6 small/med gutloaded crickets a day. I don't know what my pet store uses to feed their crickets. I also installed a small plastic cup to use to feed her mealworms and a few waxworms.
Supplements - ZooMed ReptiCalcium w/o D3, dusting every feeding, Reptivite multivitamin w/D3 every week and a half or so.
Watering - I have a Big Dripper set on top of the cage that drips down over the plastic climbing plants. I mist twice a day for about 30sec-1min, until I see the water dripping off of the plants. I've seen her drink well finally, so I'm no longer as concerned in that regard.
Fecal Description - Normal-looking brown, solid droppings. She may have been tested for parasites by the pet store but I haven't taken her to a vet.
History - She came from a local pet store that seemed to be taking good care of her. She liked the heat lamp that I recently stopped turning on because of advice that I received on these forums about keeping females somewhat cooler (low 80s range).

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Screen cage, 18" Wide x 18" Deep x 36" Tall.
Lighting - All Living Things 18" Slimline UVB light; I also have daytime and nighttime heat lamps that are not in use currently.
Temperature - The cage is kept in the low 80s, that is mainly maintained by the outside temp of my area (Southern California).
Humidity - Right now her cage is in the low 50% humidity range, misting as stated above.
Plants - All of the plants provided are artificial.
Placement - The cage is in the corner of the room in a low traffic area. It is not near any fans or air vents. The top of the cage is approx 5.5-6ft off the floor.
Location - I live in Southern California.

Your Current Problem - I noticed that she was rubbing her eye against the plant she was hanging on. I've read that eye rubbing is normal but I also noticed a small scab looking area on the eye she was rubbing. I couldn't get a very good picture of it; I'm trying my best not to stress her out, and she likes to stand so that the eye with the scab(?) is facing toward the wall of the cage. I can try again if you guys need a better pic. I'm assuming I need to see a vet, but how urgent might it be? Is there anything I can do to help her in the meantime? Also, she has some unshed skin on the tip of her tail: this is normal too, right?

 

[camimom]

you can try to get some saline drops (like people who have contacts use) make sure the saline ingredients says only saline, and put a drop or two in the eye.
you can also do extra extra long warm water mists and/or showers.

If it doesn't stop after a day or two, then you need to see a vet, cuz it may be an infection, or injury

 

[GlennFrog]

I'll try both of those. Thanks for the quick response!

 

[Scoobthenoob]

Also keep us posted

Keep us posted...

please

 

[GlennFrog]

So I couldn't find a pure saline solution. Everything I found had at least some small amount of one chemical or another. Would any of those be appropriate? By small I mean fractions of a percent. Or does it have to be 100% pure saline?

 

[Scoobthenoob]

Here is what you do..... Take 100ml of water and boil it, then add 1g of table salt and stir until dissolved.

Allow water too cool, you will need a pippett draw amount up and drip over the affected area.

I would do this 3 times a day so long as it does not cover stress your chameleon.

Keep us posted, if he is still having problems after 72 or gets worse then a VET is needed.

 

[Scoobthenoob]

The above is approximately same ratio as

Minims® Saline 0.9% w/v. Eye Drops, solution. Sodium Chloride

Sodium Chloride is of course what we know as table salt.

The boiling should remove any harmful impurity from the tap water, if possible use RO water still boil this.

 

[GlennFrog]

So a small amount of salt is fine, then? I think I saw a few that just had salt in them, but I thought that there needed to just be 100% saline only. I'll check the stores again and if nothing works I'll see about making my own drops. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[Scoobthenoob]

Saline is

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saline_(medicine)

Whilst making your own it will not be medicine grade, it will do the same job.

A basic definition of saline is salt water.

 

[Scoobthenoob]

the mix I gave you is precise

The mix of 100ml water to 1g of salt will give you a 1% solution, as this is not for IV we can afford a 1% solution.

 

[Scoobthenoob]

as for fractions of a %

Normal saline is sodium chloride @0.9%
The other 99.1% needs to be water

For our home brew we are safely rounding to achieve a considerably higher salt concentrate of 0.1% making our solution 1% b v.

And a very cost effective alternative to counter eye drops.

Bit so long as you make sure the only 2 ingredients are Sodium Chloride and H20..

Then this will be a much more expensive remedy.

 

[GlennFrog]

Alright, thanks Scoobthenoob. I'll try a long, warm misting first to see if that does the trick, and then I'll move on to eye drops. Hopefully one of those two will fix the problem.

 

[Scoobthenoob]

Sorry for going over the top but..

Make sure the solution is Sodium Chloride, salt is a generic term in chemistry, there are many different salts, it is imperative when purchasing saline solutions that the only ingredients other than water is NaCl.....

 

[GlennFrog]

So after a long, warm misting she was able to remove what seems to have been a stubborn little patch of sheddable skin. It must have been itching pretty seriously because she seemed glad to be rid of it, and she kept rubbing the area for another good 20-30 seconds. Now if she could just get that stubborn skin off the tip of her tail we'd both be happy.

 

[Scoobthenoob]

If you can handle here...

And if she will let you...

Warm water and fingers.. ..

you might want to look at your humidity.

Try and have at least a long period where that humidity is @ 60% and, when you notice the slough starting, increase the over all humidity.. it is a balancing act.. there need to be dry periods amongst the humidity.