What's wrong with Fenix??

[maxttu]

I noticed that his eyes were bulging out today! Both of them! I misted the crap out of him and when I checked on him after lights out they seemed "better".

He has complete usage of his eyes, is very active and eating. I'll keep y'all posted. Damn worrisome chams!

*edit- his left eye seemed worse than the right. I lightly touched the puffy part and it wasn't solid or firm. It felt like a bag of air. Make sense?

 

[ataraxia]

Heya, he is doing this on purpose to make you worry. Chameleons are conniving like that.

See how he looks tomorrow.

 

[Carrie Anne]

Have you had him in a ficus tree at all? I ask this because our male panther developed eye problems when we started putting him in his ficus tree and it cleared up after we stopped putting him in it.

 

[AngieL]

Has he had any stress today max? When I had tealc at the vet she did this with her eyes and sucked them in too! I hope the little guy is ok fingers crossed for you!

 

[pigglett79]

Oh no, why do they like to freak us out so much? I hope he is ok.

 

[deadhd5]

My Nosy Be Moe did this one day and scared the crap out of me. The next day he was back to normal and hasn't put me through that again since.

I think it was stress that brought it on as I had moved him to a temporary cage that day.

 

[squeekz1992]

How do his eyes look today?

 

[mcbdz]

Hope he's back to normal. If you notice it again research Vit. A. I will start looking it up but do remember someone posting about panthers and vit. A Causing the eyes to bulge. He actually may need some? Anyone have an idea of what I'm thinking of?

 

[jannb]

That doesn't look good. Do you have a good chameleon vet? I'd go ahead and make an appointment, you can always cancel if you don't need it. Are you using a multi vitamin with A in it?

 

[maxttu]

It's looking a lot better today! I misted the crap out of him yesterday evening and this is what he looks like this morning after another good misting.

I'm currently using the Repashy all-in-one a couple times per week and alternating with cal no D3.

Thanks for your concerns and comments. I'll be sure to monitor this and keep y'all posted! Thanks again!

 

[ChameleonMom]

Oh no! Sorry to hear Fenix is having eye problems. My veiled Camo has eyes like that - he had an eye infection as a young man and it never completely cleared up. Recently, after some extensive research I decided to add a very small drop of vitamin A into his supplement schedule every 15 days. He's had 3 doses so far and I haven't seen any remarkable improvement but I am optimistic! I hope Fenix's eye's clear up soon!

Ps: He is such a beautiful Cham - puffy eyes or not!

 

[pigglett79]

If you are looking for some vitamin A they have a supplement at Repashy. I ordered it when my Jackson's was having some trouble.

 

[Lovereps]

Eye issues are fairly common cham troubles and can be caused by any of several things:
1) Infection, which can be due to injury, environmental issues, nutritional deficiencies or parasite problems
2) Malnutrition which can be caused by failing to gutload feeders or failure to feed a varied diet, improper supplementation, parasites or simply a higher need for a particular nutrient in an individual chameleon
3) Irritation--sometimes a cham's eye is irritated by something in their environment, such as too little humidity, sap from a plant or a bit of something getting into the eye (shed skin, soil particle, etc.)

The first 2 problems are best treated by a vet.
It is important is to carefully review your care, whenever a health issue arises, as even infections are often caused by environmental issues.

For the third problem, gentle, repeated flushing of a cham's eye with a sterile saline solution designed for use in eyes will typically clear things up, but if there isn't substantial improvement within a day or two, it's time to see a vet.
FWIW, I've used this one http://www.bausch.com/en/Our-Produc...Lens-Care-Products/Sensitive-Eyes-Plus-Saline
It goes without saying that if there is something in your cham's environment that caused the irritation, it should be remedied.

Vitamin A treatment at home can easily do more harm than good because too much vitamin A damages the liver/kidneys, as well as doing other undesirable things.
The safest way for a corrective dose of vitamin A to be administered is by an experienced reptile vet--who will inject a measured dose of vitamin A.

The danger of simply trying this or that is possibly fixing the problem only accidentally and temporarily--or in the worst instance, delaying necessary vet treatment until permanent damage is done.

Here are 3 more posts about eye troubles and other health issues:
http://seavs.com/lizards/chameleons.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/ataraxia/404-common-eye-problems-solutions-rev1-1.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/eye-problem-27421/index2.html

 

[anttu]

Sometimes chams puff out their eyes to just clean them up. If he's totally back to normal again, I wouldn't be loosing any sleep over it.

 

[ataraxia]

If im invading your space just leave it blank...whats your name maxttu?

From what i can see, Fenix does not have a deficiency. What he was doing is cleaning and he more than likely has debris in the eye. My guess would be he has some skin from his last shed.

Keep giving him long misting sessions. Worst case would be that you need a vet to remove the debris..

 

[tkilgour]

Wow, maxttu. I am glad that his eyes went back to normal. Hopefully, all is well for your cham now. I have seen chameleons do this to clean their eyes, but never to that extent. Like ataraxia said, he must have had something in his eyes like debris or old skin and was trying to clean them out.

 

[maxttu]

Eye issues are fairly common cham troubles and can be caused by any of several things:
1) Infection, which can be due to injury, environmental issues, nutritional deficiencies or parasite problems
2) Malnutrition which can be caused by failing to gutload feeders or failure to feed a varied diet, improper supplementation, parasites or simply a higher need for a particular nutrient in an individual chameleon
3) Irritation--sometimes a cham's eye is irritated by something in their environment, such as too little humidity, sap from a plant or a bit of something getting into the eye (shed skin, soil particle, etc.)

The first 2 problems are best treated by a vet.
It is important is to carefully review your care, whenever a health issue arises, as even infections are often caused by environmental issues.

For the third problem, gentle, repeated flushing of a cham's eye with a sterile saline solution designed for use in eyes will typically clear things up, but if there isn't substantial improvement within a day or two, it's time to see a vet.
FWIW, I've used this one http://www.bausch.com/en/Our-Produc...Lens-Care-Products/Sensitive-Eyes-Plus-Saline
It goes without saying that if there is something in your cham's environment that caused the irritation, it should be remedied.

Vitamin A treatment at home can easily do more harm than good because too much vitamin A damages the liver/kidneys, as well as doing other undesirable things.
The safest way for a corrective dose of vitamin A to be administered is by an experienced reptile vet--who will inject a measured dose of vitamin A.

The danger of simply trying this or that is possibly fixing the problem only accidentally and temporarily--or in the worst instance, delaying necessary vet treatment until permanent damage is done.

Here are 3 more posts about eye troubles and other health issues:
http://seavs.com/lizards/chameleons.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/ataraxia/404-common-eye-problems-solutions-rev1-1.html
https://www.chameleonforums.com/eye-problem-27421/index2.html

Wow! That's some great info! Thank you so much!

If im invading your space just leave it blank...whats your name maxttu?

From what i can see, Fenix does not have a deficiency. What he was doing is cleaning and he more than likely has debris in the eye. My guess would be he has some skin from his last shed.

Keep giving him long misting sessions. Worst case would be that you need a vet to remove the debris..

My handle is Maxttu and my name is Mike. I wouldn't think that he has any deficiencies. I gut load with dinofuel, bugburger, carrots, oranges, some kale and a commercial load from a local pet shop.

My dusting schedule for the past month or so has been all-in-one 2-3 x's/wk and Repcal no D3 in between the all-in-one. My boys get natural uv Fri evening thru Mon mornings every week. The weather has cooperated so I have not been using any D3.

I have been misting the crap out of him (directly to his head) these past two days. Normally they both get their cages misted thoroughly every 1 to 1 1/2 hrs. Humidity between mistings averages around 40%.

Wow, maxttu. I am glad that his eyes went back to normal. Hopefully, all is well for your cham now. I have seen chameleons do this to clean their eyes, but never to that extent. Like ataraxia said, he must have had something in his eyes like debris or old skin and was trying to clean them out.

Thanks. I'm not so sure that we're in the clear yet. His eyes bulged out again throughout the day, but not to the extent shown in my pics from yesterday.

I'll continue to monitor and mist as necessary. I'll also pick up some saline solution tonight and apply tomorrow.

 

[lisagr07]

Well... I do hope he quites blowing his eyeballs up!!! They can drive us crazy with their strange ways!!!! Our panthers eyes protrude way more than my Veilds,,, I kinda just figured that it was a trait of panthers...

 

[peacenlove]

correct me if im wrong, but he got water in his eye, chameleons have special eye valve things that collect water so when you mist them to much or they have there eyes open while misting it collects in there eye, they just rub there eye on a stick and it goes away. it happens to mine every once in a while and i did research and that's what i found out about it. i try to avoid there eyes when misting.

 

[ataraxia]

correct me if im wrong, but he got water in his eye, chameleons have special eye valve things that collect water so when you mist them to much or they have there eyes open while misting it collects in there eye, they just rub there eye on a stick and it goes away. it happens to mine every once in a while and i did research and that's what i found out about it. i try to avoid there eyes when misting.

Hi, I would definitely mist your chameleon so that the mist falls onto the eyes

Im interested in reading some material about the eye valve you are talking about. Do you mind sending me a pm or posting a link here for it please.