yemen chameleons eye wont open

[lizzleberry]

hi
just fed my baby (abut 3 weeks old) yemen chameleon his first wax worm
i hadnt noticed it before this, but one of his eyes seems stuck closed
i have no idea why
he has a ubv light, curtains are open during the day, today he went without a heat lamp because his blew and i have just gotten him a new one
he has one real plant, his other real plant died yesterday so i removed it and put in a new fake plant from my geckos enclosure which he seems pretty happy with because he can hide in it
he has had a few crickets
i have not actually seen him drink, i mist his cage twice a day, and his drip system is running for a few hours every day as well
he seems ok, when i got home half a hour a go he was basking in the warm evening sun, now ive turned his lights out for the night
i dont know what to do :/
can anyone help?

 

[beeze]

If you'll answer these questions the members will be better able to help you.

How to ask for help

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Here is some recommended information to include when asking for help in the health clinic forum. By providing this information, you will receive more accurate and beneficial responses. It might not be necessary to answer all these questions, but the more you provide the better. Please remember that even the most knowledgeable person can only guess at what your problem may be. Only an experienced reptile veterinarian who can directly examine your animal can give a true diagnosis of your chameleon's health.


Chameleon Info:
Your Chameleon - The species, sex, and age of your chameleon. How long has it been in your care?
Handling - How often do you handle your chameleon?
Feeding - What are you feeding your cham? What amount? What is the schedule? How are you gut-loading your feeders?
Supplements - What brand and type of calcium and vitamin products are you dusting your feeders with and what is the schedule?
Watering - What kind of watering technique do you use? How often and how long to you mist? Do you see your chameleon drinking?
Fecal Description - Briefly note colors and consistency from recent droppings. Has this chameleon ever been tested for parasites?
History - Any previous information about your cham that might be useful to others when trying to help you.

Cage Info:
Cage Type - Describe your cage (Glass, Screen, Combo?) What are the dimensions?
Lighting - What brand, model, and types of lighting are you using? What is your daily lighting schedule?
Temperature - What temp range have you created (cage floor to basking spot)? Lowest overnight temp? How do you measure these temps?
Humidity - What are your humidity levels? How are you creating and maintaining these levels? What do you use to measure humidity?
Plants - Are you using live plants? If so, what kind?
Placement - Where is your cage located? Is it near any fans, air vents, or high traffic areas? At what height is the top of the cage relative to your room floor?
Location - Where are you geographically located?

Current Problem - The current problem you are concerned about.


Pictures are helpful

 

[lizzleberry]

hi

Pascal is a male yemen chameleon, not very old, probably not quite one month, his body is the length of my index finger, and i brought him home a week ago

i havent handled him yet, he will eat from my hand though, and at one point when i was trying to hand feed him, he ignored the cricket and used my finger as some kind of bridge between two branches ^^ im waiting until i feel he has settled down before i try and get him to be handled, so far if my hand goes in his flex without food, he backs away slowly

im feeding him small crickets at the moment,today he didnt seem interested so i dumped a few in the bottom, and he had a wax worm for the first time today, which i think may have been too big for him :/

i use a "little dripper" with shop bought water, that goes on for a hour twice a day, and in the morning i mist his plants until theyre dripping, and in the afternoon i mist them

he doesnt poop much, his most recent was dark brown, had a white bit, an a yellow bit

pascal came from a small but tightly packed reptile store, kept in a terrarium with other babies, bred in captivity

i have the exoterra flexarium 38, i hope to get the 100 gallon version when pascal is a bit bigger

i have a reptiglo 5.0 uvb bulb, it goes on at 0630 and off at 7 - 8ish

i use a pro rep 60w basking spot lamp for lighting, this morning he went without a heat bulb because hes 100w green bulb blew, i got another one after about 9 hours of him waking up

i use an unreliable hygrometer to measure humidity. i have been told by countless people on reptile forums that they dont use them because they're abit rubbish (£7. *sigh*) i mist the flex twice daily and im sure the plants will keep up the humidity, although it is pretty sticky outside at the moment so humidity isnt such a big problem maintaining

i have a small but wide coleus plant, his lilac tree died yesterday so i have had to put in some more fake plants and vines which he isnt overly keen on :/ im having trouble finding a decent plant store but im on the look out

my flex is in my room, which is the only room at the top of the house, no one really goes in except me and my friend, sometimes my reptile loving sister or my mom, but not often (the art of yelling up the stairs when they need me), it is near a window, but not next to one, kind of between the two, so during the day there is always natural light and heat coming in, and the windows are usually open, even when it is cold, theyre open a bit. the top of my flex is 1.5 metres from the floor. i dont live near any busy roads, although you can hear the soft noise of the bigger road a few houses away from my road, never any sirens, the occasional drunken group of teenagers taking a stroll, but that is it. i live on the south coast of england, about a 2 minute walk from the sea, so you get the occasional waft of low tide, regular drizzle and the incredibly rare "heat wave"

hope this has helped.
my problem is that just this evening i noticed that one of his eyes was closed, i watched him for a minute and it opened once, then closed again and i havent seen it open since. i dont like to stare at him so i dont know if it looks swolen or anything but in my opinion they look a little wrinkly, i worry that he isnt drinking, mainly because i havent seen him drink but i know i mist him enough. it was near to the time he goes to sleep, i was about to start moving his bed time later but since i noticed his eye i decided not to start changing things yet. i havent seen anything stuck in or around his eye. i did however notice that under his joints there was some white skin. i dont know if this means anything?
thanks
liz
(very worried. but i worry about everything)

 

[Thezillaman21]

ok sounds good so far. idk what it could be you sound like your on track. maybe take him to a vet?

 

[lizzleberry]

i really dont want to do that :/ i was going to hope to god that nothing would go wrong until i could get him insured
my mom (who knows nothing about chameleons) reckons it is because he is tired. and one eye has just fallen asleep
i know that sounds like a lot of rubbish but could she be right?
what about if i put him in a steamy shower room? if it is from dehydration?

 

[ShortStack]

Most likely not from dehydration..

This could be the start of an issue arising from the green bulbs you have used previously.

 

[ShortStack]

It could also mean some type of issue pertaining to that one eye...

 

[camimom]

Can you take a picture of the affected eye pls? its possible he has something in it that is irritating him.

 

[ShortStack]

Can you take a picture of the affected eye pls? its possible he has something in it that is irritating him.

That would be a Good start to finding the exact issue.

 

[lizzleberry]

he's asleep right now so ill post a photo in the morning
i stopped using that bulb basically when it blew yesterday evening, the new one is not a colored one, although the lady in the store i bought him from said green lights are fine :/
what kind of issues would using the green bulb cause?
(the store has a good reputation for breeding reptiles, is not some backstreet shack or anything so im confident they know what they are talking about in there :/)

 

[ShortStack]

If lights are bothering a chameleon then it may shut it's eyes. Not saying this is the case, as we have not seen a picture, but you may be seeing a problem with the green lights right in front of you.

Remember I'm not saying that it's that for sure, but a possibility.

 

[lizzleberry]

yeah, i dont know, it seems a bit better this morning, it was stuck when i woke him up and looked a bit gummy, now it is open but he keeps squeezing it shut and then opening it again. the green light is gone, i did buy some wilko value spot bulbs but they were a bit on the bright side so i bought a pro rep basking spot light, just a creamy white light and he has been sitting under there for the morning, it is also quite humid in here due to the drizzle outside. maybe that's all he needed and it should get better, but ill ask at the store today.
do they normally go dark colors when theyre basking?
usually when he is basking in the afternoon sun (shines directly over half his flex, he sits on the door) he goes black, i havent seen him obviously basking under a lamp until just now and he was a very dark green, admittedly it had gotten cold in my room so he was probably trying to keep warm, but still, is that usually what happens?

 

[pbveiled]

I don't see anything about gut loading or supplements in your post. Are you gut loading the feeders? Are you giving him calcium and a multi-vitamin? If you are, what is your schedule?

 

[lizzleberry]

his first set of crickets i attempted to gut load, i dont know if they ate it or not, but the veg went mouldy so i had to throw it and the crickets out
i dust his crickets with t-rex chameleon dust which the experts in the store said was all they used on their chameleons and it worked fine, i am worried about how much of it to use, so some days i use it, some days i dont depending on if they look over dusted :/ this sounds terrible and i know it is but i cannot find anywhere that says how much to use. right now, basically he isnt getting much in the way of veg, so im worrying about vitamin A defficiency

 

[pbveiled]

I don't think that the trex product is sufficient. You should be dusting with calcium without phosphorous and D3 at every feeding, calcium with D3 twice a month, and a multi-vitamin twice a month. Here's a thread discussing the trex product. https://www.chameleonforums.com/t-rex-chameleon-dust-13486/

Gut loading the feeders is also very important. I use a commercial dry gut load product and varying vegetables and fruits.

There are very few stores that have 'experts' in chameleon care. I will always check here before following any advice from the pet store.

 

[imcurt]

My Vet see's a fair amount of veilds. 90% of them come in to his office dehydrated. Have you checked his skin temp while he's basking. you can do this by picking up a lazer thermonitor. My self I start babies with a 25 watt appliance clear bulb. then move up to a 40watt bulb and at 6 month they get a 60 watt bulb.It is also a good idea to let them cool off at night.If your house stays above 60 deg at night there is no need for a night heat source. Try to get a picture of your whole setup and your chameleon with a good look at his eyes. I feel it is very impotiant to have a automatic misting system. they are a big PART of the cure for dehydration!