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I need advice about my juvenile Argentine Red Tegu. For the past few months we've noticed that her eyelids are getting swollen while she is in her cage. We have changed the substrate numerous times, no luck. We tried washing everything inside. Then we noticed there were ants in her cage. We took care of the ants but her eyes still get puffy. The confusing thing is that the swelling goes away when she gets a bath. Every time. Then when we put her back in her enclosure, they swell up again within ten minutes. This is getting extremely frustrating for us, and I'm sure the Tegu is very uncomfortable as well.

Has anybody had this problem?
Could this be an allergy of some sort?
Or do ants give off some sort of chemical that could be irritating? Other than the swelling she is acting normal.

Please help if you can!!!!!
THANK YOU!

What is the cage made of, and what substrate are you using?

The only things that I can think of are she either has scratches on the surface of her eye, or the ants are biting her eyelids, I'd get rid of the ants first if you haven't already and visit a vet to have her eyes checked for scratches. If that doesn't solve the problem or answer any questions, its something else.

my argentine red female did that after she woke up from the winter. she had old shed on her face and her eyelids, and it squeezed her eyelids out, they looked all puffy. take a closer look at your tegu's eyes and look for old shed.
as soon as i peeled the old shed off, she was fine. -k