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I am terribly worried about Cobalts' condition at this time. For everyone who doesn't know, Cobalt is my Ambanja/Nosy Be panther Chameleon. This morning and throughout the day, he has been perfectly content. Then, his left eye snapped shut.

I thought he may have just been cleaning it, but when he re-opened it, the bottom of the cornia, within the eye, was matted with blood. I think he may have severed a vain in his eye. His vision in that eye is totally distorted due to the blood at the bottom, and I think he may be totally blind in that eye, as he didn't react when I took his picture- but when I tried to snap a shot of the other 'normal' eye, he hesitated and began to hiss. I also attempted to feed him crickets, and as always, he went for one. He ended up totally missing by inches! It is so heartbreaking seeing him in this State.

I really hope that this was out of my grasp, and it wasn't something caused by my care. Other than that- He's perfectly fine. That hardely even phases him. I'm scheduling a vet appointment ASAP, but in the meantime, any advice? Please, all comments are welcome. Ive' included a photo of the problematic eye...Thank you...

Michele

Eye pic (Blood at bottom of eye)

Wow. I'm sorry to hear about Colbalt... That is really weird!! Could he have scratched it or poked it with something... or maybe tried to scratch it with his foot and poked it with his nail??? I wish I knew what to tell you, but keep us posted and I would keep him away from anykind of dust or anything that could get in his eye and aggrivate it worse or maybe even cause an infection.. Good Luck and tell Colbalt to get better soon. Maybe even promise him a Girlfriend!! Keep us posted!!
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Feenie

Hey Michele - There probably is not much you can do before getting to the vet (can you get in in the morning?) When I was around 17 y.o. my eye began "bleeding" for no apparent reason and all else was fine. It slowly faded. It was weird! Not sure if he will let you, but cold compress may at least help constrict any dilated blood vessels - mere speculation.

Please keep us posted and I hope you get more info from other members. Good Luck!
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Chameleon Help & Resource Info

0.1 Veiled Chameleon - Luna. She's now hanging from her big jungle gym in the sky
1.0 Beardie - Darwin
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Lita
0.1 African Clawed Frog - Skipper
0.1 Mad. Hissers and she's back!
0.1 Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Rosa Leigh
0.1 Goliath Bird-Eater Tarantula - Natasha
?.? Pinktoe Tarantula - no name yet

It also looks somewhat sucken. I suggest you ease off one misting Cobalt directly. Since, they always rub their eyes to get water out, misting will just irritate it. He'll be fine with lower humidity and less spraying for a couple days I think.
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CANADIAN CHAMELEONS

OR ELSE! LOL- I'm just kidden'! Ok-ok, I'll lay off the spaying for a while and just leave his humidifier on. He seems to be doing much better, and I'll just swing him by the vets as soon as I can.

But...If he doesn't get better...I'm blaming you... KIDDING!
He'll be fine.

Michele

Thanks for the Support, guys!

When is your vet appt?
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CANADIAN CHAMELEONS

I can't tell you what could have caused the blood in the eye, but I'm pretty sure that its not something you could have done to have it happen. I'm glad that you are going to a vet though.

In the meantime,if he is blind, this is what I did when I had a panther chameleon lose his eye to cancer...

He couldn't hit an insect when he shot his tongue out...but he was definitely hungry and willingly took insects from my fingers...so I fed him by hand until he could learn how to hit them by himself. To help him figure out where the bugs were, I got waxworms because they would move slowly and he could take more than one shot at them before they moved very far. He would try and he would miss at first but soon learned that if he moved his head back and forth a bit from side to side, he could judge the distance to the insect. I also continued to hand-feed him extra insects during this learning period...just to make sure he got enough. Within a month of the surgery he was about 80% accurate.

I hope Cobalt will co-operate with you regarding the feeding and learn to hit the insects again!
I hope all will go well for you at the vet's too!

There have been several studies about cham eye-to-tongue coordination that show that a cham blinded in one eye can learn to compensate pretty quickly. If the worst does happen and he is blind in that eye don't panic. Chances are he'll learn to shoot fine without it. Chams do have binocular vision in each eye due to a sort of double lens. I suspect many wc chams have subtle eye damage we simply don't catch...because they compensate so well. Wishing you luck!

I had a juvinile deremensis come in with one eye, and she ate fine. She missed no more than any other chameleon.