Reptile & Amphibian Forums

my bearded dragon was digging and got sand in her eye. i didnt notice until i picked her up and it was all stuck to the surrounding area and in her eye. it also appears that she has scratched her lower eyelid with her nail attempting to get the sand out. i have her a bath and throughly clean the area, she seems to be in quite a bit of pain though. what can i do?

Gently flush the area with water, using a needleless syrenge or turkey baster (clean of course). If the eye is still painful or gets worse in a day, take her to a vet right away. Grains of sand could be back behind the eyelids where water can't get to and it would just irritate the eye. ALso, your dragon coudl injure the eye more by trying to scratch the sand out.
-----
PHLdyPayne

hi. by the time i got your message my vet had closed for the night and no place around here treats reptiles becides them. i called this morning but i cant get her in until next week.so i used a syrenge with a tapered bottom to wash out her eye every few hours since last night, all the sand appears to be out and shes opening her eye and blinking without any pain. her eye has some clear discharge that is lessening everytime i clean her eye though. there doesnt appear to be any damage to the inside of the eye, no scratches, bleeding or anything, her lower lid is still a bit red but all in all it looks much better. she has a small cut on the lower lid, is it okay if i put poly-sporin creme/ointment on it? ive moved her to a tank without any sand in it(papertowl for a bottom) until it heals. anything else i should be doing? anything will help.. thanks