Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Welcome to kingsnake.com's message board system. Here you may share and discuss information with others about your favorite reptile and amphibian related topics such as care and feeding, caging requirements, permits and licenses, and more. Launched in 1997, the kingsnake.com message board system is one of the oldest and largest systems on the internet.

Click here for Dragon Serpents
Click here for Dragon Serpents

EYES SHUT WIERD BEHAVIOR! PLEASE HELP!!!!!!

micky-kennie Mar 12, 2004 06:28 PM

Well, my 4 month old panther chameleon is acting really wierd. He constantly has his eyes shut. He'll walk around the screen of the cage and never open his eyes. I've taken him to a vet and she said that he had no eye infecion, and that he was a little dehydrated. She rehydrated him, gave him some mineral oil, and some sort of parasite medicine(she said it has no side effects so thats why she used it in stead of something else.) He still isn't eating (doesn't even open his eyes to see the food)and isn't really drinking. I syringe drip water on to him and I haven't witnessed any drinking. He is now in a room so that his cage is 80 degrees in cool areas and 100 in basking areas. He has lots of folige, his cage is screen and plenty big, I have a MV bulb for uv and supplament with miner all with vit. d3. Any thoughts or suggestions would be very much apreciated. Thanks!

Replies (4)

lele Mar 12, 2004 07:00 PM

I can only comment on the hydration (will let more experienced keepers see if they can help with the eye thing)

If you can't get him to drink you can take him into the shower. I used to hang Luna on a fake vine which I put over a bar perpendicular to the shower rod and turn the shower on. First I would have it on hot so it would mist up the bathroom (making sure she didn't get any hot spray). Then after it got good and steamy I would bring the temp down and slowly let it spray on her. Not all at once or she would freak. I know that's a bit long but wanted to give you the details. As was advised by someone on here when I was experimenting with this was to make sure the room her cage is in was nice and toasty when I returned her so that there was no temp shock.

I also used a syringe to drip on her, but it was usually after I would spray her with warm water (not her face, just her body) that she would respond.

Hope this helps and you get answers to the eye problem! Have you tried to take the very tip of a tissue moistened wiht warm water and hold it on his eye (gently) to see if he reacts and maybe opens - I am guessing it is some sort of infection, but don't really know.

lele

lele
>>Well, my 4 month old panther chameleon is acting really wierd. He constantly has his eyes shut. He'll walk around the screen of the cage and never open his eyes. I've taken him to a vet and she said that he had no eye infecion, and that he was a little dehydrated. She rehydrated him, gave him some mineral oil, and some sort of parasite medicine(she said it has no side effects so thats why she used it in stead of something else.) He still isn't eating (doesn't even open his eyes to see the food)and isn't really drinking. I syringe drip water on to him and I haven't witnessed any drinking. He is now in a room so that his cage is 80 degrees in cool areas and 100 in basking areas. He has lots of folige, his cage is screen and plenty big, I have a MV bulb for uv and supplament with miner all with vit. d3. Any thoughts or suggestions would be very much apreciated. Thanks!
-----
0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 green anoles Jaida & Jetta
0.1 brown anole - Jamaica
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta

chunks_89 Mar 12, 2004 07:49 PM

I also don't know anything about eye infections, but one thing i do know about is temperature for a veiled cham.
Your enclosure is way too hot, I don't think it has anything to do with the eye infection but the dehydration might be a by-product of overheating. (does he ever gape for long periods of time?)
The temps should be a 90-95 degree basking site, and the ambient temp should be 70-75. In order to lower the temperature, you might want to attatch the MV bulb higher than you have it now.
If you live in hot climate, then ventilate the area well.

Hope he gets better!!!

ulvirys Mar 12, 2004 08:16 PM

It does sounds like dehydration all though I am not an expert. Does the cham eyes seems to be dry and kinds of "falling" inside his head? Try to push his skin up so it creates a wrinkle and then let it go, if the skin smoothes itself then dehydration less likely to be a problem otherwise you need to bring humidity level up 70% and higher.
What kind of environment do you keep your cham?
I have 4 month old Panther cham and keep him in aquarium - some people would disagree. However, Panthers come from high humidity regions and as a juvenile they cannot really control/adjust their body temperature and that’s when aquarium comes in handy. It is not that hard to bring humidity level up, just manually mist (mist it well) aquarium 2-3 times a day, also place a bowl with water under the heating lamp (that would help to maintain humidity and make sure it's shallow otherwise your cham may drown if it happens to fall in it) and on top of that I use dripping system. With dripping system it is kind of pain to keep the water off the bottom of the tank but you can be sure that your cham won't dehydrate.
As I said before, I am not a specialist and probably somebody would have much better answer but that's what morks for me.

wish you luck

epollak Mar 13, 2004 06:22 PM

Your temps are way too hot. Get the basking down to 90 and the rest of the cage into the low 70s or hi 60s.

I'm guessing your cham is suffering from chronic suboptimal hydration. Read the hydration article at www.chameleonjournals.com.

Chronic dehydration will be exacerbated by over supplementation. With the MV bulb you should NOT be giving any D3. And I'm guerssing that you're also overdosing him on calcium and other vitamins & minerals. If you're gut loading your prey properly, you dopn't need to supplement more than once every 2-4 weeks. What you're doing is likely causing great harm to his kidneys, further exacerbating his dehydration.
Ed

Site Tools