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My Baby Veiled has had one eye shut for several days now....im starting to get worried. Could he have something stuck in his eye that he cant get out? Ive seen him rubbing his face on a vine in his enclosure. He is eating fine and everything just this one eye. He climbs around, hunts his crickets, drinks his water...he does everything a chameleon would do normally, but he has one eye closed...Any Help would be appreciated.

P.S. Would A Vet Be necessary?

Thanks to all,
Khorne08

Hi there,

If a chameleon has his eye closed it might be something stuck in his eye, Like a tiny piece of wood or a grain of sand or some dirt. Chams usually eject the foreign object from their eyes, but sometimes they cant. Try wetting a q-tip with warm water and washing it out gently. Or also try mineral oil when doing this. If the eye becomes troublesome or infected, you will have to take him to the vet. Ho pe this helped!!!

Anthony

Hi Khorne08,

The eye could have several different problems: foreign object; a scratch; sap from a plant; infection; dehydration.

We use mineral oil for stubborn shed spots, but not for putting in our chameleons' eyes.

Our recommendations would be to try misting with warm water for several minutes - or put the cham on a plant in the shower. Aim the flow of water against the wall - this will splash water into the plant for your cham. The water should be slightly warm (test on your wrist). Mist or shower like this at least 3 times a day until he opens the eye, and then perhaps only once per day for 2 days after. This will hopefully dislodge any object.

If it is a scratch or infection, then Terramycin ointment or Gentamicin drops should be used. Terramycin is available at your vet's counter, and at some pet stores (no prescrption necessary). The antibiotic drops will require your vet.

Apply a small amount of the ointment to your pinkie finger tip, then gently smooth over the cham's entire eye turret. You do not want a glob - but you want a coating on the entire eye. We apply the ointment twice per day. You can do this after his shower or heavy misting.

If he is dehydrated, the showers/misting will do the trick - and you will know that he requires more moisture. If there was something lodged - the showers/misting should help and he will not need to rub his face on the branches.

Check your plants too... some ficus (and other plants) can excrete sap when a leaf or stem breaks off, and this can irritate cham eyes. The Terramycin will usually help in this case too.

Hope this helps,
Morgana - Reptayls, Ltd.

np

Hi-

As Morgana - Reptayls, Ltd said the fine mist is great with helping flush out the eyes. Now that my panthers are outside there mister goes for 15min and they are always using that time to flush there eyes out (they don't have any eye problems what so ever) and drink. Keep a close eye (LOL) on him, if he/she stops eating/drinking then there could be internal problems (liver/kidney), a closed eye could be a sign of something worse or as simple as something in the eye (example; skin, vitamin/calcium dust(but if you notice when a chameleon shoots his tongue out on the way back in it shuts its eyes) that can be flushed out) if gone undetected turns in to an infection. If this is the case then a vet will be needed. How long have you had it before this happened? Sap from a ficus getting into the eye is very unlikely, the chameleon must rub its eye directly on a fresh drop of the sap (example; broken leaf or branch). Just some thoughts! Hope this helps!
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John @ Chameleon Paradise
1.1 Ambilobe Panthers
1.1 Nosy Be Panthers
1.1 Sambava Panthers
1.2 Rhampholeon uluguruensis

His eye is now open! But today he did the sweetest thing... he was sitting on my hand and he "popped his eye out" and started rubbing it on my hand. NEways... Thanks to all the great advice...