Reptile & Amphibian Forums

the 'pop-eye disease'? i dont know if i spelled it right , but i had a jackson...he was sooo pretty*sniff sniff* and i didnt get him into a vet in time and he died of it. the local reptile store have awesome people in it and i went there to see what was wrong with louie(my old jackson) and they said a cricket probley poked it in the eye. it took a night to swell 4 times as big as his normal eye size...so if anyone has that problem with your cham. i advise you to get him/her to the best reptile vet asap! before its too late so you dont have to go through what i did

brittany

I've never heard of this "disease". Very unlikely a crix poked a cham in the eye. Eye injuries often show a closed eye, crusty eyelids and oozing rather than massive swelling. Eye problems are often symptoms of other general health issues so there is no one single cause of swollen eyes. There are reports of a myxo-or-retrovirus in chams that can cause edema and swelling of the eye turret, but I don't know if there has been a clear description of it. You could search the archives at www.adcham.com for viruses and see if anything comes up. I know a few longtime keepers of montane chams had trouble with this. Sorry I don't know more about it and have never seen it myself. Most vets won't be much help either, but if a cham has swelling or fluid buildup anywhere one thing a vet can do is check for kidney function with a blood test.

I'm nearly 100% certain that this is usually caused by too much D3 or Vit A. I have seen it almost totally in montane species, and of those, about 90% of them were jacksonii. There's probably a vit/mineral imbalance somewhere...

Interesting theory Eric,

I had a few month old male jacksonii I bought from a breeder, from clutch of six, and when I got him he didn't open his one eye the whole time I had him. He would rub it on everything, it was swollen about 3 times the normal size, and it had an oozy substance inside of his eye that looked like that clear-drying glue. There are no reptile vets anywhere near me so going to the vet was not an option, and no pet stores around here have chameleons of any type, plus he was only a few inches long and would be delicate to have something done to him.

Anyways, he died 9 days later. The breeder and I didn't vitamin supplement his food very much because we both knew jacksonii were quite susceptable to being over-dosed with even small ammounts. He had a good set up and proper humidity/temsps, and I have still wondered to this day what the problem was. I think it was a bite from a feeder because the cage he shipped it to me in had some pinheads and a few dozen fruit flies.

-Brock

I would think if this was in fact a systemic problem (either overdose or deficiency or disease) it would affect both eyes at some point. So, hard to say in the end. There are probably lots of unknown diseases we simply haven't figured out yet.

that's a good point. In the cases when the problem persisted for weeks, it often did occur in both eyes. It seems that they don't always start swelling at the same time though.

Is this what you are talking about?
I have seen this a couple of times and can not figure out what it is from. The specimens are not treated any differently with regards to feeding, nutrition, or environment than the other chameleons of the same species that are kept. I have not had this happen enough times to figure out what it is and the animals have always died after this symptom manifests itself. For me the swelling has not responded to eye swabs or oral baytril. I have had it occur in one eye and also in both eyes. I will join the group of people that would like very much to figure out what causes this!
Bill Strand

that looks like it. Has anyone found out what exactly is IN the eye to make it swell?? Is it fluid build up?

Good picture Bill, if my hatchling would have been blown up to scale to that adult, it would have been about the same size.

Someone mentioned this occurs mostly in montane species. Perhaps it has something to do with elevation? Like an inner ear infection creates problems when people fly, that a montane species, adapted to higher elevation, has fluid buildup problems when they are at low elevations.

I realize that they are not taken from high elevations and then put into low elevations, they are captive bred, but perhaps their bodies have adapted for the past few million years or so to live exclusively at high elevations. But then that would leave us with all the ones that don't have problems, it's hard to say what it is.

Could also be genetic, as most of the jacksonii xantholophus in North America are basically from Hawaii when that pet store owner released them into the wild after he got his shipment, it could be a genetic trait passed on through the generations; like cheetahs in the wild are so genetically similar that if a single virus was lethal to one, the whole species would be wiped out. But then that leaves us with the other montane species, although this is dominant in jacksonii.

-Brock

If you surveyed other keepers who have less known montane chams I bet you'd find more species that can show this. Ouch! It looks really uncomfortable to say the least!!! I've never seen anything like this. I often wonder if there is a circulatory or lymph system parasite that could cause massive edema because it damages or blocks the vessels. I know such parasites infect mammals/primates/man in the tropics.

I have a panther chameleon that is WC but has been captive for almost three years. He gets a similar swelling in his eyes at night, only if he is hanging head down as he sleeps. The swelling is not as large as in your photo. I would say about half or one third as much swelling. He also gets swelling in his chest, also only at night. He has been to the vet for it but since it goes away during the day and his bloodwork checks out fine the vet could do nothing except suggest what I have already been doing for over a year. Not supplementing him at all and just really gutloading his crickets well. His calcium levels were good so it hasn't hurt him. Also the vet suggested it could be due to old age. No one knows how old Salvador is. He has been in the country 3 years and was full grown when he came in to the country. His vet says he even looks like an old guy.
He has been swelling like this for over 8 or 9 months.