Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ever since I bought my Blue Tegu from the Florida International Reptile Expo, he has had "squinty eyes". I've taken him to the vet now for over a month...we tried an injectable antibiotic, (Slovene I think), and a triple antibiotic gel to rub on his eyes, and just now another antibiotic for his eyes. The vet said she would talk to a colleague of hers in Jacksonville that specializes with herps, and then call me back, but she never did...i'm assuming that they've run out of options. Other than that the tegu is in perfect health. He's doubled in weight since I got him, seems perfectly fine. Only thing is the squinty eyes, which I can tell are impairing his vision. The Vet thought it might be conjunctivitis, but if it was that the antibiotic would have cured it. Could it just be some form of deformity?

NOTE IN ALL OF THE FOLLOWING PICTURES OF DIEGO, THE GRAYISH LOWER LID THAT JUST PLAIN SHOULDNT BE THERE...

Have you tryed anuother vet? You can email my vet and probly some pictures. His name is Dr. Kennth Harkiwtiz. His Email is Harkherp@aol.com .Also try Ron and Stella they my be able to help. Good luck Russ

I have had this (or something like this) happen in 2 T. teguixin. Both were purchased at seperate times, but placed in similar cages. The first one I noticed was doing it after I placed him on a substrate of primarily peat moss, and I attributed it to dust irritating the eyes. After changing the substrate it remained, but after approximately 2 months in my care with a normal feeding schedule of primarily rodents it stopped entirely. I should mention that this first tegu was given to me (sight unseen) after being released by an owner who didnt know much about care-it had never had proper temps, always kept on newspaper, fed primarily that canned tegu food, etc.
The second was when I placed a tegu that had only been on cypress before in a cage with dirt/peat. Her eyes became swollen approximately a half hour after changing the substrate, but after changing the ratio of peat/dirt it dissapeared.
But I think we might be talking about two different things. My tegus had slightly swollen eyes, which they would only open maybe a third of the way, then keep closed mostly. Yours seems to be different. Just thought I would put that out there.

SAME THING HAPPENED TO ME! My black and white had major shedding problems (probably stunted his growth), he only had one eye like that, lower eyelidthingy. Well it looks like his eye lid except it was the SHED!!!! Understandable because the eyelid shed was black as well so it looked like an eyelid. I peeled it off and he had round eyes again. I wouldnt try this if your sure its his eyelid (duh) But if you see a gap between his eye and the lid then Im right. Bring it to the vet, and see if he see what I mean. It was hard to come off, I actually thought it was his eyelid at one point because it was so tough.

Good luck,
Mike

I truly don't know, and it must frustrating that your vet doesn't either. The only times I have seen anything that looks familiar was with two conditions, the first was vitamin A deficiency, the second was due to over exposure to UV light. (*If I recall, the photo was of a green iguana in Dr. Frye's book)

Is there any discharge? Were the animal's eyes ever functioning normally?

His eyes were like this when I purchased him. I know I shouldn't have bought him with an obvious health problem, but the breeder I bought it from told me that it wasn't a health problem, the tegu was "just cold" and when he warmed up his eyes would open. So basically I got swindled, but his eyes have been like this since I got him back in May...Once...at the breeder actually, I thought I saw a discharge...but never have I seen one sense. It's really baffling as to what this could be. Like I said, if it was conjunctivitis, I think 3 different antibiotics would have taken care of it. I'm going to try my vet one more time this week with some of the suggestions you guys gave me, if that doesn't work, Ill try another vet. I wish Diego would just get better.

Chris and Diego

Antibiotics will take care of conjunctivitis caused by bacteria. Conjunctivitis, at least in humans, may also be caused by viral infection, in which case the infection will simply have to run its course (which in humans is usually only a few days to a couple of weeks).