Reptile & Amphibian Forums

my veiled still has something in his eye from shipping. i have had him for 4 days now and i have tried to mist him heavly to help his eye. he still opens it about once a day so it is not crusted shut. will a hot mist shower help? when should i use baytril for infections? where do i get baytril? please help

-chris

Do you know for certain he has something in the eye? Chams keep an eye shut for lots of reasons including stress, dehydration and vitamin/mineral imbalances as well as an actual injury. If there is no crusting, discharge, discoloration, or obvious change in the eye structure itself, chances are there is another problem going on. He is still recovering from the stress of shipping, so taking him out of his "new" enclosure for showers may just stress him out more. How are you spraying and keeping his cage humidified now? What is the humidity level? I think I would be conservative and make sure he's drinking, eating, and getting used to his new home. Make sure he has lots of privacy and dense foliage to drink off of. Keep track of the cage humidity, gutload your insects well, don't overdo the supplements, spray him with hot (by the time the spray hits his skin it will be warm, not cold) water and watch. You do NOT want to jump right in and treat some unknown problem with Baytril! It is potent and hard on chams, and may not do anything to help if there is no actual infection that is sensitive to that particular antibiotic. A vet would need to prescribe it, but it is often overused for the wrong problems.

I'm going to answer this a little simpler than Carlton and say;

If you are sure that there is someting IN its eyelid, the yes a warm shower could help. Make sure that you rebound the water off the wall in a way that the drops are not too large and overwhelming.

Just one persons opinion.
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1.1 Bearded Dragons
1.2 Maroantsetra Panther Chameleons
1.0 Long Tailed Grass Lizard
500 Escaped Crickets

Sorry, I don't mean to write complicated answers, but eyes are complicated things. I just read the earlier post about this little cham and didn't realize it was a baby. Giving any meds to a baby cham is dangerous, so I'd suggest being conservative and ruling out everything else before doing it. He's been through a lot, he's VERY small (and a lot of things can go wrong with such a tiny one), and chances are he is reacting the the stress of his trip and there is nothing actually wrong with the eye.

Please folks, let's not suggest using Baytril for undiagnosed problems! We all mean well by giving suggestions, but Baytril is often overused, it is potent and very hard on chams. If a client walks into a vet clinic with an exotic that the vet doesn't have much experience treating, they will look to the client for as much info as possible. If you start asking for or suggesting Baytril you may unintentionally mislead the vet. After all, Baytril is a broad spectrum drug and often works even if we don't actually diagnose a particular bacteria. We often think we don't have time to diagnose using cultures. There are other options. The vet should take samples from the cham (tissue, discharge, etc), culture to see if there is infection and what is causing it, then prescribe the least dangerous correct drug. I hope he comes around OK!

Chris,

Heres what I would do....(please excuse me if some of the sentences aren't gramatically correct; listenin' to Green Day as I type!)

I would, as everyone else suggested, put the little bloke on a small plant, and bounce luke-warm water off the side of the shower onto the plant and him. However, I would also DEFINETLY bring him to a vet asap. Chances are he will perscribe baytril, or a similar drug. Not to say that he is positive what the problem is (vets often diagnose exotics with medications simply because they don't know what the problem is but doesn't want to look bad because they don't know what they are doing), but it is worth a shot. Chances are, it is a respatory disease. I am almost certain. If it isn't, it is a parasite, which is a little rarer in this case, considering your circumstances, but describe your cage setup to me better and I can help more; better yet, get a pic. Also, where are you located; I can help you find a good vet.

Not to be pessimistic, but when a cham is as small as yours, it is very difficult, near impossible to help him once he starts "heading downhill".

Try your best, use common sense, read alot of books, even if it doesn't pertain to the problem at hand, and ask us any questions you might have. If a book doesn't have a chapter on illnesses, read it anyway; it is knowledge which you will need sometime in the future; and even if you don't "knowledge is power". Keep trying, and you will succeed. It DRIVES ME MAD when people like "eye-eatchams4fun" try to "drive away" new commers. And, untop of it all, act like he is such a good cham keeper!!! Lmfao, he is a fool. DON"T LISTEN!!! Stay with it, even if this one dies, you will get a nack for it soon; trust me.

As Frank Lloyd Wright once said: "I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen"

....Too, too true....

Ank-Inc.
Adam.

>>Chris,
>>
>>I would, as everyone else suggested, put the little bloke on a small plant, and bounce luke-warm water off the side of the shower onto the plant and him. However, I would also DEFINETLY bring him to a vet asap. Chances are he will perscribe baytril, or a similar drug. Not to say that he is positive what the problem is (vets often diagnose exotics with medications simply because they don't know what the problem is but doesn't want to look bad because they don't know what they are doing), but it is worth a shot. Chances are, it is a respatory disease. I am almost certain. If it isn't, it is a parasite, which is a little rarer in this case, considering your circumstances, but describe your cage setup to me better and I can help more; better yet, get a pic. Also, where are you located; I can help you find a good vet.
>>
>>Not to be pessimistic, but when a cham is as small as yours, it is very difficult, near impossible to help him once he starts "heading downhill".
>>
Stay with it, even if this one dies, you will get a nack for it soon; trust me.
>>
>>Ank-Inc.
>>Adam.
>>

Adam,

Did you forget that this is a one-month-old veiled? What makes you "almost certain" that a 4-wk veiled has an upper respiratory infection and needs Baytril or any other drug?

You continue to speculate by saying he could have parasites... great scott - would you prescribe fenbendazole too?!!

I agree completely with Carlton..... people need to exercise caution when communicating with new cham owners on this board.

The bottom line is that any sick animal needs to be seen by a vet. Baytril is a harsh drug and can do more damage than good in some cases. The vet has graduated from medical school - let him make the final diagnosis.

Showering a 4-wk veiled is tricky enough - let the professionals handle the prescriptions.

Hi,

When I said "it is worth a shot", I meant it is worth a try bringing him to the vet, not necasarily giving him baytril. He is not able to get baytril without a vet's perscription anyway. I AM almost certain that the vet will perscribe baytril. Just a hunch. Not to say that this is the best procedure to do with the little guy, but the vet, in my opinion will think so. Also, he isn't necasarily infected with upper reportory infection or parasites. It can be many things, but these are the most common, especilly for a begginner. Or, he may just be simply dehydrated; but I REALLY doubt that he has something stuck in his eye, despite him rubing it on a branch. Every chameleon I have ever had, which has been quite a bunch, that stated rubbing his eye on a branch has had URI or parasites. I have hardly ever had a cham get something stuck in their eye. If it was dehydration, I am rather sure that Chris would have mentioned his eyes sunken in, which is very obvious. It could be other things, but in his circumstances, a URI is the most common.

He is a one month old cham. You guys are right; baytril, and any medication for that matter is going to most likely harm him, but on the other side of the coin, if he does have a URI or similar sickness, with a cham that small it won't be long before he dies. There isn't much you can do Chris. I hate to be the pessimistic one yet again, but in MY OPINION, the chances of your cham surviving is very slim, despite bringing him to a vet. A one month old is so tiny. Giving him one drop of medicine might be 5 times the amount he needs, but you can't really give him a smaller dose. There isn't much you can do Chris. Keep him in the shower as much as you can, and make sure he doesn't lose weight (using your eye, cause you can't really weigh one that small easily). If you see him losing weight, post it, as there are other things you can do. YOU NEED TO BRING HIM TO THE VET!!! PLEASE post a pic!!! Just seeing the cham would help so much, and seeing you cage would help as well.

Also, Reptayls is right about me not perscribing medication; I shouldn't be. BRING HIM TO A VET CHRIS.

PS- What do you think it is Reptayls??? I have put in my 2 cents.

Ank-Inc.
Adam.

Adam,
You have to be careful what you tell people on these message boards - I am sure you know that by now.

My 2 cents??? To be quite candid, without seeing the cham, it would be foolish for me to speculate. It could be dozens of problems. It might be anything from a genetic problem to a miniscule fleck of matter in his eye. Since we don't know who bred the cham, who the parents were (hopefully not siblings - but not ruled out), how the cham is being housed and cared for (first hand knowledge) - it is really impossible to guess.

By what you have written, it also sounds like you know the vet he will take the cham to. Or do you just classify all vets in one generalization? Our vet surely would never prescribe Baytril for a 4 week cham - that I know for certain. He has been our vet for over 5 years and I think I know some things about his approach to such problems.

i put lemmiwinks(my veiled) in the shower yesterday morning. i put the shower as hot as it would go and sprayed the water over the top of the plant where none of the main stream water was touching the plant. the only water that was hitting him was the hot mist or steam in the shower stall. i left him in there for about 5 min and then put him back in his cage. today he seems to have his eye open a little more. also when i scratch the screen next to him in his cage he now opens his eye to see what it is instead of turning his head. i can see improvment! i think im going to do it again tommorrow because he did not seem to mind the hot steam at all. thanks everyone for helping!!!

thanks,
-chris & lemmiwinks-

That's good news! I would suggest leaving him in the shower longer than 5 minutes, and lower the temp a bit...there can be a shock to move from cage temp to high water temp and back again. A warm shower for 20 minutes may do more good.

hey does anyone know of a good chameleon vet in st. louis missouri. i live in 63128. please help my lemmiwinks find a vet!

chris vogt