Anyone ever cared for a blind chameleon (or any reptile)?

Question

I've been trying to find some firsthand info online, but I can't find much. One of our lizards at work, a little male veiled chameleon, had a problem with retained eyecaps after his last shed. To make matters worse, the vet says his eye slits are unusually small. Even before his shed problem, he had the worst aim I've ever seen. Despite soaks and warm mists and trying to help with the eyecaps, it doesn't look like he is going to get much better. Both eyes are completely sealed shut, even though it looks like all of the shed is gone now. Currently he is living off of repti-aid by flukers, and that's all. I realise this can't be ideal for the long term, can it? Will force feeding him daily stress him too much? Has anyone ever had a situation remotely like this?

My main question is this: Could this little guy have any chance of living a decent quality life? If so, how can we at the store and any potential adoptors make this possible?

Dave · Accepted Answer

Howdy Penguin,

Unlike snakes, chameleons don't have eye-caps so there is nothing to shed directly off of the eye.  Based on your description of "eye-caps", I suspect that what you are seeing is not the whiteness of eye-caps being shed but rather an eye infection.  They have a similar appearance.  Antibiotic eye drops like Ofloxacin are very effective in many cases.  Otherwise, chameleons will often close their eyes when their health is severely degraded.  It is likely that this chameleon is very ill and needs some special attention.  More often than not, it is an underlying husbandry issue that started the downturn.  The list is pretty long as to what might be wrong but the top causes are usually related to an unsafe or improper UVB light source, dehydration,  improper supplementation, temperature issues, improper feeder selection etc.

You might want to post the answers to:  http://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/ in a post there on http://www.chameleonforums.com and be sure to add some photos of the chameleon as well as his enclosure setup.

One of my photos of a good eye:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v661/dave_weldon/Panther/?action=view¤t=Peek-a-boo.jpg

Infection treated and cleared but a scarred cornea was the result of being left untreated for several weeks:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v661/dave_weldon/Chameleon%20Misc/?action=view¤t=LeftEyeIMG_5245Mod1.jpg

See Ya, Dave Weldon
Co-founder of the South Bay Chameleon Keepers group (Los Angeles area)

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Anyone ever cared for a blind chameleon (or any reptile)?

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