One Teary Eye

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blongo804

Member
Hey everyone!

Recently I noticed our beardie, Reign, has one teary eye. When you look at him/her (a little too young to tell. ~6 months), one eye has a layer of watery tear on it, no crusts of any sort.

Tank setup:
Reptisun T5 High Output Hood with Reptisun 10.0 UVB Tube

100w Zoo Med heat bulb providing a 100-105 degree basking temp based on heat gun reading. Scanning Reign while basking shows a 100-105 degree temperature on his/her back.

Recently started doing daily short tubs since it's getting much warmer in the house/outside.

Use straight calcium daily and calcium w/D3 3-4 days a week. Reign grew up on crickets and lots of Phoenix Worms, and is now eating Dubia and Phoenix Worms along with mustard greens he/she doesn't like to eat much. Unfortunately I was feeding spinach for a couple weeks (although again, didn't eat much anyway) until I realized it's more of a questionable veggie.

Substrate has always been carpet. I just moved on to tile this past weekend though. Never sand.

He/she just went through a big head shed maybe 2 weeks ago at this point. Could shed be in his/her eye? Any thoughts as to why the eye might be tearing? It's not tearing so much it's running down his/her face, just kind of glossed over.

He/she has been growing every week based on weekly weigh in recordings we've been doing. Poops once a day, almost always has a high appetite besides today he/she is feeling a little lethargic with a back shed on the horizon.

I'll post a pic of the terrarium tomorrow when I get on a computer. Any help is appreciated!
 

Drache613

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Hello,

Definitely pictures would be helpful. :D
Shed can irritate the eye, absolutely. Since she shed her head a couple of weeks ago, it could
be possible that there is some shed stuck. You can try getting some sterile saline solution to
rinse the eye out daily, to see if that helps out some.
How close is the T5 Reptisun 10 tube to her & is it mounted directly overhead & right by the
basking light too?
Your setup sounds good. We will look forward to seeing your tank & your dragon.

Tracie
 

blongo804

Member
Original Poster
Drache613":8tqfm7s1 said:
Hello,

Definitely pictures would be helpful. :D
Shed can irritate the eye, absolutely. Since she shed her head a couple of weeks ago, it could
be possible that there is some shed stuck. You can try getting some sterile saline solution to
rinse the eye out daily, to see if that helps out some.
How close is the T5 Reptisun 10 tube to her & is it mounted directly overhead & right by the
basking light too?
Your setup sounds good. We will look forward to seeing your tank & your dragon.

Tracie

Tracie,

The saline solution sounds like a good idea. Should I also kind of blot her (I'll call her a "her" for simplicity lol) eye dry as well if I gently can after the solution?

Below will be a few pics that may be hard to tell of light placement now that I'm looking at them. The 10.0 tube is directly over half her basking tree as well as about half her hammock (top corner). Admittedly, for a couple months of owning her now, she neglected the UVB a lot of the time and is just recently getting a good dose of it now that I moved her tank around a bit. The light is near the basking lamp because I don't know where else to put it really. I would like to mount it in the tank somehow, just not sure how.

Two other things to note: "cold" side is around 70 degrees most of the time I believe. Paper towel is there to catch her poop because she poops around the back side of her tree about 95% of the time lol.

Let me know what you think! Thank you for the help so far. I'll work on getting a picture of her eye for you as well.

98399-1389134163.jpg

98399-8943645567.jpg

A couple cute poses on the window sill from this past weekend for the heck of it as well :):

98399-5647622957.jpg

98399-4131968878.jpg
 

Drache613

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Hello,

The setup looks nice. The basking light is mounted just fine, right beside the Reptisun 10 tube.
It's hard to tell but what is the estimated distance from her to the Reptisun 10? I was thinking
you could mount the tube bulb underneath of the screen, so she could get within a 6-8 inch
distance of it for maximum exposure.
You can definitely use a tissue to gently blot her eye, when needed. How is it looking today?
She is a little cutie! :D

Let us know how she is doing.
Tracie
 

blongo804

Member
Original Poster
Drache613":4u5jblyr said:
Hello,

The setup looks nice. The basking light is mounted just fine, right beside the Reptisun 10 tube.
It's hard to tell but what is the estimated distance from her to the Reptisun 10? I was thinking
you could mount the tube bulb underneath of the screen, so she could get within a 6-8 inch
distance of it for maximum exposure.
You can definitely use a tissue to gently blot her eye, when needed. How is it looking today?
She is a little cutie! :D

Let us know how she is doing.
Tracie

Awesome. I'm glad you agree with the setup. The distance is probably 6-8 inches. I would love to mount the tube under the screen. Could I just mount the housing on the back glass with the tube facing directly toward her?

I did manage to get what I believe are a couple of great pictures that even showed me what I'm looking at better.

Eye open - eye looks great BUT you can actually see what looks like a piece of shed in the middle of the top eyelid.
98399-9846541262.jpg

Caught her blink while I was taking the picture. While she blinks, you can see a slightly off clear liquid gather up. It looked like liquid in person, but the picture makes it look like shed. Maybe it's shed? Either way, as noted below, it is off now. :)
98399-7897725068.jpg

Bonus picture - while we were doing these pictures, she ended up in this big lazy pose. Literally didn't move LOL.
98399-3614084143.jpg

So I actually was able to very gently rub that piece of shed off her eye. Once I did that, she stopped constantly blinking that eye while under the picture taking light. While I was taking pictures, she blinked several times actually, but once that shed was off, I put her back in the light and zero blinking! I'm going to of course keep an eye on her from here on, but I'm hoping that's all the issue was. In my opinion she seems very healthy otherwise and her eyes aren't showing any other negative signs. If anything, I sometimes notice the opposite eye has a lower eyelid droop just a bit to the point you can see the redness of what I think is the third eyelid, but that's all.

I'll keep you updated, Tracie!
 

HippieLizards

Gray-bearded Member
Beardie name(s)
Daisy, Loki, Rocket, Phoenix, Mulder & Scully. Non beardie pets: Stan (Leo) Cayde (Hognose) Tillery (cat)
[/quote]

Bonus picture - while we were doing these pictures, she ended up in this big lazy pose. Literally didn't move LOL.
98399-3614084143.jpg

[/quote] Hello,

Just for the record, don't do that to your beardie because putting them in a position like that can be very painful for them and if you put them on their back their lungs could collapse because they don't have diaphragms. So please don't do that in the near future. :)

Also how long has the teary eye been going on? If it's been going on as long as you had her it could be a birth defect like my Thor had. View media item 60497
The setup and lights are good but do you have the UVB on top of the screen? If you do you should put it UNDERNEATH the screen so she can get the best UVB Exposure. Like this (I used pipe cleaners to keep it there): View media item 60454
I Would just keep wiping it and if it keeps watering you might have to take her to an experienced reptile vet. This is a list of vets: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiMo7Gj8_jaAhUI71MKHc1HC-8QFghEMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.anapsid.org%2Fvets%2Ffindingvet.html&usg=AOvVaw1HEApejlzTq5dqI0NC_VEK

Please keep us posted! :D

-HippieLizards.
 

blongo804

Member
Original Poster
HippieLizards":6mxhxuf9 said:
Just for the record, don't do that to your beardie because putting them in a position like that can be very painful for them and if you put them on their back their lungs could collapse because they don't have diaphragms. So please don't do that in the near future. :)

Also how long has the teary eye been going on? If it's been going on as long as you had her it could be a birth defect like my Thor had. View media item 60497
The setup and lights are good but do you have the UVB on top of the screen? If you do you should put it UNDERNEATH the screen so she can get the best UVB Exposure. Like this (I used pipe cleaners to keep it there): View media item 60454
I Would just keep wiping it and if it keeps watering you might have to take her to an experienced reptile vet. This is a list of vets: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiMo7Gj8_jaAhUI71MKHc1HC-8QFghEMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.anapsid.org%2Fvets%2Ffindingvet.html&usg=AOvVaw1HEApejlzTq5dqI0NC_VEK

Please keep us posted! :D

-HippieLizards.

Thank you for the heads up. It's hard to tell from the image, but she was very upright and not flat on her back (picture it as I could've put her back against a wall and she'd be fully upright with her head leaned forward, if that makes sense). I do know about their gravity held lungs fortunately. The position put her in an upright pose similar to how she has slept before, so I don't think there was as much harm here as it may have appeared. I don't ever hold her like this, she just kind of sat like that when my fiance pulled her other hand away. Here's the aforementioned sleeping pose:

98399-4342385898.jpg

I think the teary eye has been going on about a week from what I've noticed. Maybe 2 weeks max if I managed to miss it for a while. Were you ever able to treat Thor's eye? I was able to remove what appeared to be a piece of stuck shed, so I'm keeping a close eye on her eye watering. Hoping to see it clear up soon.

The UVB is on top of the screen, but as I mentioned in my last post, I would like to mount it in the tank. Do you have better pictures of how yours is held in place? I'd like to do this soon - would even like to include it with the weekend chores I have planned for her tank cleaning wise/etc.
 

HippieLizards

Gray-bearded Member
Beardie name(s)
Daisy, Loki, Rocket, Phoenix, Mulder & Scully. Non beardie pets: Stan (Leo) Cayde (Hognose) Tillery (cat)
The position she is in isn't as bad as I thought but it still can hurt the leg, pelvis, and tail bones because of her weight going on those areas. So please just don't do it.

BTW, if her stomach is facing the ground and not the sky then she'll be fine. Beardies sleep in lots of strange positions.. I Have lots of pictures of my beardies doing weird positions.

Unfortunately Thor's eye was a genetic problem and couldn't be fixed.. He did have to be put down a week ago due to organ failure and His eye was never fixed permanantly :cry: . It did get better over time but it still watered.

I Currently don't have a better picture of the way I rigged the UVB but I'll try to get a better pic Asap. :)
 

blongo804

Member
Original Poster
Just want to bump this to the top for more awareness.

I've been giving Reign repta rinse and cleaning out the gunk out of her eyes daily for a little over a week. When I say "gunk", I mean it's an off-clear mucus kind of look. There's not much, it just kind of gunks up on the bottom of her eyelids. It's definitely a little worse in one eye compared to the other.

Anyone have any ideas? I'm thinking about changing out the UVB for the same one but fresh (the current one is only 4 months old give or take, on for 12 hours/day). I'm not sure how much a vet visit would cost, but I don't have much faith in reptile vets around here. Just hoping someone has some good insight on this because I hate seeing my little bud with bothersome eyes.

As for her character, I'd say she's been acting generally the same. She's a little lethargic, could be from a beard shed and oncoming head shed. Still eating about as much as usual, basking all day in her hammock, but there is one new weird behavior I should point out..

I just switched out the substrate to paper towel after realizing she doesn't like the tile. When I come home from work and feed her around 530pm, she then goes in a corner of her tank, pulls back the paper towel and goes to sleep on the glass, when she normally doesn't go to sleep until around 830pm when her lights go out. Kind of weird, but maybe something to do with the substrate change? Not sure.
 

CooperDragon

BD.org Sicko
Staff member
Moderator
Your T5 shouldn't need replacement for a while yet (at least a year in most cases) unless it's defective for some reason. I would guess that the mucous is a reaction to additional shed around her eye. If you look closely (or even under a magnifier) can you see signs of any debris or skin stuck around the eye?
 

blongo804

Member
Original Poster
CooperDragon":2mcfh0q7 said:
Your T5 shouldn't need replacement for a while yet (at least a year in most cases) unless it's defective for some reason. I would guess that the mucous is a reaction to additional shed around her eye. If you look closely (or even under a magnifier) can you see signs of any debris or skin stuck around the eye?
That's what I've been thinking/hoping, but this has been going on for almost a month now, and her head is about to shed for the second time since noticing this. :(

I'll have to find a little magnifying glass because I'm not seeing anything with a naked eye. She really is seeming more lethargic than usual. I just went to feed her a hornworm that she seemed to love yesterday, and today she was licking mid air while I was holding it in front of her with tongs. She kept missing, sticking her tongue out the side of her mouth, all weird stuff. I actually managed to get it on video which I will upload shortly.
 

HippieLizards

Gray-bearded Member
Beardie name(s)
Daisy, Loki, Rocket, Phoenix, Mulder & Scully. Non beardie pets: Stan (Leo) Cayde (Hognose) Tillery (cat)
How has she been doing lately? :)
 

blongo804

Member
Original Poster
HippieLizards":3bw1ztmc said:
How has she been doing lately? :)

Thank you so much for asking! We did do a vet visit about 2 weeks ago where he prescribed her some eye drops and did a fecal test finding a very minor case of pin worms that I'd like to get taken care of.

Otherwise, I have begun giving Reign a multi-vitamin powder dose twice a week (herptivite), and I've also given her a few doses of ReptaBoost to try and perk her up a bit as she's been fairly lethargic. Since it doesn't seem she is able to/likes to climb on her tree anymore, I upped the heat bulb wattage so that it's warmer on her carpet floor.

Anyway - as for her eyes - they seem to be less goopy at the moment. I've been cleaning them less and less as the days went on after the vet. I noticed, when their goopy, her vision is greatly disrupted causing her tongue to miss in all sorts of directions. I've been making sure to clean her eyes, as needed, before feeding.

Honestly all seems "okay" at the moment. Not great, not horrible. I wouldn't mind seeing her activity level up a bit more, but she was actually probably the most perky I've seen her in a while just yesterday. Hopefully that's a sign that things are getting better!
 
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