Beardie Eye Closed..

[kmesa587]

Hi.. i actually just purchased Phoenix from a reptile show on Sunday. She has been very active and no showing signs of illness untill last night. I had fed her at 7 pm and she was perfectly fine, then 2hrs later i went to turn off the lights and noticed her left eye was closed.. i used to have a beardie before and she used to have one eye close at a time but would open it.. My little Phoenix didnt open her eye at all.. i thought it was sleepyness so let it go till this morning. Again, her eye is still closed shut.. i tried to see if i can see any crust or anything around it.. i think there might be very little ..

I was reading around the forum and read other people's problems with their beardies eye staying shut due to certain Lights. Im currently using a zill t-25http://www.zilla-rules.com/products/tropical-series-uvb-flourescent-bulbs.htm for UVB and a 75w Heat bulb ( I forgot brand, but bulb says all living things).
Please Let me know what i should do! and what might be the causes. i will post pictures of her tank setup.. let me know if the lights might be to close.

^ This is the closed eye?.. does it look swollen or anything?

 

[peera]

I cannot stress strongly enough that you need to take that R-zilla light off her ASAP. The Zilla lights can be very dangerous, and the tropic series were never meant for dragons at all. My completely healthy dragon took weeks to recover from 2 DAYS under one of their lights, and it probably would have been worse if I had been able to get the light closer. Luckily, you've had it on top of a screen, which filters out the UVB light significantly and you don't want to do it with the next light. It's probably just the one eye for now if how she's basking is how she normally is, so she's only being exposed on one side, but it will spread to both eyes quickly. Get a Repti-Sun 10.0 tube from petmountain.com (It's at least half the price you would pay in a store if you can even find it), you can get a hood cheaply from walmart or home depot.

You want to take her off the sand as well... Calci-sand is very bad for them and can cause impaction (And if she got some in her eye could be the cause of the closed eye, but I find the light much more likely). Once she gets bigger, you can put her on washed, silica-free play sand if you REALLY want her on sand, but with all the better, safer and more sanitary options out there, most of us never go back once we make the switch. Personally, I recommend slate tiles, but repti-carpet, paper towels and newspaper are all options.

 

[kmesa587]

Thank you for the explanation.. i did turn the light off immediately this morning after reading posts that the uvb lights may cause eye irritations. to answer your question, yes she always did bask under the light as the picture shows, so it does make perfect sense that the eye that has taken more of the light has been affected.

I will look into getting a new bulb then, but what do i do in the mean time? how long will her eye be like that? and as for the sand..even tho they say digestion safe, it can still cause problems?. if so, ill invest in the repti-carpet then. but how long till her eye will open? should i contact a vet?

UPDATE: I took her out of the cage to look closer at her eye to see if there might be any crust or anything.. but as i was removing her.. she opened it.. for like 2 secs.. then closed it back.. soo, it does look like it is irritated by the light. it looked normal, not super glossy or discolored.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Good that you shut the light off. Can you try to get a refund on that light? Or do an exchange for something else?
Try to get the Reptisun 10 flourescent tube bulb & you should be able to use the same exact light fixture for that light. You can order the Reptisun 10 from:
http://www.petmountain.com
It is much cheaper, around $20 compared to the petstores.

The eye should return to normal within a couple of weeks, hopefully sooner. You can get some turtle eye wash or some regular saline solution to help her eye out. Right now, just keep the basking light over her right now & go ahead & order another UVB light. Once you get the new UVB light, move that tube light directly beside the basking light to be right over the basking spot so she can get more focused heat with her UVB. Otherwise, the setup looks good.

Unfortunately, though the sand does say "digestible" since it is calcium based, it does not breakdown properly once it hits the stomach. It hardens into cement & is extremely hard to pass & will cause impactions.

Tracie