Blocked Tear Duct

[Spider8ait1994]

Not so much a question as it is sharing about one of my rescues.
Some of you have probably already seen a bunch of stuff I’ve posted about my rescue dragon Spike.
He has a blocked tear duct in his left eye that’s resulted in some swelling toward the front of the eye (under the skin and toward the snout end of the eye) alongside the eye being very watery. He would also have some mornings where the eye would be very gummed up and stuck closed so I’d have to clean if off for him.
Not surprisingly it was uncomfortable for him and he’d be scratching and rubbing at it.
The vet I see checked his eye out and in doing so discovered that Spike has decreased vision in his left eye. That said there’s no indication of any condition that would cause progressive vision loss.
With regards to the blocked tear duct the treatment plan he’s on is having a positive effect in improving the eye (swelling is going down, eye isn’t gumming up, less watery, less discomfort, tear duct is draining out better)
He’s been having Chloropt eye cream twice daily alongside Meloxicam every second day and he did a course of 5 Ceftazidine injections over the space of 2 weeks with one being given every third day.
Hopefully this helps others with this situation and gives some treatment options to bring up with a vet if they haven’t already been tried.
The Chloropt is something new that Spike’s vet wanted to try as they hadn’t previously used it on reptiles as it is intended for dogs and cats but it does seem to be working without any adverse issues.
Chloropt is an eye antibiotic that contains Chloramphenicol at a concentration of 1mg/g.
In a pinch my vet has also given the go ahead to use Chlorsig (a human eye antibiotic) as it contains the exact same substance at the exact same concentration. I asked about this as I have a full unopened tube that’s still within its usage date left over from a surgery I had last year and realised they’re the same thing just marketed for different creatures

 

[Nikki.D]

Not so much a question as it is sharing about one of my rescues.
Some of you have probably already seen a bunch of stuff I’ve posted about my rescue dragon Spike.
He has a blocked tear duct in his left eye that’s resulted in some swelling toward the front of the eye (under the skin and toward the snout end of the eye) alongside the eye being very watery. He would also have some mornings where the eye would be very gummed up and stuck closed so I’d have to clean if off for him.
Not surprisingly it was uncomfortable for him and he’d be scratching and rubbing at it.
The vet I see checked his eye out and in doing so discovered that Spike has decreased vision in his left eye. That said there’s no indication of any condition that would cause progressive vision loss.
With regards to the blocked tear duct the treatment plan he’s on is having a positive effect in improving the eye (swelling is going down, eye isn’t gumming up, less watery, less discomfort, tear duct is draining out better)
He’s been having Chloropt eye cream twice daily alongside Meloxicam every second day and he did a course of 5 Ceftazidine injections over the space of 2 weeks with one being given every third day.
Hopefully this helps others with this situation and gives some treatment options to bring up with a vet if they haven’t already been tried.
The Chloropt is something new that Spike’s vet wanted to try as they hadn’t previously used it on reptiles as it is intended for dogs and cats but it does seem to be working without any adverse issues.
Chloropt is an eye antibiotic that contains Chloramphenicol at a concentration of 1mg/g.
In a pinch my vet has also given the go ahead to use Chlorsig (a human eye antibiotic) as it contains the exact same substance at the exact same concentration. I asked about this as I have a full unopened tube that’s still within its usage date left over from a surgery I had last year and realised they’re the same thing just marketed for different creatures

Spike’s a tough cookie!

 

[xp29]

I remember your other thread, I'm glad he is having improvement, hopefully it clears completely up.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

We all love informative threads so that we can always continue to learn. There is always something
that seems to come up that is hard to figure out & to treat successfully.
Do you have new pictures so we can see his progress?

Tracie

 

[Spider8ait1994]

Hello,

We all love informative threads so that we can always continue to learn. There is always something
that seems to come up that is hard to figure out & to treat successfully.
Do you have new pictures so we can see his progress?

Tracie

Sure I have a few I’ve taken and been sharing with his vet I’ll post here. This first image I have compiled from before he started the eye cream and then comparisons of 1 week of having the eye cream. I have made an error with the date on the lower left image which should say 15/1/23 and not 7/2/23.
The second image is one I took 24/2/23. I took this with a macro lens and got lucky in that he blinked as I took it so I captured the inflammation really well. I asked the vet about that patterning you can see in it and they informed me that it’s a normal appearance of inflamed tissue that’s vascular. He’s having gradual improvements and will have another checkup in April. I don’t have any more recent images of his eye as I myself have had surgery recently.
I’ve also included here a photo of the specific eye cream he’s being treated with as a visual reference for anyone looking for an eye cream that can be used in bearded dragons. I’ll definitely be updating this thread with more progress images when I have them. As for now his eye is a lot less watery and isn’t sticking closed after he’s been asleep anymore. He’s not appearing to be in as much discomfort as pre-treatment