Eye problem with pics of said eye

[CZ4A]

For the past few weeks my beardy has been keeping one eye closed. I gave him a bath today and he finally opened it long enough to take a look at. It appears to be discolored. His normal eye has that tan/light brown around his pupil but the closed eye looks to be mostly gray. I'm going to bathe him again tomorrow and try to get a pic this time.
For a little background the lizard is 5 years old. Below has been his home up until a few days ago when I cleaned it out and put in ceramic tiles. This is a link to the bulb that I have been using. Any ideas?
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=6016+6028+6531&pcatid=6531

 

[peera]

2 things- First, I see that you have 2 dome lights, but no strip light. That leads me to believe you have a compact or coil UVB, the vast majority of which are quite damaging to dragon's eyes. Turn it off! Better no UVB till you get a decent one. You're going to want the ReptiSUN 10.0 tube You can get it for $20 off of http://www.petmountain.com and put it in any under-counter light fixture from walmart, ace, etc. Oh, and I didn't see the link till now. Your basking light is fine, it's the UVB we need to be concerned with.
I'm also glad to hear you removed the.. walnut shells? That's what it looks like. Pieces can get in the eyes and scratch them up pretty bad. It's also a bacteria nightmare & not at all digestible as the bag claims.
Some artificial tears in the meantime will probably help his eyes out for now.
And I know it's touchy when you consider the space involved, but that tank looks awful small for a dragon... Optimally, you're wanting them in a 4'x2' enclosure, bare bones minimum is a 40 gal breeder (36"x18")
And I see you don't have a thermometer? It's so, so important to have the right temps (100-105 basking, 70-80 cool side) to aid digestion and just to make him more comfy. This is also much easier with a bigger tank.

 

[CZ4A]

That actually is a 40gal breeder with the same demonsions. I guess the picture makes it out to be a lot smaller. I believe they are crushed walnut shells. Got them probably a year ago, so yes, it is a bacterial nightmare which is why tiles are now down. They seem to hold heat better and are much much cleaner! I'm going to the mall tonight so I will look for the fixture and order the light from the site u gave me. If I turn off these lights I have on now what should I do for a heat source? We have central airconditioning here and like to keep things cool so the poor lizard will freeze. There is a home depot in the mall so I will pick up bulbs there. Any recommendations? I have a temp gun I use for my car so I can use that for surface temps but I guess a thermometer in the tank at all times will also be handy.
Thanks so much for the advice!!

 

[peera]

Like I said, your basking light is not the issue here, so turning it off is not necessary, just the UVB light.
*peers nearsightedly* I guess I can see the depth, it just seems short for some reason. OH well! Glad to hear you're not trying to keep an adult in a 20 gal!
Temp guns are generally pretty accurate, so you should be good, but if you do like the idea of constant temp updates, I LOVE my AccuRite indoor/outdoor thermometer, also from Walmart, you can get both temps & the humidity all at once on the same screen.

 

[CZ4A]

Some pics of his bad eye. The 4th pic down is his good eye for comparison. I bought some phoenix worms and put them in a shallow bowl. Lets just say he was shooting the air. He has horrible depth perception! The last pic is his cage as of today. Got the reptisun 10.0 in there just a few hours ago and tiles in a few days ago. Is this eye going to get any better soon?

 

[TamiLynne]

Hi there,

Oddly enough I helped my doc treat a beardie with a similar problem just last night. He was MUCH farther along but from the description, he started off like your guy. Our thoughts were that there was some type of trauma such as him scratching or rubbing the eye, likely due to getting some of the bedding in there. Once we got all of the blood clots and fibrous tissue and debris from under the lids, his eye looked much like the one you are posting but the pupil was a bit more dilated. We are treating him with 3x/day Atropine and Cipro drops. We recheck him on Tuesday evening, if there has been dramatic improvement I will be sure to let you know. Looks like you caught yours early so you might get away with keeping the eye flushed with saline and moistened. Good luck!

 

[TamiLynne]

CZ4A, how is your boy's eye looking today? Any better with the moisterizing/flushing?

We rechecked my patient Tuesday night and his eye looks leaps and bounds better. It turns out he is housed on crushed walnut shells and it is quite likely he got a bit in there and rubbed and rubbed until it became inflamed and infected. Could that be the case with your beardie? As I mentioned my similar fellow is making a great recovery on 2 eye drops, so if yours is not improving a quick vet visit could fix it all up!

Good luck!

-Tami*

 

[CZ4A]

Yup I think so. He had the walnut shells in and I caught him a few times scratching his head with his back legs like a dog. I've been giving him a bath every other day and before i take him out i put a few drops over the eye. He still keeps it closed all the time but he hasnt been rubbing it against anything which is a sign of improvement.