Eye problems

[Tdever42]

Hey everyone I have about a 3 month old leather back hypo named Princess Leia and she has been having some eye issues! Her environment consists of 40 gallon breeder, 75 watt basking 100 watt heat bulb and repticarpet substrate, reptisun 10.0 uvb bulb. She was doing a lot better once I turned my original reptisun 5.0 off because I was going to replace it cause I thought I got a bad bulb. But once I installed the reptisun 10.0 after about 2 days of use she doesn't want to open her eyes again. Any idea what's going on? Is she UVB sensitive by any chance?

 

[snazzyglasses]

Hmm. Is your ReptiSun 10.0 a T8 (tube shaped) bulb? I'm not sure what shapes the ReptiSun 5.0 comes in; was that a T8 as well? Coil and compact bulbs are pretty notorious for causing eye damage unfortunately :?

 

[Tdever42]

24 inch tube

 

[AHBD]

What type of basking bulb do you have ? Also, has she eaten or had any water in the past few days ? She could be dehydrated and weak, so be sure to give her shallow, short supervised baths [ if your'e not already doing so ] If she is too lethargic for a bath , try dripping water on her snout, thirsty babies will usually drink.

 

[Tdever42]

She drinks water just fine and when I turned that reptisun 5.0 off this last week she's been eating crickets like a man woman! The basking bulb is a zoomed and the 100 watt is a exo terra.

 

[Tdever42]

Bump

 

[Tdever42]

 

[samchavles]

Well, for one, the screen is blocking out a good portion of the UVB from that hood. I recommend getting a fixture from WalMart and mount it on the inside of your tank with command hooks, and remove any plastic pane that may be in front of the bulb as well.

 

[snazzyglasses]

Oops Tdever, I meant to ask how long you've had her? If the place you got her from had a bad UVB source or something else that hurt her eyes, she could still be having issues from that. Reptiles take a long time to heal :?

 

[Tdever42]

Got a pick on what this might look like?

 

[Tdever42]

Got her from blood bank dragons.

 

[Tdever42]

Generally in the morning her eyes are closed and I use turtle drops to get her to open them and she's fine the rest of the day however she likes to sleep about 2 hours before her lights go out. She's set on a 12 hour day/night period

 

[snazzyglasses]

oh! I was thinking if you got her from a pet store and they had a coil UVB or something. But no risk of bad UVB from a reputable breeder like BBD. Hmm. You could always check with the breeder to see if they have any ideas though, if you haven't already.
I didn't think the ReptiSun 5.0 tubes would cause eye problems, but I guess it's possible! When UVB damage is the culprit, usually it helps them out to leave the good UVB turned off for a bit. Quicker healing time that way I believe. You could try turning the ReptiSun 10.0 tube off and see if she'll open her eyes.

Is there any discharge from Leia's eyes? I believe extra watering is normal when their eyes are bothering them, but if it's goopy or pus-looking it could mean an infection.

 

[Tdever42]

Yeah, While I was waiting for the reptisun 10.0 to come in her eyes dramatically improved with the UVB off. She's able to open in her eyes still it's just in the morning she can't open them so I have to drop some turtle drops in them. It's not goopy or anything at the moment but when I was using the reptisun 5.0 they were I had to use a cuetip to get the goo out of her eyes. I just don't want her to return to that state.

 

[Tdever42]

Here is a pic of her not wanting to open her eyes.