Eye Sealed Shut

[ECarroll25]

So my beardie Squish is about 5 months old now. He's usually done pretty well. Lately I've noticed it seemed like he was closing his left eye more than his right. I didn't think a ton of it and just kept checking that he was still opening it generally, but today he is not opening that eye at all. His right will be wide open and he'll try to open the left. I got it open and he kept it that way for a bit but then went back to having it closed and not being able to reopen it by himself.

Reptile Carpet
Reptisun 10.0 T8, 8 inches from his baking spot
100W basking bulb, temps around 100 usually
Eats live crickets mostly (he is picky about other bugs) dusted with Repcal
gets salad every day, is pretty good about eating lots of veggies. Favorites are green beans, squash, and endive.

He is currently still in his 20 gal "baby tank". Which I am VERY aware he has outgrown. I have a 40 for him in the house but I am waiting for the lid to arrive, which should be soon (I have ordered it)

I know the best solution would be to see a vet but I got completely laid off due to the pandemic when the company couldn't afford to keep my department open anymore and am basically out of money, to be blunt, because I have not yet started receiving unemployment.

If anyone can provide advice for anything I can do at home on a budget until I can find a way to get him to a vet it would be deeply appreciated. Again, please if you have nothing to offer besides "go to the vet" please refrain. I am painfully aware that would be best. But we're in a pandemic, everything's tough.

I just want to know if there is anything I can to to help him be more comfortable and keep it from getting worse at a reasonable cost until I receive either unemployment or my tax return which I filed over three weeks ago.

Will include pictures. His left eye, sealed shut, then his clear right eye for comparison. I am a little encouraged that, though the area around his eye seems bothered, his actual eyeball is not cloudy or inflamed as of yet once the eye is open and his eyeball is visible. Hopefully it's still fixable as long as I can eventually get him to a vet...

Edit: shortly after I posted this he started walking around his tank and opened the eye. So he's not *totally* unable to open it himself. I just don't want it to get to that point if I can do something about it.

 

[KarrieRee]

Is it possible he was bitten by a cricket -- it does look swollen -- you can try some raw unpasteurized honey on the eye --- apply w/ a q-tip --- do this a couple of times a day --- I would rinse the eye out w / some saline first make sure your not feeding crickets in the tank or if you do feed one at a time so you can keep track of how many are in the tank you dont want any left in the tank over nite they will go straight for that eye -- are you using any loose substrate in the tank ? like sand etc......... that too could be a possible reason for the swollen eye -- if you are the saline should be able to rinse it out
Karrie

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Poor thing, it does look like it is quite irritated & a little swollen. I would try to rinse out the
eye daily, with a sterile saline solution. If it stays irritated, you may need to get some antibiotic
eye ointment if it starts to get infected.
Could he possibly have scratched it perhaps, or has he been shedding on that eye?

Tracie