My beardy’s eye is getting significantly worse.

[Calissa]

My bearded dragon is very happy, runs around, eats every day, poops every few days (always had) and gets water daily. We don’t have a real reptile vet in my town and when I was able to take him to one for a previous problem they tested him for CANV and it came back negative and hasn’t been around anything that could give him it. That same vet also checked our set up and said it was fine. Recently we bought a new heating lamp when we found his 100 watt fixture was dying. And when we got him this one we tested the temps every day and bought a dimmer to get just the right temp and his basking spot is now around 100-105 every day. He is two years old and has lived in his current home for about 1 year.

Recently (2 weeks ago) he started closing his left eye and only using his right eye. But he only closed it every so often. After a few days I looked at his the iris in his eye and it was starting to change. It looked sort of like a pear and I thought “well maybe I just haven’t noticed it all this time” so I gave it another 2 days and it seemed to not change but we took a picture. Fast forward to now when I compare the photos (I’ll post them here as well) it’s very worse. I don’t know what could cause it but he cannot see out of this eye anymore. When I hold a worm on that side of his face he cannot track it at all but once the worm crosses over from the tip of his nose he goes for it immediately. I don’t know what I could have done wrong or what is happening. I now have his UVB above the mesh because I was thinking it was giving him a cataract or something. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Pictures of his left and right eye posted below

 

[Calissa]

Up close one is from about a week ago, the further away ones are from today.

 

[destiny1998]

Hi. What is the uvb light you are using? Coil/compact or long tube? Brand?

 

[AHBD]

Along with answering Destiny's questions, can you post pics of the tank ?

 

[Calissa]

Long tube UVB reptisun 10.0
I originally had it zip tied to hang into the enclosure but when I saw his eye getting weird I put it above the mesh in hopes to ”save” his other eye if that was the issue.

Here are some pics. Lights off, Lizard is sleeping.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Long tube UVB reptisun 10.0
I originally had it zip tied to hang into the enclosure but when I saw his eye getting weird I put it above the mesh in hopes to ”save” his other eye if that was the issue.

Here are some pics. Lights off, Lizard is sleeping.

T8 (fat 1" tube)
OR
T5ho (5/8" skinny tube) ?

How old is the tube ?

When he's basking , is the "bad" eye the one that is usually closest to the (UV) light ?

Have you asked a reptile vet to take a look ? ( I'm thinking some kind if optical issue with that eye , maybe a cataract covering the lens. Can not see in the poor quality closeups what going on.)

Loose material may have injured eye , I think I can see some flakes of something on the carpet (some of this may have found it's way under his eyelid) ????

 

[Calissa]

So he doesn’t really point his face in a particular direction when basking I would say he gets both eyes equally exposed to the light. Also it’s a 5/8 tube. I changed it about 2-3 months ago. It couldn’t be anything getting in his eye because the specs you are seeing are imbedded in the carpet and his eye doesn’t look like somethings in it. His pupil is literally changing shape and his iris is changing color. I’ve added some more pictures that are incredibly high quality and 2/4 pictures that I originally posted were poor quality but the other two were the same quality as these onesS I woke him up to take these photos; thus the tired eyes.

 

[Calissa]

Also as I mentioned in my original post, in my small town we do not have a reptile vet. The closest specialized reptile vet is 4 hours away. I’ve tried to go to our “exotic species vet” which didn’t know what was wrong with my lizard when he started shedding improperly and only required me to spray water on him daily. Aka: our closest vet is not trust worthy.

 

[AHBD]

I can see the difference but the eye itself does not look unhealthy or irritated. There's nothing out of the ordinary with the set up so I don't have any thoughts on what this could be. Are you positive he's not seeing ? If so, he can still live a very normal life. I don't think it's a cataract, that usually causes a cloudy appearance but this is just an enlarged pupil. Here's an article on reptile eye problems, I don't know if it will be of any help but it's very interesting.



http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Reptilian-Opthalmology--A-Window-To-Reptile-Health/

 

[Calissa]

I can see the difference but the eye itself does not look unhealthy or irritated. There's nothing out of the ordinary with the set up so I don't have any thoughts on what this could be. Are you positive he's not seeing ? If so, he can still live a very normal life. I don't think it's a cataract, that usually causes a cloudy appearance but this is just an enlarged pupil. Here's an article on reptile eye problems, I don't know if it will be of any help but it's very interesting.



http://www.reptilesmagazine.com/Reptilian-Opthalmology--A-Window-To-Reptile-Health/

When I hold a worm in front of him he can only see it when I put it on this good eye’s side. I appreciate your input and I will check out the article!