need help baslik has a discharge comeinf from his eyes

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WckedMidas

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Mar 31, 2005
2,174
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BODYMORE MD
Hi guys my baslik lizard wich has been fine and healthy for two years now. I noticed almost a month ago that his eyes were stuck shut and chalked it up to him sheding at the time. well he finish sheding and his eyes didnt open. i used a qtip and got them open removeing the skin. well they stuck shut again not long after that. it loked like the crust u get in the corner of ur eyes but it coverd his whole eye and it wouldnt open. i noticed i could get one eye unstuck today. so i did and theres a white discharge coming out of his eye. the only thing ive changed in the habitat he is in is the waterfall i dont have it pumping water anymore filter broke. could the reduction in some of the humidity have caused this? It averages 70f and 85 to 90 percent humidity in the habitat. heres a couple pics of the lizards eye and the habitatat.
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btt please help guys girls
 
That looks and sounds like a bacterial eye infection i have seen in water dragons a couple times. I never found out exactly what caused but in all the cases I saw the one thing in common (that was not really recommended) was that they were all kept with fish in a vivarium sort of set up. These were all feeder fish though... nasty things as i'm sure you well know.... If I recall you have fish in the bottom of that viv but if he's been fine for 2 years I don't think they are the problem. However the filter breaking may be an issue if he goes into the water at all. Perhaps with the filter not working there's more of a build up of waste in the water that has caused an infection?
 
forgot to finish the story... In the water dragon cases I mentioned they all recovered fairly quickly on antibiotic eye drops like terramycin or something similar. In one case only the fish were removed and dragon quickly got infected again (I suspect they never thoroughly cleaned the water area after removing the fish) The other cases the water area was removed entirely and replaced with a large water bowl that was changed every day.
I highly doubt you will need to take such measures, but you might want to set up a quarantine cage for the basilisk in which to treat him and/or while you fish the water section in his cage.
 
i got a small 18 by 18 exo tera cage. Tomorow i will move him to it. and go to the lfs and check out the meds u mentioned. how did u aply the meds directly to the eye or in the water dish? and yeah i got two cichla and a jurense catfish in the bottom of the setup. I was running three ehiem pro IIs but one of them got broken where the hoses hook to it. and havent had money to order a new quick release setup. The one that broke pumped its water onto the 3 foot high waterfall and i always suspected the ripples on the watterfall was helping with the water. to the lfs batman i go. Guess im gonna have to order a new quick release get the watterfall working again.


And thank u for ur help
 
also he doesnt spend much time in the water unless he does it when im not home. i only ever seem him in it when i come in the bust like im kicking the door down and scare the crap out of it. he then freaks jumps and lands in the water. if he cant grab a limb to climb out on fast enuf . He goes straight for the mottom grabs ahold. and stays under for about 20 or 30 mins . lol
 
Pretty sure you have to get those kinds of meds through a vet unfortunately... antibiotics....
You mentioned the average temp is 70 degrees but he does have a warmer hot spot right? I was pretty sure you had it all set up and ready long ago but just gotta double check.
 
Also, has he been eating well? I know basilisks are on the small side as far as girth in lizards go and it might just be the angle but he looks a little thin.

That last picture finally popped up, looks like he still has some discharge in his eyes, if you can, use a q-tip with saline to try and gently rub it out. Just keeping his eyes clear will help over all.
 
yeah its warmer up higher but in the middle of the tank between water and the roof its 70. he had been eating till his eyes got stuck shut. yeah hes looking skinny thats why im worried like i said when i first saw it i got them open and they looked fine. today i got the gunk off one eye and white milky stuff came out.
 
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