Swift eye scabbed

David339 · 07-18-19, 04:44 PM

One of my swifts has a scabbed eye. I beleive it to be scabbed anyway. It looks like a slightly reddish scab in the corner of his eye. No swelling or discharges. He is keeping this eye closed but I see it move around in response to crickets. This scab could be keeping the eye shut. His behavior has not changed in anyway. Do I just wait and let this heal? He could have possibly hurt it on some of the wood in the tank... but they have been fine for the almost year I've had them. I don't think it would be a fighting injury as I've only seen them do push ups 2-3 times or spook one of the others by running past. I'm pretty sure they are all females even though I called him a he, no blue bellies on any of them.

**Andy_G** · 07-19-19, 06:59 AM

The eye is a very complex organ. It is a very sensitive part of any organism's body but it also has it's own built in barriers against vectors of disease, but once those barriers become compromised, serious ailments can set in quite quickly due to it's complexity and vascularity. Without knowing more, and without an accredited veterinary present on our forums, I would highly suggest consulting a vet about this issue soon.

David339 · 07-19-19, 03:37 PM

It's not affecting his behavior at all. He's eating and definitely not lethargic. No swelling, discharge, or redness. It just looks like a brownish red scab that has his eye squinty. Almost as if he poked his eye and it's healing naturally. This does not seem to be a rush to the vet problem. It also looks like he's about to shed, looks peely in the front of his eye. It almost looks like the shedding skin is stuck.

Hard to see the scab in the pic but here it is.

https://i.imgur.com/jrcdzAs.jpg

David339 · 07-19-19, 03:55 PM

After a good wash with the mist bottle, he is opening his eye some and his eye looks fine. It looks like a stuck shed around his eye.

David339 · 07-19-19, 04:35 PM

I've been reading about all natural mineral oil. Would this be a good idea using a q tip around the outside edges? I'm pretty certain it's a stuck shed. After rinsing it with a light spray it looked different and I say his yellow eye and pupil. It was dry and crusty and looked like a scab. Now is white/pink looking with red in the corner where I thought it was a scab. There was no discharge or any kind of fluid in the eye. I've raised him from a baby and never had any issues with sheds. He's full size now and hasn't shed in quite some time. Hopefully someone has some advice on this. I'm likely to try after a LOT of reading. I treated some of my other herps successfully but luckily haven't run into many problems. Frog scuffed nose and hurt finger. Ordered a turtle from a place I now will never order from. He had shell damage and is looking great now.

**Andy_G** · 07-19-19, 04:44 PM

If it is stuck shed, mineral oil can definitely help.

David339 · 07-19-19, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy_G

If it is stuck shed, mineral oil can definitely help.

I'm certain it is. He's definitely started shedding on his head and I see it now. It's the skin around his eye. He's able to keep it open now too since I gave him a good rinse.

David339 · 07-29-19, 08:10 PM

I'm not sure it was a stuck shed or not. I tried mineral oil and he wasn't very cooperative. Turns out the red spot was a mite. I've rinsed them and washed them off and put them in the new tank I was already putting together before this happened. I switched to eye drops after trying mineral oil once and after 2 days his eye is better. No more mites. These lizards are tough to catch and keep in your hand. Where do these come from? I had nothing new and no new animals in that tank. It was getting a little dirty as I was meaning to switch tanks last weekend. They looked like little clover mites, red and white ones and were going for eyes. I did not see any around ear holes, cloaca, nor anywhere else.

SARAH PEACE · 11-14-19, 03:30 AM

Take time....It will get healed by itself.Some organs gets healed with time .

SARAH PEACE · 11-14-19, 07:11 AM

mineral oil or some gel will work good in my opinion

SARAH PEACE · 11-14-19, 07:12 AM

mineral oil and gel will prove beneficial in this case

David339 · 11-16-19, 05:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SARAH PEACE

Take time....It will get healed by itself.Some organs gets healed with time .

The problem was mites, I resolved the issue many months ago which I stated in my last post..... I used to leave the grainy type cricket food in there for any stray cricket that didn't get eaten and that's what the mites were after and then went after the lizards when it was gone. Not sure how they got in there in the first place though

chairman · 11-16-19, 08:57 PM

If your enclosure is planted or has a decent amount of substrate that is kept moist at depth then you could add isopods to the enclosure. They like to eat the eggs of various smaller critters, including the variety of mites that you described. Your swifts might eat the isopods, so it wouldn't hurt to keep a small tank to raise replacement isopods in.

David339 · 11-18-19, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chairman

If your enclosure is planted or has a decent amount of substrate that is kept moist at depth then you could add isopods to the enclosure. They like to eat the eggs of various smaller critters, including the variety of mites that you described. Your swifts might eat the isopods, so it wouldn't hurt to keep a small tank to raise replacement isopods in.

There is Isopods and springtails in there since that happened. Definitely has the substrate but no live plants. Figured it out months ago. Someone commented an old post. Eye drops fixed the lizards eye. It was irritation or biting from the mites. They were after cricket food I had put in there for any stray crickets and when it ran out they went to the lizards. I dipped my lizards quickly in warm water to get any mites off them and cleaned and re setup the tank.