chineese water dragon

Question
I have had this water dragon for about 6 months she has never been a great eater but will eat twice a week mealworms or crickets he has a beautiful greeen, blue, brown coat and is active at times. My problem is his eyes seem to be coated over and he rarely tries to open them. he has not shed in about two weeks, this did happen last time when his eyes did not shed completely but this looks different and I do not see any left over skin on his eyes. I have tried washing with warm water and he snaps at mean when I do this but otherwise is quite docile. Any ideas???

Answer
Hi Priscilla,

It sounds like the nictitating membranes are inflamed and not receding. CWD's do not have eye caps or spectacles that shed off but rather a third eye lid that is a semi-transparent mucous membrane. They would use it while under water but you would not easily see it under normal circumstances.

There are a few things can cause this inflammation such as infections (bacterial, viral or parasitic), physical or chemical irritation and even vitamin deficiency.

I suspect you may need to see a vet who may use optical steroid drops to reduce the inflamed membranes and allow them to move back to normal position. He/she may also use fluorescent drops that will allow them to see any corneal damage that may be triggering the protective membranes to remain over the eye.

In the meantime, keep flushing the eye but I would suggest using saline (sold for contact lenses) instead of water. Plain water can cause further swelling of exposed membranes.
You can also try using any antibiotic eye drops that are sold for human use that can be purchased over the counter. Polysporin is the brand available here in Canada, without a prescription.

An old farming trick that my avian vet still recommends for birds is to bath the eye with weak, cooled tea. The tannins in tea are slightly acidic and  have natural anti-bacterial properties. This worked incredibly well for a cockatiel I had with exposed nictitating membranes.

This link has some photos of nictitating membranes

https://www.ebiomedia.com/how-do-animals-protect-their-eyes.html

I apologize for the delay in responding. I don't seem to be able to convince my computer that e-mail from the All-Experts site is not spam.