Recovering blind hermanns (another coil bulb story)

[Martini5788]

Hey everyone, I have a 1 yr old hermanns and about a few week I noticed him acting funny and hiding a lot, puffy eyes, etc. then on Friday I saw him running into things and he was unable to find his food. Upon closer inspection I came to the conclusion that he was completely blind. I started looking at everything and trying to figure out what went wrong, when I noticed the uv coil bulb in one of the dome lights. Background: I was out of town a few weeks ago and my mom said that one of the lights had gone out, so I told her to go to petco and get a 100w mvb. She said ok and I never heard anything about it again, so I assumed that everything was fine. Apparently someone at petco told her that they were the same thing. The specific bulb was exo terra compact UVB 10.0 desert 13w. Naturally, I freaked out. And took the light off. I have been giving him daily baths, as well as cleaning his eyes with saline and then putting in some artificial tears type drops. Today he seems like he has gotten at least some of his vision back. He will look at me and sometimes follow me around, although he is definitely not 100%. Is there anything else that I should be doing? Any input is greatly appreciated.

 

[Yvonne G]

It will eventually get better, but a soothing eye ointment might help ease the pain.

We have a thread about coiled bulbs going on now in the Forum and quite a few of the posters in that thread don't believe the coil bulbs cause eye problems anymore. Here's a very good example of a brand new - newly bought bulb, causing blindness.

 

[wellington]

Glad he seems to be doing better. I will be posting a link to this thread in the thread Yvonne is talking about. Please update on his condition.

 

[Martini5788]

I will, can someone send me the link to that thread? I definitely want to participate in that. There are so many it's hard to figure out which one you are talking about. And I am new to this site, and don't really know my way around yet.

 

[wellington]

Here is the thread. http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/coil-bulb.98382/
I posted a link to this thread in it.

 

[Martini5788]

So I would like to let everyone know that bob( hermanns) has to the best of my knowledge, regained all of his vision back. Yes, either 100% or so close to it that I can't tell. I have been doing tests all week to gauge his recovery and has returned to his normal self. Just so everyone knows, this is what I did:

Rinsed his eyes 2-3 times daily with ophthalmic saline solution( plain, no additives) and after put one drop of refresh( plain refresh, DO NOT use any special kind for redness, allergies, etc. he had 2 warm baths for 20 minutes twice a day. I fed him whatever he would eat. And he only had a heat light, nothing with any kind of uv. Although I did take him outside for 15 minutes each day, around 6 when the sun wasn't strong.

 

[Tom]

I'm glad to hear he's recovered.

 

[AmRoKo]

Good news!

 

[Martini5788]

Thanks everyone!!

 

[zenoandthetortoise]

Hi Martini

So glad to hear he's on the mend. As it happens, that's the exact bulb I'm playing with. I'm assuming from your post that no 'burn in' period was used. Do you mind telling me the distance from bulb to tort? Was there a screen top? Hood? If so, reflective or painted? How long was the bulb used before onset of symptoms? Any other light sources? Thanks for any detail you can provide and congrats again on successful recovery.

Cheers!

 

[Martini5788]

12 inches, almost exactly. Yes there is a screen top. It was in a dome light, reflective. On the other end is either a ceramic heat emitter or just a small heat bulb, depends on whether the heat emitter is deciding to work on it. But there are no other sources of uv. The bulb was in there for 3 weeks, approx.

 

[Martini5788]

I was out of town for the first week or so that is was in there. So I can't account for that time period, but he seemed a little bit off ever since I got back, I thought maybe my mom had fed him something that wasn't sitting well or something. But it got worse pretty quickly

 

[Tom]

Martini,
You may have previously mentioned this, but where is this bulb now? If it is still in your possession, may I buy it from you and pay to ship it?

 

[Martini5788]

I returned it. After I started posting on here I was shooting myself in the foot for doing that! If I still had it, I would gladly send it to you. I do remember one thing about the bulb itself and I don't know if this is any help at all, but it can't hurt to mention it. At the very bottom of the coil, it looked a little bit burned, or something was. It was a brown color.

 

[tortoise_luvergirl]

Hey everyone, I have a 1 yr old hermanns and about a few week I noticed him acting funny and hiding a lot, puffy eyes, etc. then on Friday I saw him running into things and he was unable to find his food. Upon closer inspection I came to the conclusion that he was completely blind. I started looking at everything and trying to figure out what went wrong, when I noticed the uv coil bulb in one of the dome lights. Background: I was out of town a few weeks ago and my mom said that one of the lights had gone out, so I told her to go to petco and get a 100w mvb. She said ok and I never heard anything about it again, so I assumed that everything was fine. Apparently someone at petco told her that they were the same thing. The specific bulb was exo terra compact UVB 10.0 desert 13w. Naturally, I freaked out. And took the light off. I have been giving him daily baths, as well as cleaning his eyes with saline and then putting in some artificial tears type drops. Today he seems like he has gotten at least some of his vision back. He will look at me and sometimes follow me around, although he is definitely not 100%. Is there anything else that I should be doing? Any input is greatly appreciated.

try some vitamin A turtle/tortoise eye drops.. they really seem to help puffy irritated eyes helped Willow's a few times. those coil bulbs are also very bad for OWNERS EYES..

 

[JBurer]

Please "like" this review so that other customers on Amazon are warned. The review will remain on the back pages until it is voted up. I'd hate for more people to have the same experience I did.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/RFW2H1KTSO/?tag=exoticpetnetw-20