I`ve burned my tortoises eyes !

Moozillion

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Wow Bee! I'm surprised this happened to you. If these are the Arcadia 12% HO tubes, they need to be at least 20 inches (50cm) away, and they are still so strong that I only run them for about 3 hours mid day. At 20" I get a UVI reading of about 7 on my Solarmeter 6.5. Mid day summer sun here is only about 7. In mid winter I'm lucky to get a reading of 2 or 3 in full mid day sun. At 7 inches away, I bet it was putting out A UVI of 20 or more... Ouch.

Live and learn. Thanks for sharing this experience. I hope others learn from your example.
Hey, Tom- Where did you get your Solarmeter?
 

willee638

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Today I went & got a second lamp cover 8.5 inch by Nomoypet & a Philips Energy saver fluorescent lamp warm white was the best I can do "can't find incandescent" , the heat it gave off was low but it did change the ambient lighting & my red foot seems to like it more because it neutralized the harshness from just the UV mercury vapor lamp used alone. To decorate & as a future food source I placed a wide pad cactus plant in the enclosure, there won't be anymore plants after this to avoid over crowding the enclosure.
 

William Lee Kohler

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Hmmmm? Something missing here. If the eye was burned it would have turned white as a blind animals are wouldn't it? This is something else but I can't identify it. I think blaming the lighting on it may well be a big mistake.
 

Bee62

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Yes.
One of the big issues with those MVB is that they can be wildly different one to the next.
There's no way of telling your lighting exposure levels without a SOLARMETER with this type of light. But even then, they're still a bad choice.
I totally agree with you Ed.
 

Bee62

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Sorry to see this happen, I always questioned if I positioned the UVA+UVB bulb at a proper high away from my enclosure. I was only told when purchasing my red foot tortoise never to use any UV bulb with UVC emitted that can cause blindness, is it normal when a tortoise closes it's eyes when basking under artificial UV light sources or natural sunlight? If they close their eyes regularly in an enclosure setting can it be possible the light is too strong?
Sometimes tortoises close their eyes while basking because they make a little nap but it is how @ZEROPILOT said: Without a solarmeter you will never know how strong the UVB output of a bulb or a tube is. I had to learn that lesson too.
 

Bee62

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Hmmmm? Something missing here. If the eye was burned it would have turned white as a blind animals are wouldn't it? This is something else but I can't identify it. I think blaming the lighting on it may well be a big mistake.
Sorry for being a little bit incorrect: I think it was not the eye of the tort but the conjunctiva. The eye of my tort is luckily not blind and the swelling and red color of the conjunctiva is getting better every day. Nothing in the enclosure changed but the light. That`s why I think it was the light. When it is a bacterial infection it would not heal without an ointment or something else. I put out the new Arcadia bulbs and the eye of my tort was better after 4 days. I think it was the light and my mistake to put it too close to the torts.
 

Viola B

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Wow Bee! I'm surprised this happened to you. If these are the Arcadia 12% HO tubes, they need to be at least 20 inches (50cm) away, and they are still so strong that I only run them for about 3 hours mid day. At 20" I get a UVI reading of about 7 on my Solarmeter 6.5. Mid day summer sun here is only about 7. In mid winter I'm lucky to get a reading of 2 or 3 in full mid day sun. At 7 inches away, I bet it was putting out A UVI of 20 or more... Ouch.

Live and learn. Thanks for sharing this experience. I hope others learn from your example.
I would say having a Solarmeter 6.5 to get a good reading very important. I have a Arcadia 12% HO5 tube, 46'', and it reads 4.3 at 18 inches. The tuba has different readings from one end to the other. One end 3.5, middle 4.3, other end 2.5.
 

Canadian Mojo

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For the morbidly curious, I'm a welder so I can tell you all about burning your eyeballs with UV.

You literally sunburn your eyes with the UV and a few hours after doing it your corneas start to peel. This causes them to be very sensitive to the point of the inside of your eyelids are rough and irritating. It feels very much like somebody has thrown sand in your face and it won't wash out. For added fun your eyes get puffy, bloodshot, water excessively, and bright lights hurt. Fortunately your corneas toughen up it goes away after about a day and the damage isn't permanent (unless you do it a lot). Until they do toughen up, Visine and darkness are your friend.

It hurts enough even the dumbest of us learn the lesson first time. ;)
 

Blackdog1714

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For the morbidly curious, I'm a welder so I can tell you all about burning your eyeballs with UV.

You literally sunburn your eyes with the UV and a few hours after doing it your corneas start to peel. This causes them to be very sensitive to the point of the inside of your eyelids are rough and irritating. It feels very much like somebody has thrown sand in your face and it won't wash out. For added fun your eyes get puffy, bloodshot, water excessively, and bright lights hurt. Fortunately your corneas toughen up it goes away after about a day and the damage isn't permanent (unless you do it a lot). Until they do toughen up, Visine and darkness are your friend.

It hurts enough even the dumbest of us learn the lesson first time. ;)
THat is so true. As a hobbyist welder I have my share of sunburns and even have a G-SHock with a scarred crystal to prove why safety equipment is very important!
 

Beasty_Artemis

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20200225_090653.jpg20200225_090515.jpg
Oh no! What about this one?!
Good thing I never throw the packaging away for reference. I wrote that date when I bought it....I probably need to replace it anyway by now.
 

Maggie3fan

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Hmmmm? Something missing here. If the eye was burned it would have turned white as a blind animals are wouldn't it? This is something else but I can't identify it. I think blaming the lighting on it may well be a big mistake.
I'm not a Vet but that looks to me like a slightly irritated
nictitating membrane not a burn on the eyeball.
 

Blackdog1714

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With out checking it with a Solarmeter 6.5r you can't be sure if it is still good. I thought I saw 2017 on the box
 

willee638

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I took heed of a forum member's suggestion & use a second lamp with an ordinary incandescent bulb of 40 watts only for generating heat & to my surprise my red foot tortoise was still able to feed without the use of a UV light, although I still switches on the 80 watt UV bulb at least once daily. But now the weather is gradually reaching the mid twenties approaching March, I will try not to over heat the enclosure as I never usually have a lid on it.
 
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