Help... BP has her right eye is bulging

WE may have some hope. A friend of a friend is a reptile vet in chicago and will be calling us in about 30 minutes.

Vet by phone, gota love it!!!

A herb vet called us and from what we explained and the pictures, he thinks that when her eye caps were removed, her corneas where punctured. Then we we soaked her, water built up and caused this issue.

We have eye antibiotics we are giving her and we will take her in to get the eye cleaned and more antibiotics.

Thank you to evryone that has helped and I will keep everyone updated with how she does.

That is why you should Never ever try and remove eye caps. Oh poor baby.

Btw I know you had no idea and I'm not trying to be mean. I hope this can come as a learning experience and for other that are trying to do this exact thing I hope they see this and understand why not to touch the snakes eyes.


Check out what's new on my website... www.Homegrownscales.com

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Originally Posted by Homegrownscales

That is why you should Never ever try and remove eye caps. Oh poor baby.

Btw I know you had no idea and I'm not trying to be mean. I hope this can come as a learning experience and for other that are trying to do this exact thing I hope they see this and understand why not to touch the snakes eyes.


Check out what's new on my website... www.Homegrownscales.com

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Not that I am trying to be mean, but WE did not attempt to remove her eye caps. We had someone the breeds and sells snakes attempt to remove them for us. We could not just let them stay there forever.

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Originally Posted by aimin4strz

A herb vet called us and from what we explained and the pictures, he thinks that when her eye caps were removed, her corneas where punctured. Then we we soaked her, water built up and caused this issue.

We have eye antibiotics we are giving her and we will take her in to get the eye cleaned and more antibiotics.

Thank you to evryone that has helped and I will keep everyone updated with how she does.

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If that is the case, and the living spectacle was punctured, you need a very talented reptile vet. I know that the mob always recommends immediately mucking with these retained caps, but the truth is waiting it out one shed is going to hurt the snake. On the other hand, incorrectly dealing with this situation has some very serious consequences.

I have seen a few of these and they rarely turn out well. That animal is going to need a variety of medications and an almost sterile environment if that is the case.

This is why you should never, ever attempt to remove a damn retained spectacle unless you (1) are sure its retained and (2) know what the hell you are doing. Hint: Reading a care sheet does not qualify you to mess with your snake's eyes. (this is not directed at the OP per se.............)

Every single one of you that offers up home remedies on removing stuck caps needs to check yourself before you post. If you can't see the snake and you don't know how to perform the procedure yourself, refer the poster to a vet and let it go.

If the OP's snake has a punctured cornea or a breached living spectacle, there is a good chance that the OP is going to spend a crap load of money and the animal may still end up permanently blind. The tissue around the eye is very susceptible to infection and once infected, fairly difficult to treat.

The protocol for someone new to this hobby dealing with a retained spectacle should be to leave it for one shed and then if it doesn't resolve, go to a vet.

Period.

To the OP - I wish you the best of luck. Hopefully this turns out to be a lot less serious than damage to the living spectacle or the corneas.

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Originally Posted by aimin4strz

Not that I am trying to be mean, but WE did not attempt to remove her eye caps. We had someone the breeds and sells snakes attempt to remove them for us. We could not just let them stay there forever.

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They wouldn't have stayed there forever.. No one should ever attempt to remove to stuck eye caps. Ever! They absolutely will come off on their own with just a bit of the proper guidance. Believe it or not, a member here took their snake to their vet who tried to remove stuck eyecaps and that snake lost an eye. A vet! Even more than one layer of stuck caps will come off on their own with the proper care. I guarantee it. No one should ever let anyone talk them into removing them. It doesn't matter how long they claim to have been dealing with snakes. They are absolutely wrong if they tell you this. Me, Skip, Homegrown, and many other members here can give you the advice needed to help stuck caps come off on their own if you ever need this info.

I very much hope that eye is ok and that the snake does not lose it. Keep us updated.

Sorry for the double post but you know what I think happened? What Skip said.. I believe your snake didn't actually have retained eyecaps at all. The living cap that is under the cap that comes off every shed can and does become dented, wrinkly, creased, and dull looking if the humidity is too low. It will look just like a retained eyecap. From what you said about the bad shed, I bet it's eyes we're prone to looking like this and it was impossible to tell if it was actually a retained "old cap" or just a dry living cap.

The case that I mentioned above, where the vet caused a members snakes eye to be lost was a case like this. The vet actually removed the living cap and exposed the eyeball. The snakes eye did exactly what yours is doing. Then it eventually shriveled up.

It is very easy to remove the required living spectacle. I believe a high percentage of people who think their snake has retained old eye caps are wrong and they are just seeing the required living caps looking bad due to low humidity.

Again I would like to thank everyone that provided any information on what we could do for our snake because she is part of our family.

To end this post, I would like to make a few points very clear.
1. She has not lost her eye caps for the last 3 sheds and she was starting her 4th. We had to have then removed because it was impairing her eye site.

3. This is not our 1st, 2nd or even 3rd reptile. Yes it is our first snake but we have bearded dragons and chameleons. We have a 125 gallon salt water fish tank for many years with fish and many different corals, plus cats and dogs.

4. Our pets are part of our family and we try and take great care of them and do anything we can to ensure their health.

5. We live in Boise, Idaho so we do not have a supply of herb doctors. Some will say then can help but do not specialize in reptile care. Most will not even see a reptile. So when repticon came to town, we went to it. We happened to find someone that had a lot of snakes for sales and was a breeder. He had many great looking snakes of all sizes for sale and after we spoke with him, he offered to help so we let him. We did not just read a care sheet and think we knew everything and attempted to practice kitchen medicine.

6. We DID NOT attempt to do this by ourselves. We had what would be concerted a very experienced person do this. I am repeating this because some seem to be implying we just tried this by the seat of our pants. We did not just jump to this decision. We did a lot of research and tried other less invasive ways to help her lose her eye caps before we had them removed.

7. Finally, if you want to make any example of us to others, don't bother!!! Trying to make an example of someone on the same day it happened makes you a piece of crap! We already feel terrible and are trying to do everything we can to bring her back to health. You might know a lot and saying "I told you so" might make you feel good, but again!!!

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Originally Posted by Foschi Exotic Serpents

They wouldn't have stayed there forever.. No one should ever attempt to remove to stuck eye caps. Ever! They absolutely will come off on their own with just a bit of the proper guidance. Believe it or not, a member here took their snake to their vet who tried to remove stuck eyecaps and that snake lost an eye. A vet! Even more than one layer of stuck caps will come off on their own with the proper care. I guarantee it. No one should ever let anyone talk them into removing them. It doesn't matter how long they claim to have been dealing with snakes. They are absolutely wrong if they tell you this. Me, Skip, Homegrown, and many other members here can give you the advice needed to help stuck caps come off on their own if you ever need this info.

I very much hope that eye is ok and that the snake does not lose it. Keep us updated.

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Thank you for the information. I wish I would have know this 8 days ago. I do have a question about what you said. If her living eye caps was removed, would it have taken a week for this issue to develop?

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Originally Posted by aimin4strz

7. Finally, if you want to make any example of us to others, don't bother!!! Trying to make an example of someone on the same day it happened makes you a piece of crap! We already feel terrible and are trying to do everything we can to bring her back to health. You might know a lot and saying "I told you so" might make you feel good, but again

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I haven't seen anyone on this thread say anything that was considered disrespectful or rude. People state things on threads like this not to point blame or make you look like the back end of a mule...but to teach others who are new, or have never seen or heard of this before, exactly why things like this happen. Taking it personally, and then lashing out is what makes you look like those things. I realize you're stressed about this whole thing, but this is no way to treat people who have tried to help or have given solid reasons for other new members.

To add a little to the thread, I have removed eye caps when I first started out without knowing the consequences such as this. I realize now it was very dangerous, but luckily there was no harm done. I'm sorry your snake is going through this, I hope she pulls through. If nothing else, I hope it's as painless as possible. Even if she loses her eyes, snakes do very well blind. Gale (angellady?) has a snake that was born blind if I can recall, and she is thriving.