Bad shed! One retained eye cap

[Sp0rk]

So I had some humidity issues early this week, and my snake (a young 8 month year old) had a bad shed. I have since fixed them and she was able to shed her entire body. She did not however shed her neck or half of the top portion of her head. The side of her face that has not shed also still has the eye cap on. She is doing well and eating, and I'd love to help her shed except she won't let me get anywhere near her face without jerking away, and I'd like to make sure I do not stress her out. I don't think soaking her would do any good, mostly because I'm not sure she would let her whole head become submerged and I don't think it's actually stuck, she's just too lazy to try to get off. I'm not really sure how I feel about holding her head and trying to remove it (I am finally getting her to be comfortable with me), and if that's the case, since I'm a new(ish) snake owner should I take her to the vet? Is it that serious that I should take her to the vet? Any help is much appreciated!

[Sp0rk]

*8 month old Haha whoops!

[Alexio]

What is your setup like? Type of substrate? What's your relative humidity?
I have found if a snake has a stuck shead all they really need is high humidity and something to rub on. I made this "humidity hide" it's separate from her security hide. I just stuffed a 28 qt bin with reptichip and moistened it down. The cage sits at around 60-70 humidity, but her humidity hide is always at 99℅. You wouldn't need one this big as your snake is much smaller. But they can enter the humidity hide and it helps them work off the old skin.

[Sp0rk]

What is your setup like? Type of substrate? What's your relative humidity?
I have found if a snake has a stuck shead all they really need is high humidity and something to rub on. I made this "humidity hide" it's separate from her security hide. I just stuffed a 28 qt bin with reptichip and moistened it down. The cage sits at around 60-70 humidity, but her humidity hide is always at 99℅. You wouldn't need one this big as your snake is much smaller. But they can enter the humidity hide and it helps them work off the old skin.

My humidity sits around 63-68 percent and I have aspen bedding (though I've been thinking about switching to a substrate that holds in water, but it really stressed her out when I moved her to aspen) She is in a 30 gallon tank (i think) and has plenty of stuff to rub on. Her terrarium has a screen top, but I put a moistened towel on the part where the light isn't every day.

[Ba11er]

Humid hide, spray bottle to boost humidity, or soaking the snake are good methods to remove stuck sheds. In your case a humid hide seems to be the best option and could be removed and be replaced in between shedding.

Try the humid hide to see if that works but if it doesn't it should with the next shed as long as you keep the humidity up. There is a q-tip method as well but not something i would recommend as it seems incredibly difficult and stressful.


http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...t=retained+eye

[Oxylepy]

This is what has worked for me (every time).

You will need:
A clean towel, hand towel, or washcloth (depending on the snakes size).
A plastic tub large enough for the cloth
Warm water (80-90 degrees when the snake gets in it)

1. Rinse the cloth out, and squeeze it out. Do this a couple times to get any soap or fabric softener out.
2. Put the cloth in the plastic tub.
3. Fill the tub with enough warm water to soak the cloth with a little extra (no more than enough the snake can comfortably sit it, you don't need to make it swim).

Then put your snake in for about 15 minutes. It should have the shed come off completely during that time, if you notice it come off earlier, just take the snake out. If it doesn't come off during that time, put the snake back in its home, it will probably come off within the next day. You can try to assist the shedding (after the snake has been soaked), but it will be stressful on the snake and you'll want to leave it alone for a while afterwords.

I've actually assisted my snake shedding (when I kept one in a tank a long time ago) quite a few times, and it got used to it enough all I had to do was grab a bit of the shed (front most section) and it would pull away slowly to get the shed off.

If you ever end up with just the eyecap left, leave a humid hide in there the next time it goes into shed. It will come off. I have had only the eyecap left before and the towel method worked, but if it doesn't, don't try assisting the shed, as it's far too difficult to remove an eyecap without stressing yourself and the snake out