Shedding Help

[amandersen]

Ugh. Ok.

So Anabell is my first snake ever, and I am really trying hard to do everything right. I have her temps and humidity finally down pat. However, she still had a problem shedding.

During her shed, I made sure the humidity was at least 75% the entire time.

She shed everything in one piece except for her head and eyes. From the neck down, everything came off perfectly. I was so happy about that, until I realized her head was still on.

And when I say still on, I mean, completely and utterly stuck. Just a VERY VERY small flap at the back of her head is sticking up, but I can see that it still attached to her entire head and eyes.

I've tried soaking her, using a wet towel, putting her in a pillowcase and I even bought some zoomed reptished aid. Nothing is working. It's been about a week and nothing is coming off.

This hasn't affected her behavior or eating at all. But I'm worried, since her eyes are still attached. They look awful. They look cracked because of the dead, dry skin.

What do I need to do? Should I go to a vet? We have an exotic vet near us, so that wouldn't be a problem, but I don't want to go if it's not needed. Or should I wait until the next shed?

I tried so hard to do things right and its very frustrating that things went wrong!

[11anthony]

If it isn't really bothering you, you can wait until next shed. But if it's bothering you a lot then soak her in warm water, then using a warmed wet q-tip, VERY gently roll the skin off. That is my last resort when there is stuck shed on my snake. If you haven't done so already, offer a humid hide during shed. All of my sheds so far have been perfect and I don't have to worry about humidity during shed.

[amandersen]

The only reason it is bothering me is because she still has the eyecaps. Like I said, this is my first snake and I don't want to hurt her. If you think she will be fine until her next shed, then I will try not to worry about it. If it needs attention, I will take her to the vet.

[Daybreaker]

I went through the same thing recently with one of my males: he had a bad shed and retained eye caps. Misting and damp pillowcase/towel rubs and soaks didn't work (I don't mess with their eyes, I let them move themselves through the towel/case). Nothing cut it so I had to wait until I caught him ready to shed again: when I saw him going into blue for his next shed I left a warm damp pillowcase (towel would work too) in the tub (which took up almost half of his tub) with him and kept it in there until he shed. After having that in there he shed 100% perfect.

My advice would be to keep her humidity bumped (but not too much to cause other problems) and catch her when she's to go into her next shed and leave a damp item in there with her to rub up on herself. I left my pillowcase in there with him right after his blue stage cleared but before he shed on me (it was in there with him for about 2-3 days).