Weird eye problems.

[whatsherface]

I've been inactive on here for awhile due to some personal issues but I return bearing good news! Some of you may remember my Mojave girl, Tiramisu. PS: she just hit 800 grams!

When I received her I thought she was a bit dehydrated because her eyes were a bit crinkly. Then it seemed like they were actually retained eyecaps.



Well I tried a number of home remedies with no luck. She shed three times, all normal with eyecaps shed but still with crinkly eyes. My mother even took a whack at it (she's had to remove eyecaps off snakes before). No luck. So I caved and took her to the vet. She had no retained caps. The vet said it may be dehydration (though it would be weird because she shows no other signs) or potentially it could be old scarring. She gave my some 'eye lubricant' (aka artificial tears) to put on her eyes once a day until the next shed at which point I should take her in for a check up. Do you know how hard it is to put eye drops onto the eye caps of a squirming snake?


I put the drops on this morning and I don't know if they've done anything yet, but she was out roaming her tub for the first time ever when I get home! She's usually always hidden. I pulled her out and she's in full explorer mode. I think she might be able to see better. She already seems much calmer.

(Also, the vet tech seemed really confused when I asked if i could apply the drops with a qtip. He asked why and I told him "because it says to put under the edges of the lid." He stared at me. "..she has no lids." He went to check with the vet.)

[Kibbleswhites]

FIY that vet has no clue how to treat reptiles. Unfortunately, I am a vet tech and have a boss that tries to pretend to know how to treat reptiles but probably does more harm than good most times due to ignorance. Artificial tears will not hurt the snake but will not do anything for her either. If she is feeding well and healthy otherwise I would just leave her alone. Perhaps it is a defect or injury of some sorts. Either way if it is not bothering her, why let it bother you?

[whatsherface]

Yeah, it did seem like a 'Here's something you can do just so I can say I gave you something to do' type of thing. I'll pretend she's improving or whatever so it doesn't feel like 100 bucks down the toilet. She eats like a dream and has never refused a meal, but she does strike at everything that comes into the tub so I'm working on hook training her. I just wanted to be sure that it wasn't retained caps, and its not so it all works out.

[Kibbleswhites]

Hooks are really not necessary for balls but if it makes you feel better it can not hurt. Personally I just use a handy long object (pen, paper towel roll, hemostat, etc) to gentle tap my balls on the nose if they look particularly vicious when I open the tub. Sometimes they are just sitting and waiting in feed mode and make mistakes to hot objects coming in. The tap seems to break the feed wait and strike cycle.

[whatsherface]

Hooks are really not necessary for balls but if it makes you feel better it can not hurt. Personally I just use a handy long object (pen, paper towel roll, hemostat, etc) to gentle tap my balls on the nose if they look particularly vicious when I open the tub. Sometimes they are just sitting and waiting in feed mode and make mistakes to hot objects coming in. The tap seems to break the feed wait and strike cycle.

I have a snake hook on my 'tool wall' on my rack, so its always the closest thing within grabbing distance. She just needs a little boop on the nose or top of the head for those days when she's in feeding mode and I need to stick my hand in. Its also proven useful when I pulled a tub out with a rat ready to go and one of my boys shot about half his length out of the tub. I used the hook to ease him back in the tub without having to put my rat-scented hands near his mouth. I know bp bites are no big deal, but if I can avoid them, I will.