Bad eye?

[Weaver]

Some of you may remember that when I bought my ball python earlier this month I had some questions about her eye. I thought it might be a retained eye cap. She showed no signs of being able to see out of it when I got her but I thought maybe the problem would resolve itself when she shed. She gave me a perfect shed yesterday. I unrolled it and made sure both eye caps came off. There was only one layer of eye cap. The eye is still blue and seems to be sightless. I can move my finger right in front of that eye and get no reaction. I showed her eye to a friend the day I bought her and he thought it looked like someone tried to remove an old eye cap and injured the eye. Is it possible that they removed the cornea by mistake and accidentally blinded her? There is no reptile vet anywhere near me and I've heard many horror stories of vets that don't know reptiles doing more damage than good. The last one I went to tried to give me an antibiotic that was meant for ear infections in dogs to clear up scale rot. Should I leave it alone and see what happens with the next shed? I was able to get a couple of pics but they are not close-ups. She's a bit camera shy and struck at the camera when I tried to get too close. Look at the pic and if anyone has any suggestions, please share. Thanks.

[elevatethis]

Hard to tell by that pic, but something looks 'different'. The good news is that ball pythons have pretty crappy vision to begin with, so she wouldn't be adversely affected even if they eye wasn't fully functional.

[Cloud7659]

Hard to tell by that pic, but something looks 'different'. The good news is that ball pythons have pretty crappy vision to begin with, so she wouldn't be adversely affected even if they eye wasn't fully functional.

wow, I had no Idea Bp'a had crapy vision, mine always seems to be alert as soon as I wal;k into my room and my door is about 10 feet away. I guess maybe Stewie can hear me or smell me too

[frankykeno]

I'd watch the eye over a couple of more sheds. One of our rescues took 2 sheds to completely clear one eye (had about 5 layers of caps there) and then the eye was dented for a couple of more months. It is possible to severely injure their eyes when attempting to remove a retained cap, so we left it alone to just come off naturally with her sheds. We were sure she would have no vision left but it seems she does, though we were assured even if she were blind on that side it would not greatly affect her quality of life.

Since BP's hunt at night most likely in low light or total darkness and are nocturnal by nature, as far as I've been told, they don't rely on their sight or see as we do (a show on Discovery said they likely see in infra-red). As long as the eye isn't showing infection I would think it best to just adopt a wait and see attitude.