retained eye caps

[Tammy]

hi all...
can someone tell me how you know after a shed whether or not the eye caps were retained? Batista had ana awful shed...lots of little peices...my humidity was all out of wack.
Thanks!
Tammy

[joepythons]

hi all...
can someone tell me how you know after a shed whether or not the eye caps were retained? Batista had ana awful shed...lots of little peices...my humidity was all out of wack.
Thanks!
Tammy

Tammy,find the peice from his head area and look for two "eyes" in it.If its not a full section look at both peices and you should be able to tell still if they both come off.If they did not come off let me know here and i can give you a way to remove them without hurting your snake.How is the mite problem going?

[Tammy]

Morning Joe!
Batista shed so terrible i was not able to tell which peice came form where. he had some shed left from behind his eyas to about 3 inches back on his body on top. i wiped him with a warm cloth and got that off but i wasn't able to tewll if he lost his eye caps. is there a way you can tell by just looking? i don't want to try the tape thing and hurt the poor guy if he has already lost them. i must have just had a mild mite problem. haven't seen anymore. i am going to keep treating every 3 days for a couple of weeks though, just to be sure.

[RoyalGuardian]

well... one easy way to remove eye caps is to put your baby into a moist cotton bath towel for a bit. it works almost everytime for my brother... twice it didn't and he ended up having to go to the vet to remove them...cool thing is you basically just leave the snake alone for a bit and it slithering around will dislodge any shed all by its self.. just dont leave your baby unattended....

[tmlowe5704]

well... one easy way to remove eye caps is to put your baby into a moist cotton bath towel for a bit. it works almost everytime for my brother... twice it didn't and he ended up having to go to the vet to remove them...cool thing is you basically just leave the snake alone for a bit and it slithering around will dislodge any shed all by its self.. just dont leave your baby unattended....

Throw it in a moist pillow case and tie it up. Why did he go to the vet to have them removed? Stuck eye caps are not bad as long as you don't have multiple ones on there. Just make a better effort to mist next time and they will come off with that shed.

[TheDude]

I put The Dude into a critter carrier filled with warm moist towels for about an hour. I had to keep putting him back under the towels but they came right off along witht he rest of the bad shed. I took the critter carrier and put it in the bathroom sitting in about an inch or 2 of warm water, this kept it warm and gave me a place to rewarm/wet towels as they got cool. I also cracked on a space heater right next to the tub. Worked like a charm!

You can see the eye cpas on their eyes too if you look closely. The eyes will look kinda foggy, basicly like unshed skin. If you find my post in BP Pictures of the dude you can see his eye caps when they were still on.

He will be more skitish if they stay on, cause he can't see crap, lol

[RoyalGuardian]

Throw it in a moist pillow case and tie it up. Why did he go to the vet to have them removed? Stuck eye caps are not bad as long as you don't have multiple ones on there. Just make a better effort to mist next time and they will come off with that shed.

Well... We were worried about Dasia... we tried everything but nothing worked... If by yourself you cant, succeed go see a vet...

[JLC]

Actually, eyecaps don't usually look foggy. They're usually clear, but can still be seen. It will look like the snake is wearing contacts that are a weee bit too big...and the edges right around the eyes will be raggedy.

Allowing the snake to slither through a warm, moist towel or something is ok to try...but do not try to directly remove the caps if they are still there. They won't hurt the snake if they remain until the next shed, but you can seriously or even permanently injure the eye if you try to remove them by many of the commonly recommended methods. (Tape, Q-tips, tweezers...anything that comes directly at the eye) Most likely, if they are still there, the snake will simply rub them off himself over time and you won't even notice.

He'll be fine. Just get those humidity problems tweaked and you'll be golden!

[joepythons]

Morning Joe!
Batista shed so terrible i was not able to tell which peice came form where. he had some shed left from behind his eyas to about 3 inches back on his body on top. i wiped him with a warm cloth and got that off but i wasn't able to tewll if he lost his eye caps. is there a way you can tell by just looking? i don't want to try the tape thing and hurt the poor guy if he has already lost them. i must have just had a mild mite problem. haven't seen anymore. i am going to keep treating every 3 days for a couple of weeks though, just to be sure.

Thats cool but keep a close eye out for awhile because if one mite is missed somehow it will start all over again.Sometimes you can tell if the eye cap is still thier sometimes not.The best way i have found in the past is after a couple days any unshed skin or eye caps left will "dryout" and you can see it better.Keep us posted on his progress

[Dureo]

I was taught if you are having problems with the caps(and you are sure they are still attached) you can wrap a piece of tape around your finger, sticky side out, and gently tap the caps to snag them off.