Spider Eye Problems.. Need Help!!!

[pacman]

I have a spider ball that is roughly about a year and a half old now. I got him last year in February and was told he was born in august of the previous year. Since getting this snake he has eaten on a weekly basis with no breaks, not even for sheds. This time he started his shed, ate as usual, however when he was getting close to shedding I noticed something wrong with one of his eyes. It looked more blue and not as silvery as the other eye. At first I didn't think anything of it, and just left him alone to finish his shed. Now that he has shed the eye has a little red (looks like blood) over the top of the eye, and a spot on his cheek looks raw and scabby. He is missing a few scales on the side of his face where it is raw. The eye also looks navy blue and brownish now instead of it's normal green color. I have cleaned his tub about 2 or 3 times daily since noticing the eye in and effort to help it heal and keep it as clean as possible without disturbing him to much. However it's been about 3 days now and the eye hasn't improved at all. There aren't any reptile vets that live within a reasonable distance from me, so any info on this is much appreciated. \

My Opinion: I think this may have happened while he was trying to break his shed, but I could be completely wrong. I honestly have no idea what caused it, but if I were forced to guess that is what I would say.

Husbandry: He's in a homemade rack with a melamine lid and he's in a 38qt tub that has paper towel substrate, black plastic hide (no rough or sharp edge's), and ceramic water dish. The rack is run on 8 11" wide 12" long peices of flexwatt that are attached to a herpstat thermostat. The humidity avg's about 60-65%, and the temp is almost a steady 88 where the flexwatt is and 78-80 where the flexwatt isn't.

Other things: He isn't handled a whole lot (once or twice a week maybe) and is always touched by clean hands when he is handled (I keep germX hand sani on the top of my rack and wash my hands before touching any snake, even from snake to snake). He hasn't had any health issues until this incident. Like I said he's a solid eater and is never grumpy. Which is why I knew something was wrong when I picked him up and he hissed at me quite loud. Also I have never had any other health issues with my other 7 ball pythons.

I really appreciate any help that anyone can give me. I just want my little buddy to get better.

[dr del]

Hi,

Can you try and get a picture of it?

Do you feed live? I just wondered if it could be a rodent bite with you mentioning two areas of damage.

If you tell us where abouts (roughly ) you are maybe one of our members could recommend a good herp vet or maybe you could even find one close to you on these two sites;

Search the member directory on this site.

Also try here.


dr del

[pacman]

I can try and take a picture later with my camera, but it more than likely won't be the best quality.

I do feed live, but I feed each snake separately and watch to make sure that everything goes smoothly. He hadn't had a rat to eat for about 5-6 days prior to noticing the bad eye, and raw area on the cheek (when I say raw area, I mean an area that is simply missing scales and kinda red, it's really not bloody at all). I'll get some pictures up as quickly as I can though.

[pacman]

Well I ended up finding a vet that had experience with reptiles that lived about an hour from me. I took my snake up there today and got him looked at. The vet asked me a couple of questions about his eating habits and shedding habits. He said that he had retained an eye cap in his last shed, and that it had irritated the eye, and more than likely that's why it was raw. He thinks that my snakes rubbed himself raw because of the irritation and the affected area was now infected. So he gave me an antibiotic drop for his eye, and a steroid cream to apply to the raw area. According to what the doc said, I should give this 2 months, unless it just drastically gets worse and let him shed it out and let the medicine to it's job. Hopefully he'll be ok.

[West Coast Jungle]

Good to hear its not too serious. Sounds like you need to up your humidity especially when he's in shed. Retained shed and eyecaps are signs of not enough moisture in the air. If you see another retained or incomplete shed you should soak him in warm 85-90 degree water half way up his body in depth. This will help him loosen his shed. I leave mine in for hours sometimes.

[ARamos8]

That is great news. Keep us posted on his progress. Whew...

[pacman]

Well he's going on 2 a day treatments, and his face is looking much better. (the area that was raw, is almost back to normal already). His eye still looks pretty bad, but the vet did say to give it about 2 months and a couple sheds before bringing him back, unless he got increasingly worse. But for now he's doing good. He stopped hissing when I pick him up, and now doesn't seem to mind his treatments, he barely even flinches anymore.