Special needs baby.

Hey again everyone. I got another special one. After I get everyone eating, I go and get another special baby. I've dubbed her Inferno, and she's approx 1150g. She's eaten 2x for me, no problems, and is about to go into shed. Sounds perfect right? Not so much. She's got several layers of retained cap on her right eye. Day 1, I was able to get 2 layers off, no problems. She's got a great temperment (I wouldn't be so nice about my eyes being touched). I've been spraying her eye daily, sometimes 2x daily with shedding aid, then letting it dry before putting her back in her tank. Yes, I do rub it very lightly with the pad of my thumb.

I noticed a couple of days ago that it's looking.. sunken, or flat. Her left eye is perfect, round, shiney and healthy. Her right eye, not so much. (Pics incoming.) She's starting to go blue, so I know more, or have a more well informed opinion in a week-two weeks. I know it's going to be a rough shed simply because her underside is.. well.. it looks like she's got a bit of scale rot in a couple of places, as well as some skin "flaking" off. Almost like it's shedding, but only on a few scales, in a few areas. (It may just be formerly stuck shed coming off due to proper humidity/shedding aid, I can't say for sure.)

Here's my question. If she is, in fact, in the process of losing that eye, what can I do about it? I called the vet, and they said to put her down. I very politely told them to bite me. The closest place I can find that has a decent, not a good, but a decent herp vet is over 2 hours away. I can either make the trip, or pay for the vet, I don't have the money for both. So I'm turning to you guys. Obviously, I'm not putting her down over a bum eye.

I've dealt with retained caps before, but nothing like this. Now for the pic(s).

http://i1076.photobucket.com/albums/...psfe1340dc.jpg

I know it's not the best res photo, however all I have is my camera phone. What you can barely see is right above her eye, it's almost like scales are growing down over the eye. Also. She's got a.. brown-ish scab-like texture on the lower portion of her eye. As I said before, She's getting ready to shed, so I'll know more as soon as she does and will keep ya'll informed.

Any ideas, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

(She's in a 55gal long w/ a custom top. Typically sitting at 82-86, depending on where she is in her enclosure. she's got a wooden hide, aspen substrate, a log, water bowl and her moss. On the days I don't spray her moss, it's about 50% humidity, when I do it jumps to about 70%. Also, she's on sm live rats, atm. )

Honestly, I've heard wonderful stories of BPs getting along just fine while half-blind or fully blind. They have such wonderful senses of smell that it doesn't much affect their feeding response, just their accuracy, and fortunately in a captive environment it's easy to control where prey goes (or if it goes at all, depending on your personal feeder preference! :D ). Her heat pits will also help her navigate, as well, so even if she does lose her eye, she'll live a perfectly good life. As for making her comfortable while she's in the process, I know less, but hopefully someone with experience can chime in! She's lovely despite her special needs. :)

If she intact goes blind in that bad eye, don't worry about it. Eyeless BPs do fine without sight. As mentioned before, they can feed and thrive fine just with their heat pits and sense of smell.

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I've been doing my research and it isn't really a matter of how it will effect her, I know she'll do just fine. (I'll make sure of it) It's more.. helping her along, and the best at home treatment for it. I may be doing the best thing with the shedding aid, soaks and gentle eye rubbing, but I want to make sure. I'm always a bit.. paranoid about my babies.

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Originally Posted by NinjaKittyz

I'm always a bit.. paranoid about my babies.

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I'm the same way, trust me. =] I freak whenever Magnus gets a mouthful of substrate during a feed. It's never a good feeling to think your baby might be uncomfortable. It sounds like you're doing everything right, though, just keep that humidity up and see where the issues with the retained caps go. Either she'll keep the eye or she won't.

Did you do a responsiveness test? Basically a matter of hitting the pupil with a flashlight beam or something to see if it dilates and contracts.

I rescued a little female who is now blind in one eye. She eats just fine.

Make sure to bump the humidity A LOT. Retained eyecaps and not enough humidity is what caused her issues.

Here is when I brought her home and she was in blue:
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/05/18/etutesa4.jpg

Full shed:
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/05/18/te9eguvu.jpg

Any other time her eyes look normal, although the blind eye is a bit smaller and flatter.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NinjaKittyz

I've been doing my research and it isn't really a matter of how it will effect her, I know she'll do just fine. (I'll make sure of it) It's more.. helping her along, and the best at home treatment for it. I may be doing the best thing with the shedding aid, soaks and gentle eye rubbing, but I want to make sure. I'm always a bit.. paranoid about my babies.

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Just leave the eye alone. Don't touch it or soak her. This can mess up her next shed. Just bump your humidity up and wait for her next shed.

Messing with an eye cap can permanently damage the eye if its not already damaged.

Keep her enclosure sterile and hospital clean.
And after her shed, we'll see how the eye is then to make further assessment.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

Quote:

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Originally Posted by satomi325

Just leave the eye alone. Don't touch it or soak her. This can mess up her next shed. Just bump your humidity up and wait for her next shed.

Messing with an eye cap can permanently damage the eye if its not already damaged.

Keep her enclosure sterile and hospital clean.
And after her shed, we'll see how the eye is then to make further assessment.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

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x2

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Originally Posted by Archimedes

Did you do a responsiveness test? Basically a matter of hitting the pupil with a flashlight beam or something to see if it dilates and contracts.

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I haven't, I honestly hadn't even thought about it really. Given how many layers of retained caps she has, I wasn't sure anything "could" get through them. I'll give it a try tomorrow. She's already had her treatments for the day so I'd rather not harass her further.

@ satomi325 The reason I'd been soaking her (every other day) was for the scale rot. It's hard to tell which to treat first. While I don't want her eye getting worse, I don't want the scale rot getting worse either. :/