Need help with eye caps...

He has just had his first shed with me and I can't seem to get rid of these eye caps.

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...r/DSCN1628.jpg

When I got him a while ago he had the caps and i figured they would come off with his next shed if i provided the proper humidity, well they are on his little face like white on rice. I have tried soaking him in the bath tub, putting him in a damp pillow case (he doesn't even move, I think he just goes back to sleep lol), and rubbing his eyes with a moist q-tip.

I have read that they can go blind from leaving the eye caps on. I just want him to be a happy healthy boy. Any advice or tips on how to remove his eye caps would be appreciated!

Thank you in advance! :D

Wow....that's a very serious problem, I think. That's not a typical "stuck eyecap." It might be multiple layers built up over a long time, but again, when it gets that bad, it's a lot more serious. You may need to take him to a vet and get that looked at. (Not just any vet, but one with experience dealing with reptiles and snakes)

Edit for additional thought: You can cause more injury to the eye by messing with it, so other than the soaks where he can try to rub on it himself, I would not mess with it at all. Don't try to "pull" anything off because it might not be what you think it is and you could make things worse.

Thank you for your advice! I have an appointment with the only reptile vet I could find in the valley I live in at 11:45 today. Wish me luck!

They gave me an ointment to put on is eyes 4-6 times a day for a week, and then I'm supposed to come back in.....is this normal? I was kinda expecting them to magically makes the eye caps disappear at the appointment lol...

I personally can't say if that's normal or not, as I've never had an eye issue like that. However, I'm not surprised that there was no instant cure like simply popping off a stack of stuck caps. Did the doc say what he thinks is going on? What, exactly, is the ointment for? Is it supposed to loosen old, stuck caps?

Whatever it is, I do hope it all works out and the snake's eyes are able to heal properly.

ouch that looks like 3 layers i bettingto dry and crackle like that i hope the ointment works too. i also see the stuck shed on the neck and head. so might need to bump the humidity up more to the 70+ precent, once seeing he going blue i got one dnake that will spend the entire sheddng cycle in their bowl causing t he water to spill and make the tub a sauna it so humid. She loves it cause if i change the tub will spill the water again to get it dripping wet .

The Dr didn't really say much, idk if she was rude or just really busy. The ointment is supposed to moisten and loosen the eye caps. Its made of mineral oil, white petrolatum, and gentamicin sulfate. I also really hope his eyes heal, I'm really wishing I had made this post sooner like when i first got him around month ago so I would've know to take him to the vet right then. I feel like such a crappy mom. :(

The humidity has been 70-80% since he went into shed and I never lowered it since because he hasn't finished yet. Oliver has two water bowls in his enclosure that are big enough to fit him but I never see him in either one, and whenever i give him a bath he just makes a B-line to the nearest exit. Its like he doesn't like water, although I have seen him drinking from his water bowls, but that's as close as he gets.....:/

You could have saved the money and used mineral oil.....just a little dab gently smeared over each eye. I've used it quite a few times with rescues with multiple retained eyecaps.....it always works.

Well whats done is done and as long as he gets healthy i wont regret the $70+. But if i ever have this sort of a situation again i will definitely try your method first. Thank you for the advice!

Wish I'd seen it sooner:). At least he will get some relief. When I first started doing rescues, there were NO reptile vets anywhere close. So I learned alot from veteran rescuers and found a vet who would prescribe antibiotics if I would calculate the dose. It's alot easier nowadays:)

Ok so I came home from work tonight and was gonna put Olivers eye goop on him when I noticed his eyes looked a bit better. Turns out he shed some of the skin off of his head and with that shed there was at least one layer of eye caps. :banana: Now the pics are a little out of focus because when ever the camera would flash Oliver would move away from the light.....he has never done this before, I'm taking it as a sign that he can see better (kinda sad, I know).

So here are the pics cause I'm too excited to wait for daylight (ill most likely post better ones later). Can you give me your input as to whether you think ALL the layers are off? I'm not sure. The left one looks "cracked" (cant think of a better adjective right now) but I'm not sure if that could be from dehydration or another layer....

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...r/DSCN1635.jpg

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...r/DSCN1634.jpg

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...r/DSCN1633.jpg

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...r/DSCN1632.jpg

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...r/DSCN1631.jpg

Any thoughts would be appreciated! I don't want to stop his ointment treatment on the belief that he is all better if he is not. I'm not exactly sure what a normal bp's eyes are supposed to look like. (tonight was the first night i have ever seen his pupils!)

The better pics as promised (kinda he was NOT cooperating)...

His right eye..

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...r/DSCN1660.jpg

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...r/DSCN1674.jpg

His left eye...

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...r/DSCN1665.jpg

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...r/DSCN1668.jpg

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...r/DSCN1675.jpg

Both eyes...

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...r/DSCN1663.jpg

Sorry for the abundance of pics but i know they're not the best quality and so i figured the more you had the better you could see if he has any eye caps left on his eyes....

looks like he does have another cap on both eyes....I would continute with the treatment. Keep the humidity up.....once these are gone, and the humidity is right, he shouldn't retain eyecaps again.

Ok. Thank you so much for all of your advice and helpful opinions! I'm truly grateful!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eden

The Dr didn't really say much, idk if she was rude or just really busy. The ointment is supposed to moisten and loosen the eye caps. Its made of mineral oil, white petrolatum, and gentamicin sulfate. I also really hope his eyes heal, I'm really wishing I had made this post sooner like when i first got him around month ago so I would've know to take him to the vet right then. I feel like such a crappy mom. :(

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That's an antibiotic...........

If there are several layers of stuck spectacle on each eye, using a little mineral oil to loosen them and slide them off often does not work so well as the edges tend to get "glued" together. That is firmly into territory where I would find a vet willing to be a bit more aggressive than prescribing antibiotic eye ointment.

I learned this lesson the hard way. I have a very beautiful snake that has only one eye thanks to a previous owner who sold her to me with a least three retained caps. She was easily always shedding the top spectacle while the other three remained firmly in place. The membranes around the cornea became infected shortly after I received her and attempts to remove the spectacles without surgery proved futile.

The ointment you were prescribed is the same post-op treatment we were given. The long and the short of it is this: find a vet who is willing to discuss exactly what is going on with her eyes and who is also polite enough to explain all options available to you. Do not attempt to screw around with removing multiple stuck caps yourself. A qualified vet can easily determine if she has more than one spectacle still attached.

Best of luck.