stuck eye caps :(

Jackson had what I thought was his best shed to date- everything came off clean and he was (still is) looking good... but I was holding him today and I noticed that his eyes looked rather filmy, like there were bits of celophane stuck to them. And then I realized- Oh No! this must be stuck eye caps! This is my first experience with them. Bummers...

Do you still have the shed? check it and see if there are eyecaps on it.

No, it was several days ago. I would have to check his logbook to say exactly when. I will always check from now on though.

did you manage to take it off? IF not, there are a few tricks you can use to take that cap off.. a humidity box and a q-tip trick works well for me when i occasionally get one in my collection.

Two things I always check after every shed are both eye caps and then I check the vent to make sure it shed out. Usually the huge pile of crap in the cage will confirm the good vent shed. Please post a few pics of the eye in question and I am sure someone on the site can help you out.
I use luke warm water on a q-tip and gently rub it over the eye. You should see a little white around the bottom of the eye and once it starts to raise you can rub the q-tip on it and that should pull the stuck eye cap off. That is just my way of getting them off. I know there are others but I don't use them so I can't comment on them.

No harm is done with a set of stuck eye caps. Just make sure your humidity levels are good and let them come off with the next shed.

No need to try to remove them, it's not worth the stress to the animal or worth the risk of hurting his eyes. Just let the problem fix itself with the next shed.

If your humidity levels are good the next shed should be one big peice and you'll be able to verifiy that the caps came off.

May sound strange, but take some box tape or scotch tape and get it off that way. I did it today for the owner of the local pet store. fold it to where only the tape touches the cap and not the rest of the head.

Disclaimer: I did this today cuz the eye cap has been on for 4 months now and was clearly ready to come off and not attached anywhere. Use as a last resort.

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Originally Posted by Adam Chandler

No harm is done with a set of stuck eye caps. Just make sure your humidity levels are good and let them come off with the next shed.

No need to try to remove them, it's not worth the stress to the animal or worth the risk of hurting his eyes. Just let the problem fix itself with the next shed.

If your humidity levels are good the next shed should be one big peice and you'll be able to verifiy that the caps came off.

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The only time I ever had a stuck eye cap was with Crawly. I simply used a warm wash cloth, made a tube shape out of it, let her crawl through it. Applying the tiniest pressure so it rubbed gently, eye cap came right off. Sometimes they just need something to rub against. :)

Thanks so much to all!!
I will try to get them off, but only with minimal effort. If they don't come easily, I'll just let him go till the next shed. He's still young enough that he sheds every month and a half or so.
I don't have a camera right now, and I don't know if I would be able to get a good enough picture anyway- it's such a small area to photograph for a terrible photographer. :P
He doesn't seem to be terribly bothered by it, and Clint Bundy was so right about the giant crap. He always lays a big one with a shed. (Not Clint... well, I guess I wouldn't know, but I meant Jackson.)

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Originally Posted by blueberrypancakes

Thanks so much to all!!
I will try to get them off, but only with minimal effort. If they don't come easily, I'll just let him go till the next shed. He's still young enough that he sheds every month and a half or so.

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If his last shed seemed complete at the time (even though you didn't check for caps), I really wouldn't mess with his eyes. It would be very strange for nothing but the eye caps to have trouble coming off him, which means he may not have stuck eye caps and could end up damaging his eye by rubbing on it. As Adam said, one set will not hurt him, especially if he sheds that frequently.

I don't believe he's dehydrated, although now I'm panicked at the thought of it. His humidity is reading at between 50-60 most of the time and I see him drinking often enough. Also, I googled some images of retained caps and it looks like Jackson's eyes. There's a teeny bit of white on the edges and it just looks like peely stuff. Man, I do wish I had looked at his shed, but lesson learned for next time. I think you're right though, Annarose, I'm just gonna leave it till next shed as I don't want to damage his eyes. :oops:

Does anyone have any photos of the eye caps in the shed skin? Do I just... unwrinkle it and see if they're in there? It's in a little crumpled mess when I see it...

Not the greatest picture (just took it with my phone), but you can see the clear, round eye cap....right below my ugly fingernail.
http://img.tapatalk.com/a6898c87-ad49-95d2.jpg

Yeah, if you look at the shed, it will be pretty obvious...just 2 holes in the head of the shed skin. I've had retained caps a few times and have always misted the snake, let them chill for an hour, and then wipe very gently with a damp lense cloth or soft tissue.

My normal had a very bad shed and all is gone now except 1 cap. I tried fussing with it a bit and did put her in a humid box, tried a small piece of scotch tape, a q-tip, etc. Nothing worked. I came to the conclusion that I was stressing her out more than the cap was despite her rubbing it on everything she encounters and being clearly annoyed by it.

At the end of the day I'm just gonna push past my urge to peel the sunburn and let her deal with it on her own with her next shed.

We are having troubles with eye caps as well. We have tried all of the "tricks" but none of them have worked. Steves last shed was just a couple of weeks ago I'm nervous to leave his eye caps on until his next shed. Will it damage his eyes if they are on for to long? This is the first time we have had this issue.:confused:

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Originally Posted by WVSteveFrench

We are having troubles with eye caps as well. We have tried all of the "tricks" but none of them have worked. Steves last shed was just a couple of weeks ago I'm nervous to leave his eye caps on until his next shed. Will it damage his eyes if they are on for to long? This is the first time we have had this issue.:confused:

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If this is only his first retained set, they will not hurt him to leave alone until the next shed. Just make certain your humidity is good, and provide a humid hide in case he wants to try to work them off himself.