Help!

Yesterday a cenchria in poor condition was brought to me. How to remove old skin from his eyes? Its like 3-4 layers and only on the his eyes. I tried to use special eye drops with carbomer but it doesnt help. What else can I try? Eyes look very bad.

Ps. Sorry for my bad english
Yesterday a boa in poor condition was brought to me. How to remove old skin from his eyes

Where are you located?

Hydration is the first step. I would focus on keeping it in a very humid environment, and if it eats frozen/thaw feeders then offer the feeders wet so the boa ingests extra water.

Now the snake is sitting in a small container to make it easier to retain humidity. Here is 80-90%. But still doesnt help. I'll send pics w his eyes later.
Now the snake is sitting in a small container to make it easier to retain moisture.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

Where are you located?

Hydration is the first step. I would focus on keeping it in a very humid environment, and if it eats frozen/thaw feeders then offer the feeders wet so the boa ingests extra water.

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Im from Moscow region, Russia.

The snake is sitting in a small container to make it easier to retain humidity. Its like 70-80% but still doesnt help.

It takes some time, if the shed isn't coming loose on its own, then the best thing you can do is keep the snake hydrated and on its next natural shed, the stuck shed should come off too. You don't want to force the shed off, it could hurt the snake.

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Originally Posted by sufficio

It takes some time, if the shed isn't coming loose on its own, then the best thing you can do is keep the snake hydrated and on its next natural shed, the stuck shed should come off too. You don't want to force the shed off, it could hurt the snake.

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Agree! ^ ^ ^ You can damage the eyes...I've heard of people accidentally removing more than just the old sheds & injuring the eyes. I know one member here took
her snake to an experienced herp vet to deal with this problem, but I don't know if you are lucky enough to have a skilled vet where you are? First keep trying the extra
hydration...giving the snake a "humid hide" may help too. You don't want to blind the snake by being too aggressive about removing old shed from the eyes, and you
could also introduce an infection, which would make the snake even worse off than doing nothing.

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Originally Posted by RussianGirl

Yesterday a cenchria in poor condition was brought to me. How to remove old skin from his eyes? Its like 3-4 layers and only on the his eyes. I tried to use special eye drops with carbomer but it doesnt help. What else can I try? Eyes look very bad.

Ps. Sorry for my bad english
Yesterday a boa in poor condition was brought to me. How to remove old skin from his eyes

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This works ..

Soak for a short while but don’t leave it unattended ... then have a wet / very damp rough textured towel ready and wrap the snake up in it — let it slither around and apply very , very gentle pressure around the HEAD region in particular... the retained eye caps will come off onto the towel ..


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Originally Posted by Zincubus

This works ..

Soak for a short while but don’t leave it unattended ... then have a wet / very damp rough textured towel ready and wrap the snake up in it — let it slither around and apply very , very gentle pressure around the HEAD region in particular... the retained eye caps will come off onto the towel ..


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Do not forget that you want to soak them in a shallow amount of water, roughly half the heighth of the body, they should not be swimming.

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Originally Posted by e_nigma

Do not forget that you want to soak them in a shallow amount of water, roughly half the heighth of the body, they should not be swimming.

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Mmmmm that’s about 1/2 “ ??

It’s vital to get the eyes wet though .. maybe a little deeper .. after all they’re not gonna drown


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Originally Posted by Zincubus

Mmmmm that’s about 1/2 “ ??

It’s vital to get the eyes wet though .. maybe a little deeper .. after all they’re not gonna drown


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They are not a regularly swimming species and from what I have read soaking can be stressful for BPs, but I would rather have someone else vouch for that.

Retained eyecaps are awful, one of the few times I have soaked her is when she had retained eyecaps, as I do not want to use tweezers or tape to try and remove them, risk to the snake is too great. So I set her to soak and it certainly helped.

Hard part with soaking is keeping the water warm and not letting it cool off or be too hot.

I prefer humid hides, though with my BPs dislike of sphagnum moss humid hide use is my real issue.

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Originally Posted by e_nigma

They are not a regularly swimming species and from what I have read soaking can be stressful for BPs, but I would rather have someone else vouch for that.

Retained eyecaps are awful, one of the few times I have soaked her is when she had retained eyecaps, as I do not want to use tweezers or tape to try and remove them, risk to the snake is too great. So I set her to soak and it certainly helped.

Hard part with soaking is keeping the water warm and not letting it cool off or be too hot.

I prefer humid hides, though with my BPs dislike of sphagnum moss humid hide use is my real issue.

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They are fine being soaked ... sure they obviously try every nook and corner to find an exit but after a minute or so they calm right down.

Anyways I’m pretty sure all snakes can swim ..plus they can hold their breathe for absolutely ages, apparently.

Anyways I’m not suggesting deep water but certainly more than half their height .

You can use a sealed tub with air holes and cover with a towel to keep them calm .. place on their viv / rub to keep them warm .. for 20 minutes or so ..


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Originally Posted by Zincubus

They are fine being soaked ... sure they obviously try every nook and corner to find an exit but after a minute or so they calm right down.

Anyways I’m pretty sure all snakes can swim ..plus they can hold their breathe for absolutely ages, apparently.

Anyways I’m not suggesting deep water but certainly more than half their height .

You can use a sealed tub with air holes and cover with a towel to keep them calm .. place on their viv / rub to keep them warm .. for 20 minutes or so ..


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Considering they seem to only soak when they have mites, overheating, or other negative conditions, I perhaps wrongly assumed that soaking is not a normal part of their ritual, thus soaking is more or a stress to them.

I am not trying to discount what you are saying, and in fact have soaked my BP, I merely wanted to convey some of what I have read and my own experiences.

Letting them run through a towel and letting them soak are both things I have utilized, however, it is not my go to if husbandry is all where it needs to be, as you have said when the shed is neither complete or is just awful.

I hope that I did not come across as rude and certainly am not trying to be contradictory.

*Edit: My apologies for chiming in, I somehow misread the main thread and I was specifically talking of BPs and that is not the main topic here, apologies.

What stresses most snakes about soaking is (1) the unusual circumstances- doing something they aren't used to & didn't enter on their own, & (2) the loss of
traction- bathtubs are slippery-smooth & that unnerves most snakes...even mud puddles have texture.

A towel in the water is one of many options...

FYI, it's been a long time since I've had any stuck eye-caps to deal with, but once the snake is well-hydrated (from soaking, etc) & then dry, I have used a bit
of tape (package tape, not duct tape!) to gently stick to the eye-cap & remove it...it's much safer than trying to use fingers or tweezers :O in such a delicate
area. Not promising that several layers of eye-caps will come off easily, but using a bit of tape is pretty innocuous to try, IMO. It's a challenge to restrain any
snake while you do this...a second person to help handle really helps.

I've never seen a snake with that many retained eyecaps, so I'd love to see pictures. I have heard of cases with more retained eyecaps that came off perfectly, with no later complications. And I've removed my share of single retained eyecaps, including once from a dehydrated cenchria. So I am optimistic.

How long is the snake? Longer (up to 1 meter long) means the snake is easier to work with. Over 1 meter just means an assistant is needed.

Cenchria are swamp snakes, so a long period of high humidity is not as bad for the snake as it could be for snakes from drier areas.

There is a lot of good information in these posts. Mostly what I write below is putting it all together in one spot.

At this stage, I would do nothing except keep the humidity high and feed the snake. When the snake sheds again, I would check to see if the eyecaps came off. That would be as soon as possible after the shed. If the eyecaps did not come off, then soak the snake in a plastic box with water approximately half as deep as the snake's height at midbody. Water temperature should be around 30C. I usually soak for about an hour. The water cools during that period, but the time is too short for it to be a real problem. Every 3-5 minutes I tilt the box to cover the snake's head with water, or gently push the snake's head under the water, if necessary. After time is up, I gently press a rough, wet cloth rag or towel across the eyecap and wipe across the eye from nose toward tail until the eyecap comes off.

Good luck.

Also, I think permanent damage to the eye can also appear to be removable eye-caps? Like where it's thickened & crinkled from poor conditions, long-term.
That's why you never want to be aggressive about trying to remove "eye-caps" that seem to have failed to shed.

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Also, I think permanent damage to the eye can also appear to be removable eye-caps? Like where it's thickened & crinkled from poor conditions, long-term.
That's why you never want to be aggressive about trying to remove "eye-caps" that seem to have failed to shed.

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I have seen my BP have a dent in her eye, when her retained caps came off, the dent was gone, it seemed to be predominantly a humidity issue. Granted, again, I am referencing a python in a boa thread.

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I adopted a snake once with stuck shed and I just kept the humidity up and waited for him to shed and it all went perfect. Just my two cents. If it still doesn’t work then I’d try other measures

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Originally Posted by Danger noodles

I adopted a snake with stuck shed and I just kept the humidity up and waited for her to shed and it all went perfect. Just my two cents. If it still doesn’t work then I’d try other measures

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I filled her hides with wet sphagnom moss when I see my BP's belly go pink or her eyes go foggy. It took near a year for a perfect sher after a partial shed rescue! Wet moss in the hides saved the day, but my BP hates sphagnum moss so I have to remove it post shed.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...7f612d6838.jpg

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