Silver Eye Cap

My boa's last shed wasn't very good, and a little bit of shed never came off his neck and he has a left eye cap.
The vet also tried for a long time to get the eye cap off, and it was hard to notice but you could tell it was an eye cap.
I've tried dozens of times to apply contact solution after soaking and use a q-tip to lightly get the eye cap off as the vet told me to. It will not budge.

Today, I took him out to look at him, and his eye cap has turned BRIGHT silver. Solid color, not see-through at all and very shiny. I've never seen this before, does it mean hes going into shed again? The other eye looks completely normal and clear?

Thanks.

bump...

Use tape.
-Steven

What I'd do is go out and buy one of those rubber thumbs and rub it across the eye, the cap should come right off. I forget where you buy them though, I've had mine for ages

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stevenkeogh

Use tape.
-Steven

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I've heard bad things about tape..
Are you sure it'll be alright?

What I'd do is NOTHING. Let him go into shed again on his normal schedule and keep an extra good eye on the humidity and let the next shed take care of it. The worse thing you can do is mess around with a stuck shed. Let nature run it's course. You're vet should have left the eye alone. There is extremely more danger in messing with an eye cap then there is leaving it alone until the next shed. If it retains more than one shed, then start to mess with it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JimiSnakes

What I'd do is NOTHING. Let him go into shed again on his normal schedule and keep an extra good eye on the humidity and let the next shed take care of it. The worse thing you can do is mess around with a stuck shed. Let nature run it's course. You're vet should have left the eye alone. There is extremely more danger in messing with an eye cap then there is leaving it alone until the next shed. If it retains more than one shed, then start to mess with it.

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Alright, thanks Jimi.
Do you have any ideas why it turns silver? Is there any scientific reason or have you seen it happen before?

Watch the latest episoide of snakebytes... they talk about how they remove stubborn eye caps.

might be helpful!

It's old dead skin. Just like with a stuck scrap of shed leftover that turns all grey and crinkly looking, so won't the eye cap. They are just clear skin is all. I would almost bet the stress of having it on will initiate another repeated shed in a week or so. Unless you're really talented at removing them and have lots of experience doing it, I don't suggest anyone (vets included) touching them. Like I said already- there is way more danger in messing with them then waiting for the next shed to take care of it the easy way. Just make sure you bump the humidity up extra so as to make it softer and come off easier.

What Jimi said...watch your humidity and it'll come off the next shed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JimiSnakes

What I'd do is NOTHING. Let him go into shed again on his normal schedule and keep an extra good eye on the humidity and let the next shed take care of it.

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Agreed! A little piece of stuck shed, or eye cap in this case is no big deal. Happens to everyone at some point or another, so leaving it be for the next few months or whatever is perfectly fine. It's when you have the same problems over and over again when you start to run into trouble.

In my own experience using tape to remove an eye cap is simple and straightforward.
If you use the tape to only touch part of the cap then there is no risk of hurting the animal.
If it is very dry you may want to soak the animal for a period before hand.
Dry the eye off as well as you can and gently touch the tape to the cap and it should release.
-Steven

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JimiSnakes

It's old dead skin. Just like with a stuck scrap of shed leftover that turns all grey and crinkly looking, so won't the eye cap. They are just clear skin is all. I would almost bet the stress of having it on will initiate another repeated shed in a week or so. Unless you're really talented at removing them and have lots of experience doing it, I don't suggest anyone (vets included) touching them. Like I said already- there is way more danger in messing with them then waiting for the next shed to take care of it the easy way. Just make sure you bump the humidity up extra so as to make it softer and come off easier.

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Agree totally~ Jimi's the boa man around here :P
Leave it and let it take care of itself. I've never been one to mess around with an eyeball.