Stuck eye caps? Mexican black King snake eye problems, looking for some help/answers

I recently just rescued/adopted my first ever snake. Unfortunately we weren't able to get much information about his last home. We have had him about 3 weeks now.
His name is Noctis and he is a Mexican black King snake. We are not sure of the age or sex, although we are leaning towards the snake being a male. He's roughly about 5ft in length and looks to be a healthy weight, he's quite active and has a healthy appetite and no mites or scale damage/rot. His temperament is extremely friendly, and he loves to be handled. We do have a vet appointment scheduled to have him checked over, I would have taken him earlier but in our area due to holidays the vet was closed. However I am concerned about his eyes and am wondering if anyone knows what this is? At first we thought it was maybe just because he was in blue, but it's been a little too long for that to be the case and there doesn't seem to be any signs of it clearing. Because I thought he was going into shed, I've had the humidity level higher and he also has access to a humidity box. His temperatures in his enclosure are normal as well.

I'm wondering if this is possibly stuck eye caps? I haven't been able to find any photos similar to what his eyes look like currently. I have seen pictures of cataracts in snakes that look slightly similar. The cloudiness seem to be on the surface covering the eyes rather than actually in the eye themselves. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

https://i.imgur.com/CcK54fX_d.jpg?ma...idelity=medium

https://i.imgur.com/DUwQHLd_d.jpg?ma...idelity=medium

https://i.imgur.com/0pRjaRJ_d.jpg?ma...idelity=medium

https://i.imgur.com/7XnxSPI_d.jpg?ma...idelity=medium

http://imgur.com/gallery/oTGgYvQ

Were his eyes like this when you got him? If he was in blue it definitely shouldn’t last 3 weeks. I have a crested gecko that has a bad eye and it looks very similar. I forgot the name of the condition but it was where the cornea or something separates. Hopefully that’s not what this is because he has it in both eyes so he’d be completely blind. Have you tested if he can see? Does he strike and hit his mice? If he’s able to see then he’s probably just in blue but it shouldn’t last that long.


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An MBK that's about 5' long is not a young snake, & to me, it appears that he has cataracts in his eyes. They've probably occurred gradually & as long as he's not
fed live (?), it's not going to affect him very much, as he's using his sense of smell & touch for most things anyway. You might find that he misses his f/t prey, or
has some trouble finding the right end to swallow first, but it's not a serious issue IMO. Do ask the vet when he's in for his check up, but from here it doesn't look
like stuck eye-caps, & some people have done horrible damage to their snake's eyes when they incorrectly tried to remove what they thought were stuck eye-caps.
A good snake vet is the safer bet for help with stuck eye-caps anyway, in the event that's I'm wrong about what this is. Eyes are very delicate & you never want to
make something worse. But I'm pretty sure he has cataracts, & not much you can do about it...not a big deal at all, in fact it gives him an interesting look.

BTW, good for you to adopt a rescue snake. :gj: MBK's are one of my favorite (king/milk) snakes...I used to have a pair of them years ago, they're beautiful.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MarkL1561

Were his eyes like this when you got him? If he was in blue it definitely shouldn’t last 3 weeks. I have a crested gecko that has a bad eye and it looks very similar. I forgot the name of the condition but it was where the cornea or something separates. Hopefully that’s not what this is because he has it in both eyes so he’d be completely blind. Have you tested if he can see? Does he strike and hit his mice? If he’s able to see then he’s probably just in blue but it shouldn’t last that long.


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Yes his eyes were like this when we got him. He does seem to have vision, as he will follow my hands or face when he wants out of his enclosure. We did test moving his mouse around when feeding and he followed that and striked at it as well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

An MBK that's about 5' long is not a young snake, & to me, it appears that he has cataracts in his eyes. They've probably occurred gradually & as long as he's not
fed live (?), it's not going to affect him very much, as he's using his sense of smell & touch for most things anyway. You might find that he misses his f/t prey, or
has some trouble finding the right end to swallow first, but it's not a serious issue IMO. Do ask the vet when he's in for his check up, but from here it doesn't look
like stuck eye-caps, & some people have done horrible damage to their snake's eyes when they incorrectly tried to remove what they thought were stuck eye-caps.
A good snake vet is the safer bet for help with stuck eye-caps anyway, in the event that's I'm wrong about what this is. Eyes are very delicate & you never want to
make something worse. But I'm pretty sure he has cataracts, & not much you can do about it...not a big deal at all, in fact it gives him an interesting look.

BTW, good for you to adopt a rescue snake. :gj: MBK's are one of my favorite (king/milk) snakes...I used to have a pair of them years ago, they're beautiful.

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Thank you :) He is in on frozen feed. He gets a jumbo every 7-10 days. Yea in the event it was stuck eye caps, I would never attempt to remove them. I heard how damaging that can be when done incorrectly.

That's good that he can still see a little...snakes adjust to seeing less when cataracts happen gradually. He sounds like a wonderful pet, I hope he has plenty of
healthy & happy years to go. Just don't let him drive...;)