deflated eye

[swe3tm0mentz]

i hope you are wrong too. unfortunatly she had 2 eye caps on both eyes, the left one looked worse than the right, i am hoping that on the right that is still an eye cap that the vet wasnt able to pick off. i looked at the link you gave me with vets, good thing is the only one you have for virginia is in my area! im just really worried that her other eye will do the same and shell go fully blind. i want to sue this so called reptile vet i took her to, all she did was make the problem worse!!

[JLC]

Neither of those eyes look anything like any stuck eyecaps I've ever seen. Even if a couple of them are stacked up, they are still clear with little jagged edges around them.

I'm glad you have a good vet in your area. Please keep us updated on your snake's diagnosis and prognosis!

I'll add one more thing...while it would totally suck, no doubt, I have heard of many cases of rescued ball pythons that were blind, but once rescued lived lives as contented as we can imagine these animals' lives to be. Sight isn't their primary sense...and they don't have to ever go hunting for their prey or hide from predators....they can live just fine in captivity, even if blind. I've also seen cases of some pretty nasty looking eye issues eventually healing up to perfectly normal eyes. Hang in there....and good luck!!

[mechnut450]

sadly to mee looks like the vet remove the portection of the eye scale and the eye have dry out cause they lost their protection. The snake may end up blind .. Tat being said I hope to be wrong but I know of a guy that has a snake bornwith no eyes and is still doing fine little more jumpy( bite happy) but the snake is just a pet and not a breeder possible since they don't know if the defect was genic , incubatoin , or just a fluke in relation.

I go see the proper vet and I hope for the best for you. I also contact the other vet and let them know that they should of said they had little to no training on reptile issues when you took them in. I know i be on the vet head if that was one of my snake's. I also watch it closely over the nextfew sheds to make sure they eye caps do come off ( check for mutli sheds overthe next few months too) asthis would be a sign of it trying to heal/repair the damage. ( seen snakes that have eye injuries over he years ( wild caught black rats) were the eye area was more less repalced with scar scales to protect the area after an eye lossing injury.

[dr del]

I agree,

It looks as though he has removed the stuck eyecaps plus the one that was supposed to be there.

I don't even know if they can grow those back through the natural shedding process?

Does anyone know if using artificial tears to try and keep the exposed eyes clear of debris would help?


dr del

[RichsBallPythons]

The one eye and other is on its way out are due to lack of husbandry. Eye caps happen but to the extent of that is husbandry.

Humidity fixes this 100% of the time. Your vet made it worse by picking at it and possibly destroyed your snakes sight for life.

[dr del]

I disagree.

The problem of stuck eyecaps can be put down to husbandry in all probability - but, unless they get an infection in them which remains untreated, it is quite rare for it to have permanent effects on the animals eye-sight.

If this poor animal loses its sight it will be as a direct result of the actions of the vet.

I think it is overly harsh to tell the OP he is responsible for the state of the animal now - he did what a good keeper should when faced with something he didn't know how to deal with - he took it to someone who should have.

The fact his vet didn't show the same common sense is not the OP's fault.


dr del

[zantedeschia]

Getting stuck eyecaps off is a pretty easy thing to do yourself. Soak your snake for 15 to 30 minutes, then gently rub them off with a washcloth. You don't pick them off and you certainly don't do it when they're dry. Took me about 2 minutes to do it when I bought a snake with stuck eyecaps.

Perhaps you can tell us where you live so people can direct you to a herp vet.

[mxrider42]

I had a hypo female do the same thing. She had a stuck eye cap that the vet removed. Her eye looked like that. He gave me some meds to place on the eye ever day. After the next shed it returned to normal. It is just irritated and swollen from having the eye cap stuck on there.
I have had a snakes eye deflate on me before and it will happen quickly. Over a day maybe two and the eye will be completely gone.
Trey

[Ham]

I have seen this kind of damage before at the reptile shelter I volunteer at, I can almost guarantee what the vet did was to rip off the last eye cap that protected the eyeball itself, what they did was take off the retained caps as well as the last pair themselves, basically the vet skinned your poor snakes eyeballs... the cloudy rough surface of your snakes eyes is scabrous tissue that is hardening and attempting to heal the wound, unfortunately this will most likely permanently destroy your snakes vision, I would keep the tank maybe a little darker than usual, make sure the snake is warm to promote healing and carefully maintain proper humidity levels of around 60%

I am sorry to say this but I doubt it will ever heal properly, but even with seriously impaired vision or blindness, your ball python still has extremely sensitive heat sensors on her lips that will allow her to "see" in the infrared spectrum, plus an amazing sense of smell... With patience I am pretty sure your snake will recover enough to feed regularly even without the use of her eyes.

However this is just my opinion which I formed from the pics you posted, I would suggest you get to a real reptile vet immediately and get a professional opinion from someone who can examine the snake in person...

I hope that everything works out for the best for you and your snake, the two of you should still have another 20 or more happy years together!

[kc261]

i looked at the link you gave me with vets, good thing is the only one you have for virginia is in my area!

Dr. Stahl is definitely who you want to take her to if you live close enough. He is considered one of the best reptile vets in the world.

The eyes look really bad, and like others who have posted, I'm afraid your previous vet damaged them. I'm not sure if you can sue, but I would definitely let the vet know, to hopefully prevent the same thing happening to other snakes.

The good news, as Judy pointed out, is that even if the snake is permanently blind in both eyes, BPs don't rely on their sight the same way humans do, and your snake should learn to cope more easily than you might imagine.