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  1. #1
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    Stuck Eye Cap Help Please

    Hi so before you say this had been posted a million times before I'm well aware of that however my situation is a little different. The she before last my BP (Sal) had a bit of stuck shed on his eye (looked different than a normal eye cap.) I figured no biggie he will shed it off with his next shed as long as I keep his humidity right. Well I've been working so hard I forgot to jack it up right before he shed. He shed pretty well this time except for a patch on the top of his head and his eye again. I'm now worried about it and don't want him to go blind. However I can't help him get it off. He is super head shy and won't let my hand get anywhere near his head. Let alone touch it. He's been like this since I got him. Will he be okay or should I take him to the vet? I moved him and his humidity should be better now. If I wait one more shed will it damage his eye? I don't have much money but I'll put my bank account in the negative to keep my buddy healthy.

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    Re: Stuck Eye Cap Help Please

    Quote Originally Posted by disciplerising View Post
    Hi so before you say this had been posted a million times before I'm well aware of that however my situation is a little different. The she before last my BP (Sal) had a bit of stuck shed on his eye (looked different than a normal eye cap.) I figured no biggie he will shed it off with his next shed as long as I keep his humidity right. Well I've been working so hard I forgot to jack it up right before he shed. He shed pretty well this time except for a patch on the top of his head and his eye again. I'm now worried about it and don't want him to go blind. However I can't help him get it off. He is super head shy and won't let my hand get anywhere near his head. Let alone touch it. He's been like this since I got him. Will he be okay or should I take him to the vet? I moved him and his humidity should be better now. If I wait one more shed will it damage his eye? I don't have much money but I'll put my bank account in the negative to keep my buddy healthy.
    If it was me, I would just wait until the next shed again. I've had a couple who had stuck eye caps, didn't get them off the first shed, but they did come off the second one.

    See what happens on the next shed.
    It is okay to use pine bedding for snakes.
    It is okay to feed live food to snakes.

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  4. #3
    Registered User M.P.C's Avatar
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    Its hard to explain and even harder to do by your self, but if you can hold the head steady take a paper towl and some warm water and moisten the eye caps, now dampen your finger a little and ever so gently run it across the eye caps from nose to tail, applying very little pressure to create friction but again be very careful as your doing this if you notice the eye caps comming up and pulling what looks like white flesh ring with it stop, this means the secretion snake release to help shed has dried up and that stuff acts like glue at this point your best waiting for the next shed but your gonna need to be on the ball next time the snake sheds... i had to do this for my pastels first shed under my care, but only do this if your very confortable because it is easy to hurt the snake when restraining the head if not done properly.

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    Re: Stuck Eye Cap Help Please

    Quote Originally Posted by 200xth View Post
    If it was me, I would just wait until the next shed again. I've had a couple who had stuck eye caps, didn't get them off the first shed, but they did come off the second one.

    See what happens on the next shed.
    I would do as suggested here. You don't want to go messing with the snake's eyes. Just leave it be until the next shed cycle and make sure your humidity is adequate enough.

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    Apprentice SPAM Janitor MarkS's Avatar
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    I would also recommend leaving it be until after his next shed. Pulling eyecaps off by yourself can often do more harm than good. You might want to try giving him a humid hide box to rest in, it usually makes for cleaner sheds. Just take a plastic box or container of some kind to use as a hide and fill it up with damp sphagnum moss. Make sure it stays damp and not wet, I like to put this on the warm side of the enclosure to make sure the humidity stays high.
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    BPnet Senior Member JoshSloane's Avatar
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    DO NOT TOUCH THE SNAKES EYE! Even a moistened towel in the hands of a trained veterinary professional will still scratch the eye. Get a humid hide ready and stuff it with damp sphagnum moss. Let him have it for the entire shed next time and it will come right off.

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    BPnet Veteran Kris Mclaughlin's Avatar
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    Lmao... wrap scotch tape around your finger and dab the cap off. Yes it works, yes you have to be extremely careful not to touch anything else on the snake. This is a mother of necessity move by the way. Our local herp vet taught us how to do it(only had to 1 time). But yeah sounds like your humidity is in a bad way....
    Last edited by Kris Mclaughlin; 04-18-2015 at 03:11 PM.

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    Re: Stuck Eye Cap Help Please

    Keep his humidity between 60-70% and he may just lose the caps and stuck shed in the next few days.

    I don't mess with eye caps, it's way too easy to screw up and damage the eye. Fixing the humidity problem fixes the eye cap problem.

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