Newbie question...BP eyes

[BeyondHelp]

18 mo. adopted female BP normal. Question.... her eyes are not solid black, look like cracked glass. I suspected retained eye caps and followed instructions for removal, still same, I have decided to leave until next shed ( first shed while she is here has not happened yet )

eating normal ( actually suprised how well she eats ) 60% humidity, 84 at aspen level in hide, 79 in enclosure.

Think this will pass w/ future shed?? Handles well so i do not think she is blind. Any info you can provide will be GREATLY appreciated!

[recycling goddess]

how long have you had her?

welcome to the forum!!!

[tigerlily]

What treatment did you use for removal of eyecaps? Do the eyes look crinkly (more like a raisin)? Can you post some pics?

You may want to consider taking her to a vet and having her checked over and evaluated. Double check for internal parasites as well.

[ECLARK]

Welcome, and very easy to deal with. warm wet wash rag. hold over eye with retained eye cap for a couple of minutes, get some tape and wrap around your finger sticky side out, gently put the taped finger on eye, retained eye cap comes off.

[catzeye21138]

That sounds so gross, my sister's bp has like a little crinkle in it but I think it went away last shedding.

[joepythons]

18 mo. adopted female BP normal. Question.... her eyes are not solid black, look like cracked glass. I suspected retained eye caps and followed instructions for removal, still same, I have decided to leave until next shed ( first shed while she is here has not happened yet )

eating normal ( actually suprised how well she eats ) 60% humidity, 84 at aspen level in hide, 79 in enclosure.

Think this will pass w/ future shed?? Handles well so i do not think she is blind. Any info you can provide will be GREATLY appreciated!

You might want to get your hot side up to 90-92 or you could have a ball python with upper respatory(spelling).In other words a cold .

[daaangconcepts]

Just wanted to say hi...and welcome.

This post reminded me of an older thread of mine; Where I "thought" my female had retained eye caps. (It includes pics) Maybe It'll help.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=35901

[Schlyne]

It's also possible that your humidity may be just low, and her regular (not retained) eyecaps may be fine, other than the wrinkles.

It will clear up with higher humidity, but the eyes are fine.

[hoo-t]

I just now, not five minutes ago, removed a retained eyecap from one of my bps. I wet a soft washcloth in warm water, held the snake gently in my lap, and covered her head with the washcloth. Because she felt "hidden", she stayed under the washcloth. I let her sit for about 10 minutes, and then used the washcloth to VERY gently rub down the side of her head with the retained eyecap. Now, this is a snake that is somewhat headshy, meaning if I were to touch her head with my bare hands, she would recoil. Because it was the washcloth that was already over her head, she didn't resist at all. The eyecap came off with no problems.

If you're not comfortable doing this, it normally isn't a problem just to leave the eyecap until the next shed. Be sure to get that humidity raised to 65 - 75 percent when you first see your snake going into shed.

You should also look at the link that daaangconcepts provided. If your snake's eyes look like that, increased humidity will help that too. If your snake is in a glass tank, misting the tank and/or placing a damp towel over the top will help get that humidity up. She may even be able to get the eyecap off herself with the increased humidity.

edit - With all due respect to EClark, I would not recommend using tape. If this is anything other than a retained eyecap, and you try to pull the snakes primary eyecap off with tape, you could seriously injure your snake!

edit again - One other thought - Not all ball pythons have black eyes. I have some with gold colored eyes, some with green eyes, and some that are black on the bottom half and golden brown on the top half. I'm assuming that you haven't had this snake very long, so be sure what you are seeing isn't its natural eye color.

Steve

[tigerlily]

Welcome, and very easy to deal with. warm wet wash rag. hold over eye with retained eye cap for a couple of minutes, get some tape and wrap around your finger sticky side out, gently put the taped finger on eye, retained eye cap comes off.

I wouldn't recommend that to a newbie who may or may not have retained eyecaps. Depending on the tape you are using you could do more damage than the original problem. Soaking would be a more simple solution. It would help if the eye is just dehydrated or if there were retained eyecaps.