I have a question

[edie]

My female Hog shed 2 days ago and has a retained eye cap, besides the eye cap the whole shed came off evenly and in one piece so I don't know what went wrong. I've had this happen with one of my ball pythons before and after soaking him and letting him hangout in a damp towel he was able to get if off himself. I've tried soaking the girl, and right now shes in a tub in her cage with a damp towel but she finds her way out pretty fast so I don't know if she will get it off herself.

I'm going to go though and look though old threads in the BP section to see if I can get some answers, but if anyone has any suggestions or knows of any helpful threads that would really help!

[wilomn]

Let her dry out for a couple of hours, get a piece of duct tape, gently touch it to the eyecap and remove.

If the eyecap sticks to her, just leave it until her next shed. It won't hurt her any to have one on there.

[JKBReptiles]

Or you could just soak her in warm water for a few hours and it may peel back by its self. Another thing is mineral oil or Bag Balm, just apply a little on it and it will soften up over night and is much safer then duct tape.

If you don't know what your doing with the duct tape idea you can hurt your boas eye..

[FatBoy]

I have used scotch tape but never duct tape. Wet Q-tip works well too.

[wilomn]

Or you could just soak her in warm water for a few hours and it may peel back by its self. Another thing is mineral oil or Bag Balm, just apply a little on it and it will soften up over night and is much safer then duct tape.

If you don't know what your doing with the duct tape idea you can hurt your boas eye..

I thought mineral oil was bad for snake skin, especially the tender parts like the eyes.

I've never heard of Bag Balm.

Duct tape is good because it is so very sticky.

As I said, use caution if you try this but it has worked many a time for me.

[littleindiangirl]

I've never heard of Bag Balm.

You haven't? It comes in a green tin, oh so good for the hands and bags! LOLOLOL

[edie]

Thanks guys, the cap looked stuck in around her eye under the skin so I was a little scared to even try tape.

After a long soak, and wetting her eye for about 15 min. and gently coaxing the cap off with a q-tip I was able to pull this sucker out:



It was terrifying, once the first half came out of under the skin I thought I was doing something wrong but once I got it out completely her eye looks great. I think maybe there was more down there than I thought since the skin was so thick around the sides of the cap, but I don't know how they usually look since this is my first time dealing with it.

Thanks again!

[TheHabit]

must have been annoying... like a popcorn kernel stuck in the teeth lol

[littleindiangirl]

It almost looks like she wasnt able to get the entire eye cap off the last shed, like it got stuck down in the cracks or something, and it stuck to the next eye cap. At least, thats what it looks like to me. Hmm... I would have been terrified to pull that off!

[edie]

It almost looks like she wasnt able to get the entire eye cap off the last shed, like it got stuck down in the cracks or something, and it stuck to the next eye cap. At least, thats what it looks like to me. Hmm... I would have been terrified to pull that off!

It was very scary, it was all stuck underneath the skin around the eye and just poking out a little bit around the eye, it was crazy when half of it came out because it slid the other side of the cap down the other side of her eye it seemed like. She seemed okay the whole time I was doing stuff to her eye, but as soon as I got half the cap out she seemed bothered by it so I just hope it wasn't hurting her! I'm glad I did get it out though, at least I'll know what to do if it happens again.