Collasped eye in boa, please help..

[LeoGeckos]

Hello All,
Just last night I noticed that my 8 month old albino boa male's right eyeball has a huge "dent" in it; it appears to have collasped inwards. He has been doing just fine, acting normally, eating, his temp gradients are just fine, his last shed was normal, he is on cypress mulch and appears to be otherwise normal. The eye is not swollen at all, just appears to have fallen in..I have looked everywhere for snake eye problems and have only gotten results for retained eye caps. I am planning on taking him to my vet on Monday, but I wanted to get everyone's opinion on what it could possibly be and what I could do in the meantime.
Thank you all in advance for any help you can provide.

 

[TripleMoonsExotic]

Did you see the parents? Did he come from a reliable breeder?

Albino Boas have been known to have eye deformities. I've only heard of it since birth though. Might want to contact an experience breeder or vet about the situation.

 

[robin]

is he abo ut to shed?

 

[snared99]

I have seen many snakes come into our vet that have retained eye caps, and it looks lik the eye is caving in. Maybe if you can post a pic we could have a better idea. But the eye cap problem is a scary thing to look at, but not that bad in the long run.

 

[Sdaji]

I've basically not worked with boas, but I've seen what you've described in pythons, particularly Children's and Olives, I've also seen it in a Black-headed Python and heard of it in Water Pythons and Womas (and possibly others which I've since forgotten about). In every case I'm familiar with, the 'dent' has gone away within a month or two, usually within a few days.

Generally these dents are quite mild and are difficult for most people to see (peoples' eyesights vary much more than you might expect), which is likely why the condition is so seldom reported. If you specifically look for dented spectacles in a large collection of snakes, you'll usually find a few, but most people don't have good enough vision too see 'normal' examples and those who do generally aren't looking for it.

I'm not entirely sure what causes it, but I've seen it in more young Children's Pythons than anything else and it could be related to growth or feeding on proportionately large prey items (these are largely speculative hypotheses). Retained spectacles can resemble the same problem, but of course this is a completely different condition.

I'd be very interested in seeing a clear macro picture of your boa's eye, I'd also be interested to hear what your vet has to say about it. If yours are anything like ours, the comments should be good for a laugh and not much else

Best of luck.

 

[giantkeeper]

It is due to lack of hydration. Using a spray bottle, give it a couple of squirts a day, and be extra sure to do it in shed cycle.

I kept lot's of boas and this should fix it for you.