Eye caps

[Pokersnake]

My room mate got herself a 12 year old ball python from some people who couldn't care for it anymore. He's been in my house since early January. He came with his 55L tank with a stand, heat mat, light bulb (built into the screen top), water dish, etc.

When he got here, he looked like he was just going into shed. And sure enough he was. It's been basically since he got here that he's been trying to shed. So today I gave him a nice half an hour soak. When he was dry, there was skin just falling off the poor guy. After his soak, I took a wash cloth and gently got all the skin off of his body. His head was a mess. It looked like he had at least 3 or 4 sheds worth of skin on his head. It came off reluctantly.

The one thing I couldn't get today was the eye caps. It's hard to tell that they're there unless he's been soaking or misted. Does anyone have any good advice for removing them? I tried with the wash cloth, but they didn't budge. Regardless, he's an active and curious guy. He's been eating. I think one thing that makes shedding so hard for him is that he has a lot of scars on his face and body, I assume from live food. He's getting f/t now and has transitioned better than anyone expected.

Thanks in advance!

 

[fl_orchidslave]

A stuck eye cap on a snake can be removed with a piece of scotch tape rolled around your finger. Gently!

That poor snake Hopefully he will do well with you We've taken in some in bad condition, skinny, starving, old stuck sheds..... I'm just glad they were finally surrendered instead of turned loose!

 

[Pokersnake]

Tape? Seriously? Should I mist him or soak him first?


My room mate will do well with him if she can get over being timid around him. I'm not sure how she can be uneasy around this snake but then deal with things much larger at the local Natural History Museum. Really, he's a big softie. He tolerated my pestering him for over half an hour and didn't get snippy at all. This was only my second time handling him too.

I'm not sure how anyone could think that setting a non-native species "free" is a good idea. Even if it is a native species, like my corn snake, it's never had to deal with natural consequences or predators.

 

[robin]

you could try a few more soaks over the next weeks and see if the eye caps loosen. i have never head of the tape thing before. you can try using a damp q-tip and gently try to work the edge of the cap up. if you can get the edge of the cap to lift you can normally get the rest to come off easily.

 

[fl_orchidslave]

Without eyelids, as gex have, the tape method works quite well. No pre-treatment is necessary, such as misting or soaking. Just as any eye procedure, you have to have a very light and gentle touch. We've used a q-tip to do it before too, and it works also, but the tape is quick and its over. Whatever works that you're comfortable doing is the right way

 

[Dog Shrink]

You can also apply some good mineral oil on his eyes in between soaks to make sure the lenses stay softer and pliable then maybe Laney's tape idea may be more effective after a bit with the soaks and mineral oil treatments. My son's ball python had issues with eye caps a while back, and ages ago with my python, altho we didn't use the tape idea (where were you with this idea Laney when I posted about Loki :main_huh: wait... maybe I just PM'd Ted with the problem...) we also insted of soaking the entire body would use warm compresses with a washcloth kinda wrapped around his head for 15-20 minutes to remove the caps. With in a week of this therapy the caps were off.

 

[robin]

i do not use mineral oil on any reptiles because it doesn't let the skin breath and can actually do damage to the skin etc. the only thing other than water i have ever used for sheds was Shed-Ease and that was on a rescued boa that had many many many layers of hard stuck shed.

 

[fl_orchidslave]

Lol Kel... we have a few snakes... ball and carpet pythons, boas, kings, milks, corns. Used to have burmese and blood pythons. Way more snakes than lizards. Oh, and hedgehogs too. We've had to learn a lot of interesting little tidbits to keep from freaking out every time something isn't right.

 

[fl_orchidslave]

i do not use mineral oil on any reptiles because it doesn't let the skin breath and can actually do damage to the skin etc. the only thing other than water i have ever used for sheds was Shed-Ease and that was on a rescued boa that had many many many layers of hard stuck shed.

We've never used mineral oil for any eye treatments either. The original Dawn dishsoap formula is animal safe and we've used 1 drop of that in snake soak water. Mineral oil is good for some stuff, but should be used sparingly, and not for everything.

 

[Dog Shrink]

If the mineral oil isn't good for stuck sheds (in light quantities mind you) then why would it be suggested to me by a few very reputable knowledgable sources?

Honestly I would be more reluctant to use the shed ease... ingredients: Aloe Vera, Salt, Glycerol, Potassium Sorbate, and Sodium Benzoate.

Glycerol:
A syrupy, sweet, colorless or yellowish liquid, C3H8O3, obtained from fats and oils as a byproduct of saponification and used as a solvent, an antifreeze, a plasticizer, and a sweetener and in the manufacture of dynamite, cosmetics, liquid soaps, inks, and lubricants (doesn't sound like this would permit the skin to breathe too well either)

Salt... well I don't think salt would be too friendly for an eye application.

Potassium Sorbate: a preservative used to inhibit mold and other fungi; low oral toxicity, but may cause a mild skin irritation among sensitive individuals.

Sodium Benzoate: Well this one imo is just nasty... http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/caution-some-soft-drinks-may-seriously-harm-your-health-450593.html Sodium Benzoate is a food preservative that is used in soft drinks, and other acidic foods such as fruit pies, jams and other fruit products.

Honestly the only good ingredient in shed ease tome appears to be the aloe vera, that being the case, wouldn't it be safer for reptiles to just have regular aloe vera used on them rather than shed ease?

I certainly don't want to disrespect Robin (or any forum member for that matter) , you're a highly valued member of the forum, but this one I gotta kinda say is not a good recommendation given the ingredients in shed ease.

 

[M_surinamensis]

Just because nobody else mentioned it... make absolutely certain that you are definitely dealing with a retained cap before trying to manipulate it off. When snakes are mildly dehydrated the brill (the clear cap over the eye) is often dented or wrinkled and can sometimes be mistaken for a retained shed. Working on a dented (not retained) cap can cause a great deal of damage.

Shed Ease is fine incidentally, the aloe is actually the least useful ingredient, put in there, I suspect, because consumers associate it with human skin care so strongly. It is intended to be a solvent, to soak into and break inter-cellular bonds between the dead, shedding layer of skin and the live, new layer of skin underneath it. It is only slightly more effective than water is at doing this due to the extremely low concentrations found in the product but it does fulfill the function it is labeled for and is perfectly safe to use according to the directions.

 

[Dog Shrink]

Well that is good to know, I get a bit paranoid about ingredients when it comes to my animals. Still not sure I'd be comfortable using it tho.

 

[fl_orchidslave]

We've used the shed ease when a few soaks didn't do the trick. My motto is if plan A doesn't work, move on to plan B. Always good to have options. Doing things just one way doesn't work in every case.

 

[Pokersnake]

Just because nobody else mentioned it... make absolutely certain that you are definitely dealing with a retained cap before trying to manipulate it off. When snakes are mildly dehydrated the brill (the clear cap over the eye) is often dented or wrinkled and can sometimes be mistaken for a retained shed. Working on a dented (not retained) cap can cause a great deal of damage.

My problem is exactly that. I'm not sure if there are eye caps or not. I think, but i'm not 100% positive (because this isn't my reptile, but I seem more concerned about it), that the snake had some eye caps on when he arrived here and that daily misting and a good soak (at least a month ago) loosened them up and they came off under his own methods. However, when he's been soaked, his eyes still turn from black to a paler color. He seems to see alright, so maybe I should wait to see with his next shed? Although, with a 12 year old python, I'm not sure when that would be.

@Dogshrink: I'm not sure I'm comfortable trying to keep anything on a snake's head for 20 minutes. I think this would be more along the lines of running the hot shower for a while with the snake in the room.

 

[Dog Shrink]

Just to clarify it isn't covering his entire head. You fold the washcloth so it's a narrow strip that only covers the eyes.

 

[Pokersnake]

Update:

Good news! Paygar didn't have eye caps. The key word is "didn't." He went into shed again and now he has one. Time for soaking!