Removing Eye Caps

[LacunaCobra]

My BRB keeps retaining eye caps even after I've tried all the conventional methods of keeping her "moisturized". She has just shed, but the skin is still stuck on her eye. A vet that I took her to ended up puncturing her eyeball and it got infected, and she eventually lost her left eye. :( I've heard of using tape to remove eye caps. I've never done it before so if anyone has any suggestions on the most gentle way to do this I'd really appreciate it a lot! :)

[Jeff_Favelle]

DON'T USE TAPE. Bad idea.

I think the best course of action is to actually fix what's CAUSING the stuck eye caps. And that would be poor humidity among other things.

[LacunaCobra]

I do keep the tank moist, really I do. I use a mister, plus a large dish of water and I even pour water over the substrate every night. She's had problems since I got her. Shed Ease doesn't help so I don't know what else to do. I don't want her to lose her other eye.

[Lrptls]

rubbing it off and using tweezers is what i always heard. i almost never had retained eye lids on my snakes but have before, i will soak them every day for about a week and if that doesn't help it come off i sort of pick it off myself.

i have a snake that every time he sheds a tiny bit of skin is always stuck to the tip of his tail, i asked my friend why that happens and she said sometimes even if the humidity is right some snakes just have bits of skin in certain places that dont want to come off. shes had hundreds of snakes and said shes had quite a few that were like that.

it might suck having to peel the snakes eye cap off every time it sheds but that might just be what you have to do. i believe your doing every thing right, just a little inconvenience to you.

[Tim and Julie B]

Actually Jeff I just used tape a couple of days ago on a ball pyhon I rescued from a pet store (I know I'm a sucker :rolleyes: ). I tried everything to get those caps off and nothing work so I tried the tape method. It had three eyecaps per eye. No wonder the little guy wouldn't eat (until today :thumbsup: ) You have to be REALLY CAREFUL though but it did work as a last resort.

[tHeGiNo]

As Jeff said, the first step to take is to improve your husbandry errors which are causing the retained shed. Next, place her in a VERY humid environment for an hour or so, then take a q-tip and try to roll it off.

[LacunaCobra]

Thanks guys! That helps a lot... What is the most gentle way to use the tape method? It's been a few days since she's shed and it's still stuck so I wanna get it off of her so she's comfy, but mainly cuz I don't want another mess like we had with her left eye...

[galad]

When you pour water onto the substrate at night do you wet the whole substrate?
Is there a place for the snake to get away from the wet substrate?
I'm just wondering because I've heard that a constantly moist substrate can cause scale rot on the underside of the snake.
Or is this only true for some species of snakes?



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