Stuck eyecaps... or something else?

[mysticmoon]

So I am posting yet again about my Sinaloan Milk Snake, Max. He had been having bad sheds but I got some advice from the very helpful people on these forums, upped the humidity and now he is doing great (for the most part). Since I've had him his eyes have always had a slightly blue tint, even when he wasn't in shed. I always thought this was normal. Upon more research and carefully inspection I have noticed that they could possibly be retained eye caps, or something else? The left eye has a slight indent in it. Just wondering what you guys think this could be?

Right Eye


Left Eye (indent in the middle of eye if you look closely)

[mysticmoon]

Anyone? I just want to know if I should be worried about this or not/if it's just how his eyes are.

[Andy_G]

It's hard to say for certain whether or not eyecaps are still on there, but I do know a couple of things. I can also mention that when a snake has multiple retained eyecaps, it restricts the capillaries running across the anerior (front) of the eye, which can cause ocular necrosis in snakes from insufficient blood (oxygen) supply to the surrounding tissue. This will result in partially occluded vision as well as varying degrees of blindness. It often looks as if the eye(s) are in a continually opaque state or have cloudy spots where this dead tissues has occurred and corneal scarring has resulted. These are certainly some possibilities. The left eye looks like it may still have caps on it, while the right eye looks to have some scarring on the eye. With pictures it is very hard to say for certain, though.

[mysticmoon]

Thank you for your answer Andy.. what you said about trouble seeing makes sense. He had eaten live his whole life before coming to me, and I noticed he was having trouble seeing and finding the mouse even a dark room, which is part of why I switched to F/T. Not to mention the previous owner said that he had bitten in the eye once by a mouse... but that he was now "okay". He seemed fine to me and at the time I didn't consider the color of his eyes to be odd, but now I realize I probably should have been a bit more concerned. Do you think I should have him evaluated by a vet? Besides not seeing so well he is doing fine, eats F/T eagerly, moves around his tank every night, flicking his tongue and being curious.

[Rattlehead]

I'd say a vet visit it's the best. I've read some posts where the eye scales were removed believing that they were stuck eyecaps, so make sure the vet makes the correct diagnostic. Best of luck,

[mysticmoon]

Thanks Rattlehead. I will have to save up for a little bit but I will get him to the vet soon.

How would they go about treating this anyway? If it is stuck eye caps