Veterinary Optomologist for my BP?

[jncoclub]

Our Ball Python hasn’t always been the greatest shedder, but she seems to get the job done. Her eyes are always the worst part. For awhile there it used to look like she shed her eyes completely; but if you look at her closely it almost seems like she had a very thin retained eye caps. Her eyes looked clear- but had a slight crinkle look to them. We’ve done what we can: increase humidity, soak her in baths, soak her in baths with being in a bag so she can rub up against stuff, etc. This last shed for the first time ever she soaked in her water bowl! It was such a beautiful sight. She spent all day in it for a week! So her body shed wonderfully, but those darn eyes were going nowhere. Now 3-4 weeks later her eyes look horrible. They are whitish (dry crinkly looking) and look like a smushed-in ping pong ball. Being new to the Connecticut area I looked in the phone book and found some numbers to Veterinary Optimologists (I didn’t know they exsisted). My fiancé spoke with the doctor. He didn’t get a great feeling that snakes were a part of her specialty (she asked him how big do BP’s get, how much can they weigh, things that she should maybe already know). She seemed to be hung up on the idea that the snake may have mites in her eyes, which they can only be seen under a microscope. She never asked him about temps or humidity. From day one we have used mite sticks with all our tanks and we keep them all clean. I’m not the doctor, but my guess is that it’s not mites. But what do you think? Are there certain questions I should ask the other Optomologists because I want to give all them a call to see what they say. And finally, I really care for my snakes. But is it ok to have a normal vet take care of the snake’s eyes or is a veterinary optomologist the best way to go? How pricey is it?
Please help… thanks.

[Stalabros]

If you haven't tried mineral oil yet, give it a try, it might help. If you can get some photos posted, it might help to see what the problem is.

[jncoclub]

I thought it was too late to try "over the counter" items, or does this have to be resolved by a trip to the doctor?

It's too frustrating for us and the snake to wait till her next shed. Becasue she can't see, she won't eat. Because she won't eat she really isn't getting bigger, and she therefore isn't going to shed any sooner.

[eyespy]

My background is as a certified opththalmic surgical tech for human medicine and a certified veterinary surgical tech specializing in reptiles and avians so I've always chatted up the vet ophths I know and the ones I've met stick with mostly mammals as their patient base. Of course your mileage may vary but any ophtho vet I've ever met is totally stumped when their patient doesn't even have eyelids.

Mammals rather frequently get microscopic mites that get embedded in the tarsal plate (muscle inside the upper eyelid) and corneas. I've never encountered that in a herp but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Just my gut feeling that it doesn't.

[Kathy]

Sounds like a lot of money to spend on testing, herp vets are expensive enough, and thats the ones that dont specialize in one aspect of the animal. Sounds to me like she just may need to be encouraged to drink more (maybe mist some fake leaves and stuff so she can drink off the leaves if she wont drink from the bowl). Try a moist towel and gently rub her eyes, she probably wont like it much but it may help

[jncoclub]

So just to make sure I'm hearing you all correctly-
There is still a chance that I can get her retained caps off by using mineral oil and soaking and gently rubbing- even though she shed up to a month ago? I thought that since so much time has gone by since her last shed, the eye caps kind of restiffen back onto her eyes and would make it that much harder to get off? I tried to take pictures of her yesterday with a web cam, but it is kind of blurry. I'm working on it though. Thank everyone! I'll keep you posted. And if you have anything else to share that would help us, I'd really appreciate hearing it!