Informational: Retained Eye Cap issues

[RehabRalphy]

I recently ran into my first ever, retained eye cap.

I recently purchased a baby BCI red tail boa. I've never seen a retained eye cap and never had to deal with them before. I was looking at the boa and I noticed one of the eyes was "different". The eye looked like it had a contact on the eye and it seemed to be flaking around the eye lid. I did some research and I found out it was an eye cap.

If you do run into the same problem, the first thing is don't panic. I thought to myself that this boa was going to loose its eye. I was to afraid to do anything to the eye in which could possibly hurt the snake.

The first thing you need to do is soak your snake in warm water for a good 30-45 minutes. This will help loosen and soften up the cap. Also in this time, place a small amount of Vaseline on the cap using a Q-tip as the applicator.

YOU MUST BE EXTREMELY GENTLE WHEN REMOVING ANY EYE CAPS!!! You could possibly damage the eye if you are to rough with the snake.

I read several articles with different solutions. First one was taking a qtip and gently rubbing the cap off. Another article stated to use a wet washcloth. And the last article talked about using scotch tape. I was to afraid to use the tap thinking I could hurt the boa.

I tried all the methods, except for the scotch tape. Nothing worked.

I figured that if the shed stays on the eye and the next time the snake sheds the cap will come off. But... you have the possibility of having infections of the eye.

So let me get back to the point. After I soaked her for 30 minutes, I took a piece of scotch tape, wrapped it around my finger so the sticky side is out, and gently rolled it over the cap on the eye. The cap(s) came off without a fuss.

She turned out to have 3 eye caps on her eye. EXTREMELY hazardous to her health.

I'm very happy that I chose this last method. But please, if you choose to use the tape trick, be careful. If your not sure if its a retained eye cap or not, ask a vet or an experienced reptile keeper.

Here are a few pictures of what a retined eyecap looks like for references.

 

[VARNYARD]

Thanks for the information Mike.

 

[Beazer]

Definitely have seen a lot of people bring up the eye cap issues. Great post. My preferred method is scotch tape but like you were saying some people can be too rough and cause more harm than good. If it doesnt give easy... dont force it lol. I like scotch tape also to help check for the (cant think of the name of it) sheddings? of mites by gently applying it to the bottom jaw scales. Great post, definitely will help people out. As far as the vets go, people, make sure its a legitiment reptile vet. Theres a lot of vets out there they may seem like they know what they are doing but they are equivilant to a dentist being a plastic surgeon. Test the vets knowledge and ask around.


-Jon DeLong

 

[JohnMatthew]

I use a small pair of tweezers(like the ones from a swiss army knife). There's usually enough shed around the edges to make a clean grab. First time I've heard about the tape idea, I like it! Going to give that a try next time. Thanks for the info.