Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
I recently picked up a Male Durango Mt. King and was given the female he has been bred with for free as she is suffering from an eye infection. I plan on taking her to the vet, but wil not be able to until this friday and was just curious if anyone had any suggestions as for extra care until I can get her to the vet.
The infection occurred while she was bruminating this winter and appears to have been the result of a retained eye cap. The infection and swelling are localized to the right eye and the snake shows no other signs of illness. Although she is just being warmed up from brumination now due to the infection, she is active and responsive when handled.
In anycase, if anyone has dealt with eye infections before I would appreciate hearing how you dealt with it. What did you do prior to taking it to the vet? What were the vets treatment recommendations? Did the snake survive? Lose sight in its eye? etc. Reply here or contact me at gretzkyrh4@yahoo.com

Thanks in advance to all who respond

Chris
gretzkyrh4@yahoo.com

The best kind of supportive pre-vet visit care I can think of is to keep her extra warm. If I'm not mistaken, the high end of the POTZ for L. mexicana ssp. is about 31-32C (88F), so make sure she has a nice warm spot in her enclosure.

You can also give some shallow warm water baths (about 28-30C) to keep her hydrated and help passively loosen up the stuck spectacle if that was the original problem. I don't suggest trying to remove any stuck eyecap, as a wrong move can seriously damage the eye and cause more pain and damage than the infection.

Christina
www.herptiles.net

A agree with the other post, however a certian amount of thermal gradient should still be clear. Have a range cool side of 80-82F. Also keep the snake seperated from the other if not already, and change the bedding to paper towels. Easy to keep clean, won't agitate the eye, and will hold humidity nicely. That's my other point, although the kings like it relatively dry, keep the humidity up help with wound healing. It is much more important to keep everything super clean though when doing this to the environment.

Ian

Since she is just coming out of brumination should I gradually increase to that temp over a few days or jump straight to it? I am not worried about whether it would affect her ability to breed as health is more important, but would the sudden shift have any ill effects?

If ill, I'd wait until next season to breed whether she's viable or not. Not saying it can't be done, but just an opinion.

Heat her up over a day. It'll be as simple as turning on the summer lights, or spinning the thermostat; whatever you do. There is no difference then waking up one unusually hot spring day. You are correct that it may disrupt the breeding cycle in some species though.

Ian

Thanks I'll heat her up right away then and I'm definitely not worried about losing a breeding season as long as she lives to see a few more in the future.

Chris