Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Gunther, the rescued-and-now-healthy BCI o' mine, just shed for the first time in my care. His left eye had a retained eyecap (he went to the vet, it was definitely an eyecap), so I've been anxious to see him shed. He's gotten baths every other day since he's gone cloudy, lots of misting, etc.

He shed beautifully, head to tail, one nicely-rolled piece in the corner. I unraveled it, and both eyecaps came off. However, his left eye is still cloudy. Not a whole lot, but enough to get my attention. I'm not sure if it's an eyecap. If he wasn't so young I would say it was a cataract (do snakes even get cataracts?). Is there anything else that this could be? I know that he did have a retained eyecap when I got him (I was mistaken when I thought it came off about a week ago in my post), and I have his shed in front of me with eyecaps on them.

I can't see how one could have been retained if the newest one came off. I know how to remove eyecaps manually, but I'm not going to go poking at his eye not sure what it is.

I guess the question I was going for is: what other things could be making his eye cloudy?

It could be infection. I have a rescue gray banded king who had an abscess in the side of his face and the only thing that looked infected was the eye. It ballooned out like one of those fancy goldfish...I had to have it drained and he was on antibiotics for a couple weeks. On his last shed, his eye looks clear but it is slightly sunken in as compared to the other side.

...and you can see underneath it. It's "smokey", I guess. I'll try and get a picture. I've looked at it closely today; it's not deformed, smaller, bigger, scratched, dimpled, etc., just cloudy.

I'm beginning to wonder if he had a retained eyecap to begin with. The vet agreed with me when I took him, but he could have overlooked it. I mean, I keep snakes, I've seen one before, and if I say "He has a retained eyecap", and he looks and sees what looks like an eyecap, we could have both missed it. Both eyecaps definitely are off, and I'm just hoping that someone's seen the same thing. I can't afford a vet right now (Like I said, he was rescued, his first vet trip and the materials for his new cage are surprises my wallet can't take very much of :-P).