Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is my friend´s Cerastes. He says me that the right eye, suddenly, was opaque. The another one is normal. He´s worried and I don´t know what can I say him. We hope your aid. Sorry for the pics, I cannot get better one. Regards.

From another angle.

Based on the picture and description, you probably have a retained eye cap (unusual for this species considering that they are well adapted to dry/arid environments). Here's what I would recommend.
- Get another person to help you (preferably, someone with venomous experience)
- Tube/restrain the snake (make sure you have the right sized tube...tongs.com sells them). You may have to cut teh tube so that the head of the snake is approximately 3-4" from the open end once it's restrained on the other end.
- While one person has the snake firmly restrained, the other person can use a moistened long wooden q-tip to gentle massage the eye. Eventually, the stuck cap will loosten and sometimes it will roll right off, othertimes, you have to get an edge and then use some long, blunt edged tweezers/forces to grap the edge and gently remove the cap...if there's any resistance, stop).

This method is much safer than pinning the snake and doing the same (but is an option if you are very experienced).

You can also try soaking the snake in lukewarm water but cosidering that this snake does not drink a lot of water, not to mention, soak in water, it may be a little stressful (but then again, getting tubed puts a little stress on the animal as well....if done correctly, though, it really is minimal).

Hope this helps.
Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center

>>From another angle.
>>
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Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL

I've used this to loosen eyecaps by gently applying with a q-tip and holding it with VERY LONG hemastats. I had a 2m Bothrops asper that perpetually retained eyecaps, and would constantly have to pull them off by hand. It became a routine to apply contact solution first to loosen them up.

MH

Great idea Matt! I've got a black paki cobra that always retains one of his caps so I'll try this next time.

>>I've used this to loosen eyecaps by gently applying with a q-tip and holding it with VERY LONG hemastats. I had a 2m Bothrops asper that perpetually retained eyecaps, and would constantly have to pull them off by hand. It became a routine to apply contact solution first to loosen them up.
>>
>>MH
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Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL

I have also had good results with rolled scotch tape on tweezers or forceps.
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Tim Cole
www.Designeratrox.com/
www.AustinReptileService.net
www.AustinReptileExpo.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<
Conservation through Education

Ditto Tim's idea.
I have been using tape for years with great success.

Randal

I used masking tape. I usually only used it on boids, that I could wrap the tape around my finger and have a feel for how much pressure I was exerting on them. I used the contact solution for hots, that I didn't want my fingers near.

Thank you for your responses. I though that was a shedding problem, but I was not sure, becasuse in this specie it´s strange. I will tell him and I hope the snake will be fine soon.
thank again and Regards.

I have an old indigo snake that developed cataracts, first in one eye, then in the other a few months later.

Our treatment for this is... Nothing. It's a captive snake that does fine without vision. Heck, he even had a nice breeding season if you know what I mean.

I hope you figure it out.

Doug T

similar problem. One eye has been 'clouded' since birth with what looks like a cataract. Often juvie Bothrops develop infections in their oropharyngeal tube and usually die from it, but this snake has been fine and is about 2 years old and 3' long now.

MH

I had a similar condition in an Eristicophis. Turned out it actually had glaucoma of some sorts. Every now and then the eye would actually bulge up, get huge etc. Every few weeks it'd finally drain on its own. It didn't seem to ever bother the snake however.

I can't tell it's a retained eye cap from the pic, and it's a best guess as anyone can give. If you're not familiar with what these look like close up, find someone who is.

As per the cataracts, it is a common assumption to assume that is what is going on with any clouded eye. This is an elder animal problem and although I've never seen it in snakes, I'm sure it can happen. However, especially in younger animals, a clouded eye can be anything from a clogged lacrimal duct to an ulcer to retinal problems, tumours, parasites ect. As the experiences already shared seem to show that whatever the problem, it likely will be self limited with loss of vision in that eye, I think that there are numerous benefits to pursuing proper diagnostics and treatments with such conditions.

Ian