Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a snake who is otherwise completely healthy, despite some eye problems. She seems to be completely blind, and does not respond to movement in front of her, shadows, etc. She has not retained any eye caps that I know of. One of her eyes is mostly red and looks like it is 3/4 full of blood. Has anyone ever had a similar problem or know what the cause may be?

what type of pinesnake is it normal,morph? adult? w/c? some/most snakes especially in captivity can live long happy lives blind. but fluid that looks like blood building up is not a good sign id take it to a vet and see if perhaps its an eye infection of somekind,however if its eating i would feed it and feed it well and keep good temp gradients availible and see how it looks after a shed or two best of luck and keep us informed as to what happens,,,,,,,,thomas davis

Pictures would be helpful.

The most common by far cause of bleeding into the eye is trauma. Has the snake been striking at the glass or walls?

It is also possible that the retina has been displaced by pressure from within the animal's cerebral area. Again, the most common cause of this is trauma.

Other than that, for snakes, I'm not sure (e.g. not aware how similar the structure of their eyes are).

Blood in the eye from trauma should resolve spontaneously.

Good luck.

I know this is an obvious question, but do you feed it live rodents?

Nope, frozen. I think it was born with the eye problems, but I've never seen anything like it before.

If it's always been there, then the red you're seeing is probably not blood but irregular vascular tissue filling the globe of the eye.

It is likely that the animal is completely blind in the affected eye.

Over time blood would oxidize and turn brown/black and then disappear.