I posted a few mos ago about my 13 year old BP that wasn't eating and had retained eye caps. Well, he shed soon after that and his eye caps looked as though they had come off, but his eyes were really ugly, dry and cracked and sunken in, however, he did eat two black live mice. I took him to a herp vet and found out that he had an eye infection. At first thought he had lost his eyes, but he responded to movement. We started cleaning them several times a day with saline and putting gentamycin drops on them. After a week of this, Dr. Morris put him under anesthetic and fenestrated the cap. We then continued the drops several times a day. I was starting to get really depressed. They looked worse than before. It actually looked like he had two piecese of brown plastic attached to his head. He was still only eating black mice (I figure that is all he could see). Two weeks ago, I noticed him turning pink. I gave him a few baths and then he shed. His nasty brown eye caps came off!!!!! I continued the drops. Now his eyes just looked cloudy, but they were there. I was convinced he was blind forever. The other day I looked, his eyes are shiny and black again and he ate two f/t WHITE mice and two live white mice for my boyfriend.!!!!!! I think he is cured. During his convalescence, I had moved him from his 6 foot tank with aspen substrate into a 20 long with a hide, a water bowl, and just some green felt carpeting. I kept it spotless. I will be moving him back into his old, now very clean, cage and won't be using the aspen substrate anymore. The whole convalescence was almost 2 mos long, but it was worth it. I have my healthy 13 year old python back. The vet visits and surgery were reasonable too, only costing a total of $150 for the meds, surgery, and the initial exam.
If anyone is thinking of giving up on their sick snake-DON'T. It is totally worth it.
Shelley
