Hello. I haven't posted on this site in a long, long time, since I had moved and re-homed all of my reptiles. Recently I took in a pair of ball pythons that were posted on my local Freecycle. I only did this after they were posted for a while with no takers. The current owner didn't even know what kind of snakes they were, and I figured that no matter what they were, they were probably better off with me than with someone who doesn't even know what they are, lol.
Upon arrival, one appears very robust and active and healthy. The other not so robust or active, and has something awful going on with it's eyes. I've dealt with retained eyecaps in the past, but nothing like this, I'm not even positive that's what it is. It's eyes actually appear to be scabbed over, I can't see anything black/smooth/shiny. They both just look like scabs. Yes, I know, take him to a vet, which I do intend to do, but there is no local herp vet near me, so it has to wait until next week when I have time to get him there. In the meantime, I'm hoping that you all can suggest something that may help him before then, since I'm assuming it's not comfy for him.
I'm working on humidity and heat in their tank. I say their tank because as of right now they share one, as they did when we originally got them. This will be changing soon, but since this was not a planned acquisition, it's what we're stuck with for right now. For heat they had a heat radiating bulb atop the all wire lid of a 55 gal aquarium. We have covered about 3/4 of the wire lid with plastic, and added under tank heaters. I've added a much larger water bowl (they just had one large enough for their heads), though I will be adding an even bigger one soon.
I'm wondering if an enclosed hiding spot with damp coconut fiber or something of the like inside of it would be good for him? Any other suggestions about his poor eyes would be great.
I've had them for about a week, haven't fed them, yet, but will be probably tomorrow. They don't appear to be underfed, they aren't bony or aggressive. I'm guessing that the snake with the messed up eyes is probably smaller because they were fed in the same enclosure, and since he probably can't see, he probably didn't get to the food before the other one did, if he even realized it was there half the time. Neither one of the snakes appears to have ticks or mites.
Anyway, sorry to ramble, I'm just looking for some help for that poor snakes eyes. Let me know if pics would be helpful, I can take some tomorrow when my husband is home.
Marcy in OR (sorry for the pic, I can't seem to figure out how to post a message without one of my old pics on it...that's me, with two of my kids and two of my old snakes...I miss them!)
