Reptile & Amphibian Forums

First off, this not a retained eyecap issue. Several monthes ago, my adult male brooksi had eyes that clouded over only a coulple of weeks after a shed. But never looked like he was going into a shed.Not long after he did go into shed but eyes never cleared up. Now, he will go into a shed every 6 weeks or so as his body is telling him a shed should help. only 1 shed into his problem, I took him to a very respected vet in Berkely. After thorough examination, he said deff not retained cap but gave me antibiotics for possible infection. Follow up vet visit 2 weeks later showed no improvement and vet could not come up with any positive diagnosis other than possibly scratched corneas. He will still eat willingly, though smaller meals and sheds now every 6-8 weeks. Was on newspaper substrate at time of orig prob. Thought maybe after bathing and soaking snake at the beginning and drying with towel might of caused an injury, but 6 monthes later, in a different room, different substrate(aspen). my adult female showed exact same symptons, but cleared up after 2 susequent sheds. She is fine now. No mites, or dirty conditions at all. Very clean water bowls. Any ideas for him?

sry

Could it be the ink from the newspaper you are keeping him on?
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"Pray for Obama. Psalm 109:8".

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All my snakes are on aspen and I thought it would be more convenient for a couple of them to switch to newspaper. That was when it was first discovered. He is now back on aspen with no improvement. only on newspaper to eat as he was having trouble eating on the aspen. dont know...

How long have you had it on aspen? How many sheds since you changed over??

I have seen this type of staining before from newspaper. It may take some time before it wears off. Even after its sheds. At least that is what i hope it is.

On another field herping website (Not KS) there are a couple different threads on snakes being stained by red dirt (clay) that were found in the wild. Some of them look like whitesided mosphs because of the strong staining. It also looks real enough that a vet or someone could not detect.

If the dark eyes came from the newspaper, there was no harm to the snake.
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www.Bluerosy.com

"Pray for Obama. Psalm 109:8".

"They that can give up essential liberty, to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty or safety." -Benjamin Franklin

Been two sheds since switch back but it gives me hope that maybe will one day shed off. I remember reading the best substraight was unprinted newspaper years ago. Perhaps ink was the cause. thanks. Dave.

It sounds like the fluid between the cap and the eye is not draining or cycling properly. I had a bullsnake with a similar problem years ago. A vet told me it was blocked duct - I forget the name of the duct, but it allows what I touched on above - the proper draining and cycling of fluids.
In my case, the problem / condition got worse over time and the eye and surrounding area became infected and eventually ruptured. After that I had to apply an antibiotic ointment to the eye every few days.
I sold the snake after a year of this and dont know what ever happened to her.

Best of luck - you snakes eyes looks much better than mine did....

byron.d

ty

I had a rescue BP years ago with a similar issue. His left (I think) eye would get looking like that, then there'd be a large swelling that stretched down into his lower jaw..turned out he had a tumor blocking some duct. The vet removed it but it came back within two months. At that point the decision was made to euthanize the animal--it couldn't eat with the swelling, and if the tumor kept coming back in the duct area, it'd be reoccuring on a frequent basis. Sucked.
Although yours doesn't have the swelling...so maybe it's something else blocking the duct? Dunno.

The vet did a thorough look in mouth and throat on both vivits and saw nothing unusual. just dunno, thanks for reply and sorry to hear about bp