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My ghost ball had what I think are stuck eyecaps this last shed. It hasn't happened to me before and I will post a photo soon to make sure that is really his troubles. It's been 2 weeks of me trying all I have read to do here (except use tape!)to get it off, but one of them is still there. Right away I looked through his shed to see if the eyecaps were on it, but it was balled up and I couldn't find the head. Assuming they were stuck I soaked him for a half hour and let him crawl through a towel. Didn't work on either so I put small dabs of neosporin on his eyes. This pulled the one off but left the other. Since this seemed to have worked I repeated the neosporin for several days. Nothing. Now last night I left him in a damp pillow case. It's still there. Time for a vet to look at him? What should I do? Is there any way to know if it is a stuck eyecap or something else? I assume since the other one went away with neosporin it probably is a stuck eyecap. Like I said this hasn't happened to me before. And by the way, the shed was in one piece otherwise. I've of course been also keeping very close tabs on his humidity. Help!

Stupid question but, how do you know when a snake has a stuck eyecap? The colour? The eyes bulge? I wish I knew as I have a Venezuelan Rainbow Boa who didn´t shed properly last time and I didn´t see the eyes part come away, so.... ?

First off, make sure the eyecap is really there. Since the cap is usually part of the shed itself, if you closely examine the eye, you should be able to see dead skin surrounding the eye itself where the skin tore away from the eye cap.If there is a big enough piece of skin to grab with a tweezers, GENTLY grab the peice of skin and pull the cap off. Key word is GENTLY! If it is a stuck eyecap it will come off fairly easy. If you have any qualms about doing this yourself, don't, seek help from someone who has experience. I have had stuck caps that required me taking a pin and catching and lifting the dead skin around the eye enough so I could grab it with the tweezers.

My advice is to leave it alone. I've had this happen to me and the stuck eyecap came off with the next shed. If you go poking around and pulling on stuff, you run the very real danger of hurting your snakes eye. If it doesn't come off with the next shed, then go see a vet.

Mark

Get a rubbermaid container big enough for the snake to sit in.........fill it up with about 2-3 inches of luke warm water....and place the entire container on top of a heating pad/UTH......(make sure you have a few vent hole drilled into the sides for airflow)...leave the snake to soak in here for about an hour or so........the humidity will soften the skin and it should eaisly slide right off.....this works well for any retained skin/eyecaps.

the snake Jacuzzi!!!!!

Jared Horenstein