Shedding eyes caps problems

[GHostCornSnake]

2 sheds ago i noticed that he had half of a highlid scale on his left eye and i was waiting till his next shed and it happends a couple of days ago. and it still there but it hard to see. should i take him to the vet or?

-Ghost.

[samtheman07]

all you need to do, but very very very carefully is to remove the cap with tweezers. to do this hold the snake by his head and support his body with your knees. If you feel uncomfortable doing this then i reccomend that you take him to a vet. If the eye cap is not removed then the snake could go blind.

[BeckyG]

NO! NO! NO! Do NOT do this! You could seriously damage your snakes eye! Try gently rubbing the retained eye cap with a moistened cotton swab until it comes off. If it doesn't, a trip to a herp vet is in order.

[samtheman07]

weel i have done this perfectly well before and i did not damage the eye and i have seenmany people do it as well but your way works as well i guess

[PtDnsr]

On something as wiggly as a corn snake it would make it very hard. The best way to go is to use the cotton swab or q-tip and water. It makes sense seeing as how we always say to let the snake crawl through a damp wash cloth to get retained shed off and that's all that a retained eyecap is - retained shed on a delicate place.

~Katie

[BeckyG]

weel i have done this perfectly well before and i did not damage the eye and i have seenmany people do it as well but your way works as well i guess

Your snakes just got lucky then that you didn't rip their eyes out of the socket. For their sakes, don't do it again.

[samtheman07]

ok thanks for enlightening me. i wont do it again its just i saw it on tv and it looked fairly straight forward so i gave it a try but next time i will do the towl method for the safety of my snakes.

[CoralSnowCorn]

You should take a worm damp towl and let the snke run threw it a couple of times so it rubs it off. This should work plus you dont have to hold the snake down .

[Eremita]

I would not be surprised if the tweezer thing comes up every now and again, as Kathy's book talks about performing just that procedure. Not that I can personally make any recommendations one way or the other as I have not had that happen yet.

-Sean

[zwyatt]

i have seenmany people do it

Define many.

I've seen people repair ruptured ACLs, do plastic surgery, and perform open heart surgery on TV. They all look pretty straighforward when an experienced professional does them, but I would never try them for myself.;)

[BeckyG]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to zwyatt again.

Exactly. Just because someone like Kathy Love does it doesn't mean I would recommend it to a novice.