Multiple retained eye caps?

Hello all! I have a rescue with an issue I have no experience in. He/she seems to have multiple layers of eye caps stuck on the eyes. The shed on the entire body of the snake is non existent it’s just the caps.
I have read articles and other forums and watched multiple videos and 50% say to leave them alone and the other 50% say to remove manually. But within either opinion I haven’t seen an example this severe. What do you all think? I have no history on this animal and just want to do right by it.
*I did forget to mention he/she also has some healing burns but they seem to have mended themselves with no sign of infection.


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To me that looks like much more than retained eye caps, it looks like there’s fluid trapped under there or something based on how much they’re bulging. I would absolutely not try to remove them manually, that seems like an easy way to accidentally blind your snake. Im still seeing some patchs of stuck shed, so I’d make sure the humidity is at least 70% in his/her enclosure and see a vet about the eyes

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I definitely agree with @chesterhf on this one. Bump your humidity to at least 70% and do some soaks.

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Those “patches” I believe you are talking about are the burns, places where the top layer of the skin is gone but they are healed. I will get him into my vet though and see what he thinks would be the best course of action! In the mean time this little one will be receiving the utmost attention and care. I soaked last night just to help rehydrate and give him a chance to drink, he drank for almost 2 minutes straight :sob:

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After some further reading I am leaning more towards blocked lacrimal ducts causing the fluid build up in his eyes. I will bring this up to my vet when I take him! For now I will focus on keeping him as comfortable as possible.

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Wanted to give a quick update on this girl. I have kept her clean, well fed and happy. Kept an eye on her eyes to make sure there was no pressure building and today she graced me with a shed, turning her into a completely different animal. I do believe she had multiple full sheds stuck on her body as her shed was very thick and waxy. And her eyes look 100 times better. Her burn has shed off but formed nice scar tissue. She sure looks like she feels much better!



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I am super happy that you updated this! I have been wondering how she was doing. It is so great that she found a home.

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glad it wasn’t as a serious as you thought, the missing scales should heal with time and other sheds.
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Just for the readers, crinkly retained eye shields from previous sheds can cause lots of problems including extended non feeding…
/
I had this problem with an couple of adults I bought. Obviously they wouldn’t feed.
Humidity was not enough in those cases, A wet pillow case solved it in the end. + a little manual rub in one case after the pillow case.
Warning:- too wet equals no or little air flow and so also means too much water in the blood. and too little O2, for too long— either can be deadly. too much water in the lungs or too little O2 in blood can be both deadly…
I would say 40-60 minutes at a time MAX, And not soaking wet so air can permitate. Squeeze the water out like for egg substrate like you would for an egg box substrate if you were not lifig the eggs off it with something
Soaking wet will not give enough air flow.

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