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Snake Eye Covering damaged!

C

CrackerJack760

deretsigeR resU
okay...i know this is going to sound horrible. i bought my first corn snake about 2 weeks ago. ive had him in my 10 gal. fish tank because he is just a baby... i had a SMALL piece of masking tape over an opening so he couldnt get out until i got out to town to buy a screen, which i now have. long story short i found my poor snake trapped on the tape one morning. he has stretched his skin out trying to wiggle free, and his bottom jaw wouldnt close for an hour or so...he wouldnt eat for two days and i was very worried he may have broken his jaw. i opened his mouth slowly, and carefully with a tiny toothpick and helped him realign it (only one side was aligned worng, and i guess he was confused) hoping this fixed it i put him back in his hiding spot with a mouse while i went to dinner. i came back and the mouse was gone and there was a lump in my snake! what a relief! but now, when he was stuck to the tape, the covering over his right eye, is damaged and hanging out on one side. MY QUESTION IS: A. will he be permanently blind? B. can i do anything for him? C.will this cover grow back over? and if it will, do i need to get it the rest of the way out? because only half of it is attached to his eye. this is the only POSSIBLY permantent damage, and he is still just as friendly as ever, although i feel terrible about the whole ordeal. any help would be VERY appreciated!!
 
i dont know what to tell you about your snakes eyecap, possible fix itself after a few sheds... but what i am curious about is if you were concerned about your snake finding its way out through the hole, why wouldnt you be concerned with it finding its way to the tape and getting stuck?


also you mentioned it being in your fish tank?
what kind of bedding do you have? shouldnt be pebbles from the fish...and did you clean out the tank well?

also they sell screen lids for ten gallons with locking snap things, wish you the best
 
That is so sad!

I know how you feel. I had one of my baby corns get out last summer and get into packing tape. I left the tape on and soaked them both in warm water to soften the tape. The tape came off, but it took a couple of sheds for the skin to look like it did before. This probably doesn't help you but I know how scary it is to worry about them not knowing if they are going to be alright. Do you have a vet you trust? Good luck.

www.knightscreekreptiles.com
 
I've been there too...

I'm sorry to hear about your little snake. I was horrified to find my young snake awhile back stuck to the double sided sticky cushion tape from the digital thermometer I had stuck to the viv wall. Apparently the weight of the snake climbing on it caused it to fall down with the sticky tape face up. She crawled over it and was stuck on three pieces of tape. The only thing I could think of was to use baby oil and a q-tip to gently loosen her skin off the tape.

If I were you I would take the snake to a qualified reptile vet. I would be worried that an infection could set in or the remaining flap get snagged on something and cause more damage. Is the snake due to shed anytime soon? If any luck is on your side, perhaps it could be some skin from a future shed that is pulled off. Hopefully some of the qualified vet folks here can also chime in. Good luck!
 
I had one that had to have the whole eye scale removed by a vet. It regrew after one one shed. While the eye was exposed, the vet was worried about infection. He gave me some eye drops that I had to drop into the eye daily (that was fun!).

The drops I have at the moment (I keep some in the fridge for emergencoes) are called Fucithalmic viscous eye drops in the UK. They are for dogs, cats and rabbits as well, so should be available to a vet that doesn't specialise in snakes.
 
thank you guys so much, i really appreciate the help. ive had him for soon to be a month, so im hoping one shedding will fix it all. the only vet i know of is about an hour away (i live in a crappy town) and hopefully wont have to go there. infection was my first thought also...the eye looks perfectly normal and the covering is only barely damaged on the side, but who knows what could happen. and id rather be safe then sorry. he does now have a screen, and i dont use pebbles as a bedding. we tore off all of the outdoor carpeting on my porch and replaced it last month, so i have been using clean sheets of what we had left over. it looks nice, and he seems to like it... any more advice on the eye would be wonderful! thanks again...
 
by the way bitsy, how did your snake lose its covering, and how bad did it look? all the way off? barely hanging off? mine isnt actually hanging out...its still covering his eye, but the one side of it is no longer under the skin around his eye...
 
The vet surgically removed the whole eye scale, so the eye was completely exposed.

He did it because the babe hatched with the scale missing a duct that would normally drain off excess fluid from in front of the eye. That meant that fluid built up and caused a "bubble" on the side of her head until she next shed.

The vet thought that if he removed the whole scale, it might regrow correctly. As it happened, it didn't help but she's now four years old and living with the problem successfully.

Good luck with yours.
 
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