rescued Spider: blind or capped eyes?

Originally Posted by solstice

Also, does anyone recommend the shed-aid spray? I've heard of it but never used it, and this guy is still very young to the point where his scales are very thin and he's sorta pink on the belly, I don't want to damage his skin or anything.

I think if it were me I'd stick with the old fashioned natural way. Especially since we are looking at his eyes being involved? I had 3 rescue boas it took me quite a while to get all the retained eye caps off last year and they actually were able to see fine afterwords. I handled it like you are describing with the daily soaks and plenty of humid 'choices' for them.

Originally Posted by solstice

I offered him a pinky last night and he clearly could not see it, but as soon as his face touched it he snatched it up, he's too weak to constrict but he did eat it fine. When I offered him a second he seemed interested but would not eat, I thought maybe he had used up all his energy swallowing the first one but I dunno. Will offer him another today. He does not scent very much, nothing like my other BPs whose tongues are never still, but so far I haven't seen any evidence of the spider "wobble" so I'm hoping he doesn't have that. Thanks again for the help!

Also I wouldn't worry about getting him to eat much....i mean offer on a regular basis but because he is malnourished (likely) and has been cared for poorly you may want to stick to small meals and maybe every 4-5 days for a few weeks til he's acting more normal. Too much of a gutload can be worse.

Just my 2 cents worth....oh and to increase the humidity, you could put the moss in each corner of his enclosure and really saturate it as well.....then just check it a few times a day for water retention and refill. Also water over the heated side will increase ambient humidity.


k...now I'm done with my 2 cents ...best of luck!

I've rescued numerous of balls in horrible conditions. One thing I do about stuck sheds and eye caps is after soaking for at least 30 mins in warm water, I take a soft paper towel get it wet with hot water, which by the time you get to the snake should be warm, squeeze the water til its damp but not all the water is wrung out. Then I take the paper towel and run it along the shedding, the shedding should come off easily, you can even use your fingers to slowly peel it off. It sounds like he should be hydrated enough to do that. As for eye caps, if they don't come off by rubbing the paper towel softly over his eyes, you can use scotch tape, same as teacher tape, apply it to the eye, rub it on then slowly and carefully pull the tape off. May take a try or two but the caps should come off. A local reptile vet that's very well respected taught me this years ago when I took him a snake I rescued that was in horrible condition. Good luck! Happy to know the snake is in good hands now. I won't even go on to rant about incompetent owners, ill be here all day! Lol.

After a warm bath today, this little guy's eye caps finally came off! One came off about a week ago, but he still had a lot of shed on his head so I soaked him today. So now they're both off and I'm trying to decide if his eyes are ruined or if he can see now--he is definitely more interested in his surroundings and is 'sniffing' all the time like a snake should. He refused food last week, but I'm going to try again tomorrow. So yeah, just a little update for anyone curious. Here's some after-soak pics of his eyes/face:

He looks great a lot better then he did in the first pics! Keep up the awsome work.

Wow, he looks so much better!!! Kudos for taking him in and giving him a better life!

Sounds like he can see pretty well, which is wonderful! (I figure, if he's blind, he'd have cloudy eyes or something like that.) I'm glad he's doing well! Rescues are rarely easy....

he looks 1000 times better. Keep up the good work on him

Whew! That made me happy seeing the new photos. Thank god, they look a lot better. I'm not sure if it's been stated, but when you soak him in water, put a rock in the middle. It will give him something to pull the skin and caps off.

Originally Posted by Focal X

I'm not sure if it's been stated, but when you soak him in water, put a rock in the middle. It will give him something to pull the skin and caps off.

When he's in the water he is just annoyed and trying to get out, lol, so I've just been rubbing him down with my fingers while he's in there. He does have a lot of stuff in his cage to rub on, though, and I'm still keeping it super humid so he shouldn't have any more problems shedding. Now to get some food into him.

Also, it just occurred to me that when I was taking these pics yesterday, he jumped at the flash, which means he must have at least some of his sight back! Woohoo!

Woot Woot!!! Congrats on a succesful rescue! Keep up the good work and keep us informed on his progress.

He looks a lot better!! Congrats and keep up the good job on him! Thx for the update