Eye Oddity? Plus some other Concerns

[bbkaren]

Hi, I have a young (about 3.5 feet) male albino burmese, and we're new to this whole snake thing. We've grown quite attached to the dopey thing and get concerned whenever we see something out of the ordinary.

When we first got him about a month ago, he was about to shed and his eyes looked very cloudy. About a week later he shed in several pieces, but completely with a little bathing and gentle rubs. (I know they're supposed to shed in only a couple of pieces but we're attributing the sloppy shed to the stress of a new home, etc.) His eyes post-shed looked completely different--clear and alert, looking around.

My concern right now is that, while his eyes are still clear, it seems that there is a "lighter" area at the top of each eyeball (almost like an eyelid), and it's the same on both eyes. That may very well just be something I didn't notice before and I'm just worrying for nothing.

However, tonight, I noticed that one of his eyes has what looks like a tiny "wrinkle" in its surface. It almost looks like a tiny bit of saran wrap. Now I'm worried--but could he simply be preparing to shed again? An eye infection? We just had him at the vet a week ago for what we thought was a respiratory infection (and gave him a week of evil Batril(?) shots) and she didn't notice anything unusual.

Another issue is his breathing--I've read other posts which bring up the subject. When he climbs around on me, near my head especially, I can hear him breathing (hence the trip to the vet) although there is no mucous or any other signs, I was afraid of a RI. He also sometimes exhales loudly and suddenly, usually as I'm reaching in to him; is this hissing? Doesn't sound like what I've seen on TV!

Also, we've had trouble keeping his tank (75 gal) at an acceptable air temperature. We have two heating mats and a heat lamp (day) on the left--and no mats and a ceramic heat fixture (night) on the right. The air temp throughout the cage stays at 72-74 degrees regardless of what we seem to do. The mats keep the substrate temp around 90+ degrees and he doesn't seem to climb toward the heat lamp. During the day he hangs out on the heat mats under his hide box. At night he moves over to the cool side under the ceramic fixture and hangs in his "cool" hide box (74 degrees). Obviously the cool end of the tank is okay with him--he even spends time there during the day as well, which seems to indicate that he doesn't really want to be that hot--? (Or maybe he's just too dumb to remember that he likes the warm end?)

I'm in a quandary as to how I can increase the air temperature--or if I need to? I've had double 150 Watt Flood lamps, and even a hood with 4 150-watt reptile heating bulbs all going at once and never got the air temperature above 76 or 78.

Also, I've read that humidity is important--how do you handle that and keep it regulated?

Sorry to ramble so but wanted to mention all my concerns in case they're related somehow.

Oh, and he also seems to have tiny black specks (like a grain of pepper) here and there stuck in his scales (maybe about 3 or so that I've noticed, often fully under the scale so it appears as only a shadow)--do I pass that off as dirt or should we pursue for ticks or mites? They don't move about, that I can see--

That's all, I swear! and thanks for any info!

[reverendsterlin]

Eyes: one thing to try to always do is find the head shed and make sure the eye caps are there, between one shed a retained eyecap is of little concern but be sure to check the next one and make sure both eyecaps were shed.
Breathing: don't worry about it most large snakes and even some smaller ones make breathing noises that are not the bubbly/muckous breathing heard in an RI.
Basking Lamp: Most snakes don't need or use them (tree dwellers are more prone to use them).
Black Specks: Possible mites, a provent-a-mite spray is available.
Air temps: Less important than underneath heating.
Humidity: go get a rubbermaid blanket box for a water/soaking dish, cover screen/vent partially with plastic

[Edwin]

Congrats on your burmese, they are really amazing animals. I will try to answer your questions as best I can:

1. I don't think the eye colour is a cause for concern.

2. The tiny wrinkle on the eye just means that it is dehydrated. Simply mist his head and watch the wrinkle disappear in a few minutes. You will need to watch the humidity levels in your terrarium, it should be around 60-70%. You can achieve this by daily misting, or if you are using a glass aquarium, covering part of the top with a piece of plastic or wood. You could also place his water container under his basking spot, but I am not fond if this, as warm water is a breeding ground for all sorts of parasites. You could also turn one of his hide boxes into a humidity box by placing damp spagnum moss inside.

3. How are you measuring your temperatures? If you are using those stick-on reptile thermometers, they are highly unreliable (I have thrown mine out). Instead, buy a digital thermometer from Walmart or Home Depot, preferably one with a probe. Place the thermometer about an inch above the substrate.

4. The black dots may be mites, see if you can carefully pluck a few out with tweezers to show to a vet. Typically, mites cluster around the eye area, and do move around a little. If mites are confirmed, you will need to get either Black Knight or Provent-a-Mite spray.

5. The breathing does not sound like a cause for concern.

Hope this helps.

[jason h]

i agree with edwin high possibility of mites from your discription breathing that you discribed doesnt sound like a problem(and yes that would be hissing when your reaching in,the temps and humitity can be raised by putting a board over a portion of the top,with misting done regularly this will increase humitiy and fix not only the wrinkle in the eye but also the shed problem as dificult sheds are usually do to too dry of conditions.hope you have many years of enjoyment on your new soon to be BIG burm,that is my albino in my avatar(something to look forward to)