royal python - eye problem

Question
hello i have a 5 month old royal python, i noticed this evening that she has an inflamed white area around her eye, it looks like her eye ball is sunken, the other eye is fine. she is eating and shedding ok, i handle her every day and last evening she was out crawling about ok. she is still very alert but i don't know what the problem is with her eye. i have bathed it in cooled boiled water but didn't know if there is anything else i can do or should i take her to the vets in the morning.

Answer
Hello Julie,

The first thing I would do is to check around her eye for mites. Mites are the main cause of an eye swelling like that. Another thing can be that she just rubbed it wrong on a sharp or rough surface.

Look around the tank and in the water bowl for signs of mites they will look like black pepper in the water bowl. Another thing to do is to feel around the tank to see if you get caught, better yet take a white wash cloth and wipe it all over the tank including all your ornamental items to see if it gets caught. The white wash cloth will also be a good indicator for mites, due to them showing up easily on the white back ground.

If you find that there are no catchy spots or mites you may consider brining her in to the vet to have him or her look at it more closely.

Hope this helps,
Eric Rovegno