Retained shed; when to worry?

[d_virginiana]

My snake that had the mouth infection awhile back is about to shed again. I don't know if his recent shedding problems come from the mouth area being swollen/scarred, as I only saw him shed once before the infection. The past two sheds he's had some respiratory distress and generally acted strange, and if he follows his previous pattern he'll probably shed in the next day or so. He just went blue last night, and as of this morning I can see the vertical lines going down his belly.
I put a shallow tupperware dish with some wet paper towels in his tank, and I've been putting him in his water to soak every hour or so. He's been soaking a lot on his own as well. His skin actually feels noticeably soft, so this one should go fine.

I'm not worried right now about this one being retained but I'm just curious; at what point do you intervene and do something? I can definitely see retained shed being an issue for this snake in the future, so I feel like it'd be good to know when to step in and what to do.

[guidofatherof5]

All you can really do is what you've done so far and wait to assist if you need to.
Just my opinion.

[d_virginiana]

Yeah, I wouldn't start worrying about this shed for another two days or so. This was more just curiosity, since I get the feeling he's going to keep having trouble.
I've heard that sometimes they will yawn or stretch oddly during a shed; is that a sign that something is going wrong, or is it fairly normal? Same thing with the lines along the belly; I have always heard that that was a sign of a retained shed. But considering he just went blue last night, it seems like that would just be a sign of an impending shed.

My others have always shed very easily and quickly; to the point that I've never actually seen either of them shed. That's part of the reason I'm a little paranoid about Sithis, since I've never seen any of the signs of a shed going wrong. Not 100% sure what to watch out for.

[CrazyHedgehog]

I have one snake that retained the whole head and neck, but the rest came off, it was odd. I put him into a cricket box (plastic tub with lots of holes) with lots of soaked kitchen roll over night, by the morning the full head skin (complete with eyes, I checked) was in the tub with him.
I was suprised at how easy it was. hopefully thats the worst it will get.

[d_virginiana]

Huh, that is kind of weird.

Mine shed late last night, and everything came off great. But a few hours earlier I had noticed what I thought was just some gunk on the scarred areas of his mouth. When I went to swab it off, I realized it was hard, and that it was a little hard white ridge going down the line where his teeth are. It came off along with a little film that was covering the surrounding gums. Scarring looks much better now actually.
But I think that may have been what was giving him trouble. Where it was located, there's no way he could've gotten it off, and I think it might have been making it difficult for him to get things started.