Potential shed issue

[d_virginiana]

I'm starting to wonder if Harley may be having shed issues. I never saw her eyes go blue, but my life has been truly insane lately, and hers only stay blue for about a day, so it's very possible that I could've missed it.

Anyway, the rest of her has looked like I would expect her to shed for a week or two now (Houdini and Sithis both went blue and shed during this timeframe). Her color is starting to look odd though. Like, dark instead of the sort of pastel color that it normally gets before a shed.
I can also take the skin at pretty much any part of her body and fold it up like paper; she isn't dehydrated btw. I've seen her drink a LOT in the last few days just because I've been watching her more.
The 'dark' coloration is starting to creep up closer and closer to her head, which still appears bright like normal. She's been soaking a lot and I've seen her several times rubbing her head against things and acting like she's about to shed, but nothing happens. She has a soaking water dish, a shed box, and the humidifier is next to her cage, so that's all taken care of.

The main thing that makes me think that this may be a retained shed issue is that her tongue shed off about four days ago (surprised I was even there when that happened). I've never had that happen when they didn't actually shed soon after. That and the fact that she's going through the motions for shedding, but not getting any results.

Anyway, like I said... Pictures tomorrow. This may just be a very oddly-timed, odd-looking shed but if not I'll document what it looks like and what I do on here.
(I recently lost a fish so it's entirely possible I'm being more OCD than normal about this, but Harley certainly doesn't mind the extra attention).

[guidofatherof5]

I would go through the motions of it being a retained shed until proven otherwise.
If it is a retained shed the procedures in this thread will get removal started if it is needed.
http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/husb...treatment.html

[d_virginiana]

Late last night I put a drop or two of vegetable oil on the skin and massaged it in to try and get the skin soft and less dry and papery. When I put her back into her tank, she spent probably half an hour in her water dish and rubbing her head on the sides.
Today, I spent a while at the sink massaging her skin with the water, especially around the neck and head area. I was also trying to gently get the shed started from the mouth/nose area. I'll give that thread a look and do that stuff when I get back in tonight and have time.

Okay here are some pictures from this morning. You can see the way the skin is papery, and how I can pull it up to a centimeter away from the body. May be wrong, but this is not normal shedding procedure for here.

Harleyshed1.jpgHarleyshed2.jpgHarleyshed3.jpgHarleyshed4.jpg
This is her normal coloration... As you can see, there's a big difference.
024.jpg

[guidofatherof5]

The last photo certainly doesn't look like any kind of a retained shed. Looks normal.

[d_virginiana]

Tonight is feeding night, so I'll go ahead and feed her then... I was messing with her a little earlier, and pieces of the shed are starting to flake off... Like, if I rub the skin between my fingers, I come away with a bunch of little scales on my hands.
I'm not crazy worried about her yet, but this is definitely an abnormally long shed, so I figured it might be useful to put up pictures and document things on here in case it does turn into a real problem.

On a side note, I am glad that, out of all the snakes, it's Harley that needs to be messed with like this. She just sits there in my hands while I'm messing with her skin and even messing with her lip scales (didn't do that too much, because it wasn't happening easily, and I didn't want to do any damage...). But she's been treating it kind of like spa day or something. Never nipped, or tried to bolt, or pooed or anything.

The last photo certainly doesn't look like any kind of a retained shed. Looks normal.

Yeah, that's from a couple months ago, I was just using it as a color comparison for how weirdly dark she's gotten.

[kimbosaur]

Tonight is feeding night, so I'll go ahead and feed her then... I was messing with her a little earlier, and pieces of the shed are starting to flake off... Like, if I rub the skin between my fingers, I come away with a bunch of little scales on my hands.
I'm not crazy worried about her yet, but this is definitely an abnormally long shed, so I figured it might be useful to put up pictures and document things on here in case it does turn into a real problem.

This happened to my baby albino a little while back. The skin looked dry and little scale-sized flakes would come off on my hands. At one point, only his back half looked very wrinkly and the general consensus was that it was a partial retianed shed. HOWEVER, immediately after producing a complete shed, the skin at the back half still appeared wrinkled. It seemed to go away after a few clean sheds.

[Light of Dae]

Give her, her favorite meal n let her stuff herself, let her eat as much as she wants. I find when any of my snakes take forever to shed, and their skin looks like this they just need a big meal. Its like the extra girth stretches the skin n gives them just that extra nutrition to get the skin off.

Works every time for one of my flames, she'll go blue, then clear, then just stay dark n kinda loose skin like that till I give her a big meal. That is exactly what this looks like to me. Just need an extra boost of food. I can imagine new skin growth n the whole shedding process takes a lot of energy.

[d_virginiana]

She ate a big meal tonight, and the little scales are still coming off when I brush at them. Keeping an eye on it.

[guidofatherof5]

Soak and continue brushing would be my advice.

[d_virginiana]

Soak and continue brushing would be my advice.

She's been getting soaked as well as spending quite a bit of time soaking on her own.

Just wondering... What does the brushing do, since I'm only getting single scales off? Like, the coloration isn't any different in those areas after they fall off, and it's just individual little scales. I was kind of expecting parts of the skin to peel away rather than flaking off.