I don't know how to edit my original post, so I am posting an update here... looking back at Praetorian's older pictures, both his eyes had red centers... so it appears that both his eyes are impacted by whatever this is. My heart just breaks for him and both my son and I feel awful that we did not catch this earlier.  We did manage to get food into him last night, but now, realizing he is surely blind in both eyes and not knowing what happened... I am going to take him in for a follow up, but everything in me tells me this will not end in our favor. It absolutely sucks when you try to do everything right by your animal family, and then something happens that you never saw coming or missed the signs. Again, if anyone has any info to share, please do. Thank you.

First of all, Hi! It's nice to see you on here again! 

I don't have any knowledge of what may be going on specifically, but I have a Sanzinia that had eye swelling for awhile a couple years ago. I ended up draining the fluid off the eye and she got better and went back to eating. That eye looks full now, I doubt she has sight in that eye, but otherwise she's doing well. I know at least one person that has a snake that is totally blind, and they still do just fine with eating and all their other snakey things.

Let us know what you find out.

*eye looks dull now

Sonja... thank you so much for your reply ??. We did see the new vet and he did a complete blood panel and it is not good news. He has fatal BDI. ??I just can't believe it. We are going to euthenize him... I do not want him suffering anymore than he has and as we all know, IBD is horrible. Doc said not all snakes exhibit "start gazing" or neuroloigical symptoms... in his case, the virus could have been in him all along and something activated it and the eye does have infection which would be one of the symptoms. Also the lethargy and lack of appetite. Other signs at various stagescan include regurgitation (which appears specific to Boas), undifferentiated cutaneous sarcomas, lymphoproliferative disorders, and leukemia. I have to tell my son tonight ?? We do not house our female, Harlow, with him, but because they have been in physical contact with one another many times, we are taking her to be tested. She has not exhibited any signs of anything, but I want to know. I hope this info is helpful to anyone else who may find themselves in a similar situation. This is so hard. Thank you, again, Sonja for your reply. 

Those stupid question marks were emoji's, lol, sorry Sonja... apparently they did not work here. 

Damn! That's such sad news! 

How did they test for it? I haven't kept up, but last I heard it could only be determined on necropsy.

It's a blood test. It shows the "deformed" inclusions in the cells... a lot of research and new tech has developed over the years since I 1st heard about it. It's great to have a way of monitoring them more closely now... I had friends 15 years ago who's Boas had it and passed away and they found out through necropsy. Now you can test not just when they present symptoms, but like in our case where one did have it, we can test Harlow every year at her regular exam for peace of mind or, worse case, to know early and prevent suffering. 

Do you know if there a lot of false positives or false negatives? Do they recommend retesting to confirm in a couple months or anything like that?