Update: apparently he has one stuck eye cap you can see on HIS RIGHT eye. So as soon as I get home I will take care of that and we will probably feed him tomorrow since the handling will probably put him off feed for today. I'll try and capture how gentle he is in the process

I think I'll go with a damp towel at a decent temperature so not to shock him with the cold and we will hold him and let him crawl through our hand with the towel so that the eye cap rubs off onto the towel. If that doesn't work we will soak the area for a bit and try again.

Eye cap removed.
No hiss, no posturing he just wanted to back up away from the rag (because of the temp) which works perfect to coax the lose cap off and then like a crumb on a shirt I lifted the cap right off of him. Done deal.