ColeSlaw
03-16-2011, 01:51 AM
Hello, everyone I'm new to the forums.
The night before last we had a serious emergency with our hatchling corn snake, Cthulhu. Cthulhu was hatched late June/ early July of '10 so you have an idea of his age. My boyfriend and I are new to snakes but are trying very hard to do everything right.
About two weeks ago he managed to slip out of a small area where the mesh of his tank's lid had pulled away. We had somehow missed it. We immediately tore the house apart, blocked all under-door cracks, fixed the tank lid, and generally freaked out. We put out heating pads, a water dishes, and every 2 days a fresh F/T pinkie for a couple hours.
The night before last around 11 pm we heard our rat, Fink making a lot of noise in the bottom of his large wire cage. We checked on him and to our horror our tiny snake and nearly grown rat were fighting. I still do not know how he got in there, as we securely taped 2 1/2 feet of cardboard the whole way are the bottom of the cage specifically to prevent this.
We quickly pulled Cthulhu out and placed him on a heating pad. I thought he was going to die right then. He had two large gouges in his side where I could see his meat. He was bleeding from the left side of his head and his left eye was fixed downward. His head stayed tilted to the left as if he'd suffered a stroke. His mouth had blood in it. He was striking at the air repeatedly and gasping, clearly terrified. I held him and dabbed the blood away and tried to keep him warm.
Fighting back tears, I began calling every emergency animal hospital, 24 hour vet clinic or anywhere I could think of within 60 miles of me. Everyone said about the same thing, they don't know of anyone open so late who can help with a snake emergency and they wouldn't know how to help. A few tried, giving me number after number of places they thought might help. I stayed up until about 3am calling.
During this time our baby, though still grievously injured, had started to perk up and was slithering a bit but always on the left side of his head. His eye was no longer looking down though.
Finally I spoke to a vet's wife who advised me to put him somewhere safe, warm, and dark with a small shallow water dish and bring him to see a vet who specializes (her husband) first thing in the morning.
To our relief our baby made it through the night and the vet really seemed to know what he was doing. He told us the biggest 2 concerns are infection and possible brain damage. The rat had bitten the top of his head and inside his mouth at once, which is why he is tilted left-ward. He told us there is no way to tell how extensive the damage is, we'll just have to wait and see if he recovers. He likened it to being attacked by a grizzly bear, saying he's doing great to just still be alive, but not in good shape in the least.
He may just have suffered a concussion rather than permanent brain damage, the bite looks very minor, but it may be worse. He said if he is brain damaged, he may actually slowly recover from it, especially being young- but he may not. He also said after a few sheds ( we may have to peel the shed a bit around the scar tissue at first), his other wounds should almost totally disappear with little scarring since it was just the skin damaged.
The vet ordered us to use Gentamicin drops on his wounds 2x a day, followed by a tiny dab of neosporin on the open part ONLY to help prevent fluid loss. He warned not to get it on the healthy skin, as the oils can soften it. We also have to give him injections of Baytril daily for 10 days and 1 of Cefoxitin every 3 days for 12 days and return to see him once the injections are finished. He also said not to feed him for 10 days. We are keeping him in a large tupperware storage bin until he heals, with paper towels for substrate, which we change 2x day (probably once a day after the first week) and we use a 10/1 bleach solution to clean everything every 1- 2 days. He has a heat pad under one side and paper bowls for hides, which we change with the substrate.
So far he is still very tilted but he does move on his own. He doesn't move a lot, though he never was a very active snake. He lets us tend to his cuts fairly easily. It's clear he is capable (not too weak to fight us) of resisting more, he just doesn't (maybe the drops feel good?)
I am emotionally a wreck about all this. Though I realize we tried hard to prevent any harm to him and we took him to a vet immediately, (I know many who wouldn't have bothered or wouldn't spend the money) I feel SO GUILTY.
I am absolutely dreading having to stick a needle in him later for his first home injection. (he flinched when the vet showed me how with the 1st doses) The vet assured us we could give him the injections safely at home and showed us how. He said if we REALLY wanted we could bring him in daily for his injections but I don't want to put him through any extra stress being transported and I have worked as a medical assistant so do know how to give injections (on people at least).
Every time I look at him I fear he's dead. I know we are trying to save his life, but I worry he'll die anyway and we just tortured him with needles for his last days. Also I feel so bad seeing him lay his head sideways all the time. I'm so afraid he'll never get better. I'm unsure whether he can see on his left side, I plan to ask the vet on follow-up. I just don't know if it IS permanent whether he'll be able to live a happy, healthy life? Even if he is permanently a special-needs snake we will still love him the same and keep him for his entire life (hopefully long), I just hope he'll be happy.
I wanted to ask for everyone's advice, is there anything we could possibly do/ give him that may help with nerve/ tissue/ possible brain damage?
Has anyone had a snake with a head injury react like this and recover?
Is there ANYTHING else we can be doing?
And for that matter if you can even just wish Cthulhu luck or pray for him if you pray.
And please, we do not want to just "put him down" in case he DOES pull through. If that IS you're best advice please give a very good reason why and try not to be harsh about it.
Thank you all so much and sorry about writing a whole novel but I am just so distraught about all this, and want it clear everything we have and are doing to make any advice more thorough.
Thanks again,
Nicole
The night before last we had a serious emergency with our hatchling corn snake, Cthulhu. Cthulhu was hatched late June/ early July of '10 so you have an idea of his age. My boyfriend and I are new to snakes but are trying very hard to do everything right.
About two weeks ago he managed to slip out of a small area where the mesh of his tank's lid had pulled away. We had somehow missed it. We immediately tore the house apart, blocked all under-door cracks, fixed the tank lid, and generally freaked out. We put out heating pads, a water dishes, and every 2 days a fresh F/T pinkie for a couple hours.
The night before last around 11 pm we heard our rat, Fink making a lot of noise in the bottom of his large wire cage. We checked on him and to our horror our tiny snake and nearly grown rat were fighting. I still do not know how he got in there, as we securely taped 2 1/2 feet of cardboard the whole way are the bottom of the cage specifically to prevent this.
We quickly pulled Cthulhu out and placed him on a heating pad. I thought he was going to die right then. He had two large gouges in his side where I could see his meat. He was bleeding from the left side of his head and his left eye was fixed downward. His head stayed tilted to the left as if he'd suffered a stroke. His mouth had blood in it. He was striking at the air repeatedly and gasping, clearly terrified. I held him and dabbed the blood away and tried to keep him warm.
Fighting back tears, I began calling every emergency animal hospital, 24 hour vet clinic or anywhere I could think of within 60 miles of me. Everyone said about the same thing, they don't know of anyone open so late who can help with a snake emergency and they wouldn't know how to help. A few tried, giving me number after number of places they thought might help. I stayed up until about 3am calling.
During this time our baby, though still grievously injured, had started to perk up and was slithering a bit but always on the left side of his head. His eye was no longer looking down though.
Finally I spoke to a vet's wife who advised me to put him somewhere safe, warm, and dark with a small shallow water dish and bring him to see a vet who specializes (her husband) first thing in the morning.
To our relief our baby made it through the night and the vet really seemed to know what he was doing. He told us the biggest 2 concerns are infection and possible brain damage. The rat had bitten the top of his head and inside his mouth at once, which is why he is tilted left-ward. He told us there is no way to tell how extensive the damage is, we'll just have to wait and see if he recovers. He likened it to being attacked by a grizzly bear, saying he's doing great to just still be alive, but not in good shape in the least.
He may just have suffered a concussion rather than permanent brain damage, the bite looks very minor, but it may be worse. He said if he is brain damaged, he may actually slowly recover from it, especially being young- but he may not. He also said after a few sheds ( we may have to peel the shed a bit around the scar tissue at first), his other wounds should almost totally disappear with little scarring since it was just the skin damaged.
The vet ordered us to use Gentamicin drops on his wounds 2x a day, followed by a tiny dab of neosporin on the open part ONLY to help prevent fluid loss. He warned not to get it on the healthy skin, as the oils can soften it. We also have to give him injections of Baytril daily for 10 days and 1 of Cefoxitin every 3 days for 12 days and return to see him once the injections are finished. He also said not to feed him for 10 days. We are keeping him in a large tupperware storage bin until he heals, with paper towels for substrate, which we change 2x day (probably once a day after the first week) and we use a 10/1 bleach solution to clean everything every 1- 2 days. He has a heat pad under one side and paper bowls for hides, which we change with the substrate.
So far he is still very tilted but he does move on his own. He doesn't move a lot, though he never was a very active snake. He lets us tend to his cuts fairly easily. It's clear he is capable (not too weak to fight us) of resisting more, he just doesn't (maybe the drops feel good?)
I am emotionally a wreck about all this. Though I realize we tried hard to prevent any harm to him and we took him to a vet immediately, (I know many who wouldn't have bothered or wouldn't spend the money) I feel SO GUILTY.
I am absolutely dreading having to stick a needle in him later for his first home injection. (he flinched when the vet showed me how with the 1st doses) The vet assured us we could give him the injections safely at home and showed us how. He said if we REALLY wanted we could bring him in daily for his injections but I don't want to put him through any extra stress being transported and I have worked as a medical assistant so do know how to give injections (on people at least).
Every time I look at him I fear he's dead. I know we are trying to save his life, but I worry he'll die anyway and we just tortured him with needles for his last days. Also I feel so bad seeing him lay his head sideways all the time. I'm so afraid he'll never get better. I'm unsure whether he can see on his left side, I plan to ask the vet on follow-up. I just don't know if it IS permanent whether he'll be able to live a happy, healthy life? Even if he is permanently a special-needs snake we will still love him the same and keep him for his entire life (hopefully long), I just hope he'll be happy.
I wanted to ask for everyone's advice, is there anything we could possibly do/ give him that may help with nerve/ tissue/ possible brain damage?
Has anyone had a snake with a head injury react like this and recover?
Is there ANYTHING else we can be doing?
And for that matter if you can even just wish Cthulhu luck or pray for him if you pray.
And please, we do not want to just "put him down" in case he DOES pull through. If that IS you're best advice please give a very good reason why and try not to be harsh about it.
Thank you all so much and sorry about writing a whole novel but I am just so distraught about all this, and want it clear everything we have and are doing to make any advice more thorough.
Thanks again,
Nicole