Small Burn

Had a panic attack today because I couldn't find Rapunzel in her viv when it was feeding time. As I searched her viv my horrors were confirmed. Somehow she managed to get herself under her tile and up against her UTH. I haven't seen her for a couple days and when I put her bakc into the tank after her feeding she drank quite a bit. I'm worried she crawled under there two days ago and got severely dehydrated and then also got a small burn on her head. It's sensitive to the touch but it looks as if it's already scabbed and began to heal over. I feel absolutley awful and I"m searching for something to jam up in the hole she crawled into, but my question is will this heal over fully once she sheds? She looked like she was getting ready to enter a shed cycle soon when I had her out three days ago but when I got her out she wasn't in blue yet. Sorry that I'm rambling but I really panicked when I found her under there and then seeing the burn on her broke my heart. What is the advice on treating a burn that anybody can give me.

Also I think the reason she stayed there is she couldn't get back out without coming across the UTH and she was afraid to get near it. Will she still try and get down inside there again or will she stay away next time if she finds a way to get inside the UTH space again?

Maybe an UTH isn't a good idea? Maybe some heat tape like FlexWatt under the tank would be a better idea?

If it's an actual burn you really don't want to put anything on it. At least for humans ointments make it hurt worse. Is the bottom side of the tile rough? Could it be more a scrape like road rash?

You could hot glue a dowel or something in front of the tile so she can't get back under again.

Hmm that is possible Alicia I didn't think about that because I'd think a burn would be more serious than what this looks like and the tile is rough so thats very distinct possibility. I'll keep an eye on it and hopefully she'll be okay, she's moving about like she normally would and having no trouble and thanks the dowel idea is perfect I was trying to find something small enough to take care of it but was having no luck.

Found how she was getting under her tile and put a stop to it. For now I used some slats of cardboard and hopefully tomorrow I can get a dowel and get it sealed down. Looks like her head is definitely from rubbing afterall and not a burn.

Also will she scar there now and lose her head patterning? It looks like a couple of her scales got rubbed off trying to get into the hole now that I've seen it better this morning.

Found her under the tile again so I've turned off the UTH until I can get the dowels placed.

With this heat you might not need to turn the UTH back on! lol

Glad to hear the problem is solve.

Why is the UTH hot enough to burn her? The UTH is outside of the viv, right? Why don't you have a tile that is flat that she can't get under?

I don't think the snake got burnt. Damage was done to the top of the head (scrape) not the belly, from the way I read it.

Yeah that's the way Alicia described it to. The thing about my set up though is that the UTH is attached to a tile which is then slightly raised off the floor so she can crawl under the tile which has the UTH attached to it. That's why I was assuming it as burn. However seeing burns and seeing her injury I feel its a scrape now not a burn.

Nanci, the way the stack is built the tile is raised up off the floor so pressure is not placed on the UTH so malfunctions won't occur and it'll overheat. When I was designing the tank I had thought of this layout to avoid damage to my UTH which could harm them. I had measured the small gap that was from the tile to the wall to allow the wires to exit out the back of the viv and I thought I had the space small enough that she couldn't get under the tile. I've used wooden dowels to glue down and block the remaining space so she can no longer get under the tile.

Let me clarify by them I meant my corns not their UTHs just in case that statement made me sound more concerned on cost than my snakes safety and health.

Oh and also the way I worded about the UTH's I did not on purpose leave the gap so they can have access below the UTH as that would be extremely dangerous. The tank and heating set up was built in a way that access to direct UTH contact could never happen. Obviously though I had misjudged the size of a hole a yearling corn can squeeze itself into. I didn't mean for that to come out sounding as such when I said she "could" crawl inside the space. I'm still really upset over it and now looking back I see that the designing was a flaw on my part that I should have corrected in the first place.

It's inside the viv?

I'll take a photo and post it, I think that would make it easier to understand.

Here is the DIY thread for the viv stack in question http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130380 Perhaps it will help visualize

Here is a photo of one of the currently empty viv's in my viv stack. You can see the black wiring cap in the back where the probe and UTH cords run in. The UTH is then ran under the tile and adhered to the bottom of the tile. I made sure the tile was at least 1/4" thick so the weight would not present a problem once they were full grown and could push things around a little more. I wanted to make sure the tile could not be lifted up and crawled under. The tile is then raised 3/4 of an inch off the ground and "blocked" in by wooden legs that were glued down. The probe is then glued down to the tile so an accurate reading can be constantly read by the thermostat so it never heats up higher than it needs to be. The UTH is closed in and as I saw it no direct contact could ever occur to cause an incident where Rapunzel or any of my other snakes could get burned while inside their viv. The problem ended up being in the very back where there was a small 1/8-1/4" gap so the wires could run out the back smoothly without being bent. Rapunzel is and was when I moved her in about 3/4" wide at her widest section so it didn't occur to me that she could squeeze her body into so small of a gap. Lo and behold after not seeing her for two days and knowing she wasn't ready to go into shed I looked around the cage and looked under the tile as a last resort before facing the fact that she had somehow escaped her viv. Earlier today I bought birch dowel rods cut them down to size and glued them in to block up the last gap. I would have taken photos of this as well but I was in a hurry to get her back to some normalcy in her viv. She's not exactly happy about her new hideaway being removed but she's safe and that's what matters.

Thanks for linking it Alicia I didn't remember if I had a good photo of the tile set up in my DIY thread so I just took a new one to be safe.