injury

[silversadness]

my corn snake is about 6 weeks old. yesterday she hid in a small space inside a ceramic sculpture i had placed in her tank. when i found her there, i thought she just didn't want to come out, but apparently she was stuck. today she has a large scrape on her side, near the head, which i assume is from forcing her way out. she seems to be acting normally and it doesn't look like there was any bleeding, but it looks quite painful. on the advice of a friend, i have thoroughly cleaned the tank, replaced the reptile bark substrate with softer newsprint and paper towels, and cleaned the wound with a small amount of hydrogen peroxide on a q-tip. of course, i also made the ceramic trap inaccessible. i feel so bad for my little snake, and i'd really appreciate any advice for helping her to heal. also, if anyone has experience with this kind of injury, i'd like to know how long it might take to fully heal and if there is likely to be any permanent scarring. thank you.

[Taceas]

It sounds like you've done everything anyone could have suggested, already.

You removed the bedding and placed the snake on newspaper and papertowel, cleaned the tank, corrected the problem with the ceramic piece, and cleaned the wound.

However I would suggest an iodine based antiseptic or Neosporin next time, rather than hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide can actually slow down healing time by killing the good bacteria and healthy cells alongside the bad things. Most minor scrapes can just be left alone to scab over, Nature's Bandaid, and heal. It'll take a few sheds for it to go back to normal.

A couple of my snakes have had skin trauma and they ended up with an area of grey scales where the scrape was. I'm guessing by a loss of the melanin producing cells. But regardless, they've healed up fine with no apparent continuing problem.

Considering the wound being as close to the head/neck area, as you say, I would hold off on feeding it for the next feeding day just to give that area time to heal up. I can imagine it would be painful to have to swallow and the scab being ripped to stretch over a meal.

Then for that next meal you do offer, I'd offer it a smaller meal item than it was eating prior to the injury just to lessen the chance of further stress on the wound. Then go back to the original food size when the area has lost the scab.

Best of luck to it healing fine. =)

[silversadness]

she seems to be healing nicely. thank you.