Corn snake? Corn STUCK!

[Delightedly]

Longtime reader, first time poster...

This morning I went to check on my little one (Valentine) and found a horrible sight.. His hygrometer with its Super Strong Adhesive was stuck to him! He was wrapped around it and super freaked, (You could barely see his pupils). It took me an hour, half a bottle of soap, and lots of tears to get him free. He doesn't look any worse for the wear, and isn't acting like he's had a traumatic event, but i'm still worried.... particularly for his next shed. He lost the outer layer of some scales on the adhesive before I got to him (He might have been thrashing around all night for all I know). I can't tell that they're gone when I look at him, but they're visible on the back of the evil hygrometer.



I.... don't know what else to do, or what to expect.
He's my handsome baby. I've seen him through only one shed before (which was a bad shed, and got solved by a bath and the washcloth-in-the-viv trick.) I don't know what to expect from the next one, as he's lost the outer layer of some of those scales already.

[Nanci]

I might put a very thin layer of triple antibiotic on the injured scales. When is he due to shed again? Sequential sheds can repair very bad skin damage, I would be surprised if your little guy wasn't all back to normal in one shed, or two at the most.

[Delightedly]

That's quite a relief.

I'm not sure when his next shed is, though. He's very young (I don't have a scale available, but he's only eating one pinky at this point) and i've only seen him through one shed. That was about two weeks ago. His eyes are perfectly clear at the moment.

Will his next shed be a complete one, because he lost skin in this incident?

[Nanci]

He's probably going to shed about every 30 days or so. I would expect his next shed to be complete, but I'd give him extra care when he's blue- make sure he has a moist hide, maybe mist every few days, cover the top of his viv loosely with plastic wrap just to give him every chance of having a complete shed. And when he sheds, examine him and the shed immediately to make sure it's complete. If not, it's easy to get the rest off by soaking- just ask if you need to.

[hartsock]

I hate those double sided sticky things. I have a few but I had a baby boa (first snake) knock one off and got stuck to him. Thankfully, it was that big of a deal. What I went to on most of my tanks is a digital one that you can get from wal-mart in their hardware section. It is all white and has the temp and humidity level in digital. it has a clip on the back but I don't use that, the back of the clip has a magnet. So on the tanks, I stick it where I want it and place a small magnet on the outside of the tank and presto, it's in place. I did find that unless I wanted to pick up magents every morning, afternoon, and evening, that I needed a stronger one on the outside, and I also lowered where I keep them in the tanks so there wasn't a falling injury if they gave loose while a snake was on it. After all, the main concerns for temps and humidity is near the bottom of the tank anyway. I think your little guy will be just fine if you follow Nanci's advice. Good luck! :)

[Delightedly]

I examined him, and yeah, some of hte scales are pretty torn and twisted, and he Reallllly doesn't like them to be touched, so I switched out his aspen to paper towel and put triple antibiotic cream on his hurty bits.



I really appreciate the help. Valentine is my first snake (I have a gorgeous Uro, however) and although i've done a disturbingly large amount of research, there's always little things that come up, i've found.



Should I give him extra time before I feed him again incase the stress makes him regurge? (I only worry because my second and fourth feeding of him... he did. He and I followed Kathy Love's plan, and he's all better now. Three feeds since 'gurging.)

Should I avoid baths? He really seems to like the exercise, and it helps him not go to the bathroom on people, i've found.

And is there anything I can do to keep him from sitting on the bottom of the viv (on glass) because he misses his aspen that he can burrow in?

[Delightedly]

I hate those double sided sticky things. I have a few but I had a baby boa (first snake) knock one off and got stuck to him. Thankfully, it was that big of a deal. What I went to on most of my tanks is a digital one that you can get from wal-mart in their hardware section. It is all white and has the temp and humidity level in digital. it has a clip on the back but I don't use that, the back of the clip has a magnet. So on the tanks, I stick it where I want it and place a small magnet on the outside of the tank and presto, it's in place. I did find that unless I wanted to pick up magents every morning, afternoon, and evening, that I needed a stronger one on the outside, and I also lowered where I keep them in the tanks so there wasn't a falling injury if they gave loose while a snake was on it. After all, the main concerns for temps and humidity is near the bottom of the tank anyway. I think your little guy will be just fine if you follow Nanci's advice. Good luck! :)
I'm going to have to get some digital ones. There will be no sticky things going in ANY of my reptile's cages Ever Again. This was just too horrible. I really thought valentine was going to lose his actual skin. Those things have really strong adhesive, and the only solvent I have is too strong of a chemical, i think.... so I freaked for a few seconds, burst in to tears, and went and got some soap, some water, tweezers, and started helping him get loose... worst bit was that his head was all stuck. I was worried he'd lose an eye, but luckily his eyes ended up not stuck, just other things.




I'm starting to think it might have been more traumatic for me that it was for him. ;) ;)

[ShroomieGirl]

poor thing to both of you!

That would be scary- I probably would have been tempted to take em to the emergency vet!

Im glad youre both alright and just make sure to put the antibiotic ointment on it

[Maize411]

Poor little guy..I'm glad he came out of it okay...keep us posted on how he is.. :0(

[wade]

I think you have done all the right things. If he is missing burrowing in the aspen, make sure he has plenty of hiding places instead. Wad up newspaper and let him burrow through that. I think keeping everything clean of foreign objects right now is really important.

I would skip the baths for a week or so. Getting the injured areas wet is probably not a good idea. You might also give him a little time without handling as well.

I think everything will be fine. It may take more than one shed to completely remove any signs of the trauma but it will go away.

[Delightedly]

Poor little guy..I'm glad he came out of it okay...keep us posted on how he is.. :0(
I'll be absolutely sure to. I'll post some pictures of him being cute as soon as he recovers enough for some handling, although he isn't anything that impressive. A Miami Phase Okeetee as far as I know. I think he's Goooorgeous.
I think you have done all the right things. If he is missing burrowing in the aspen, make sure he has plenty of hiding places instead. Wad up newspaper and let him burrow through that. I think keeping everything clean of foreign objects right now is really important.

I would skip the baths for a week or so. Getting the injured areas wet is probably not a good idea. You might also give him a little time without handling as well.

I think everything will be fine. It may take more than one shed to completely remove any signs of the trauma but it will go away.

I'll be sure to get him lots of extra hiding places. I left his silly margarin container with a square cut in it in there, and his grapevine. (The margarin container is a funny story. No matter what other hiding places I give him, he always picks that container over anything, and seems to react badly when I take it away. It looks silly and hideous, but he loves it, so what can I do. :shrugs: :)

I swear, i'll stop asking questions and rambling in a minute ;) but I was wondering if I should delay his next feeding, or find a really small pinky because of stress?

[wade]

I would go ahead and feed as normal. If he doesn't feel up to it he won't eat. no harm done.

[Delightedly]

I would go ahead and feed as normal. If he doesn't feel up to it he won't eat. no harm done.

Alrighty. Thank you. I really appreciate all this help. I don't know what i'd do without the internet for things like these. I don't know a single person IRL who owns snakes, and some of these things seem to be all best learned from experience.

I can't begin to express my appreciation.

[Mr.AJ]

When i had chompy on paper to get rid of his mites, I tore up some pieces of newspaper and put them in a small box with a hole cut out at one end and he loved burrowing around in that.

[Delightedly]

Today I couldn't resist checking on him, because he's been under the paper towels allllll day. Zero Movement. Upon peeking in i found him not even noticing that the paper towels had been lifted. Worried for a moment, I poked him. He ignored me. I got really worried and wiggled him a little. That got his attention!!! Not dead after all. XD Trickster!



When i had chompy on paper to get rid of his mites, I tore up some pieces of newspaper and put them in a small box with a hole cut out at one end and he loved burrowing around in that.

I'm absolutely trying that.

[rolandslf]

To be honest, I have to admit that I have not read every reply to your thread
but Olive oil works wonders, from getting snakes unstuck, to helping with a difficult shed, to even helping with a bowel movement.
I keep a small bottle of this amazing remedy in my snake medicine kit.

Just a thought.

Ciao

[Delightedly]

Update: most of the scale damage is gone, now. There are still some issues, and I hope in a few sheds they'll be gone too. His neck is still a little weird. When he turns his head the skin creases in weird ways...

Most scales that were damaged are all now facing the same way, too, which is quite a relief.

I'll post pics soon. :)

[diamondlil]

I want to see his tub hide! (Our leo is the same with her maggot tub. I got a tub of maggots to hatch into flies for the treefrogs, and used the tub as a wet hide for Blossom. She's too big for it now but still curls inside it!)