Smashed her tail in the door??

[Floof]

Okay, so for the first time ever, I got careless when I went to put Mallie, my yearling anery girl, back in her tank! She has one of those Exo-Terra terrariums, with the swing-out doors. I put her back in her tank, with her tail dangling out, as usual, since there isn't a lot of room to put her completely in with the vines in the way. I got distracted while I was closing the door, and instead of waiting for her to get all the way in like I usually do, I looked away and closed it on her TAIL! Luckily, I figured out what was up before it got any worse-- she was struggling to pull her tail out, and I couldn't get the door all the way shut, so I opened it back up and figured out, hey, that wasn't a vine in the door, it was the snake! :awcrap:

I pulled her out immediately to take a closer look, and, thank GOD, it was past her vent, on her actual tail. It's about halfway between the vent and the tail, and it got smashed sideways (no idea how it ended up sideways...), so hopefully she doesn't have any smashed vertebra. There wasn't any broken skin, and she was just as active as usual (although in some pain, I'm sure), so I went ahead and put her back in her tank. I'm worried that I may have severed the spinal cord there (or whatever happens, I'm not good with anatomy), because her tail flopped around uselessly past the injury, whether she was the one moving, or I was shaking her tail (from the vent, of course, not the entire snake!).

Anyway, is there anything I can do for her until we get to the vet? Stupid me and stupid her ended up with this smash happening right about at 8 pm... Guess when the nearest exotics vet closes for the night?? Yep. Monday-Thursday, they close at 8 pm... They close at 6 on Fridays, though, so, with school, I won't be able to get her to the vet until Saturday unless I skip my last class or two. Is this going to end up being an emergency situation? I'm hoping not, since it was isolated to the tail, but it'd be nice to know what we're up against in advance...

Argh, I hate myself so much right now! I'm worried beyond belief, too... Thank you all in advance for whatever advice you can give me! :o

[Floof]

No one can help me here? :(

Turns out the vet only works on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so we're taking her in tomorrow... At the very least, she seems to be doing well.

[Lennycorn]

Since you said it is between the vent and the tip of the tail and no skin is broken. There is not much you can do besides keep an good eye on him. [I] would think you want to see movement pass the injured area and kinks. I not sure what a vet can do besides an x-ray. A few members here have made the same mistake and the snake urn out fine but..it take a while to heal.
I hope it gets well so.

[Lennycorn]

Oh yeah, a picture would help.

[Floof]

I thought there might not be a lot I could do, but, being pretty new to snakes (and their injuries), I wanted to ask and make sure...

She has been moving her tail minimally--she can still make the movement to wrap her tail around my arm/wrist, but she can't move it so much to wrap it around my finger or even hold on when she wraps it around my arm. She can hold it pretty straight, but when I move her, the tail flops randomly regardless of her trying to hold it straight.

I'm not sure if it'd be easily seen in a picture at this point--I probably should've taken a pic immediately after the fact, as it was extremely prominent then.. When I had checked on her 20-30 min after, her flesh had begun to bounce back enough that the injury had plumped back up almost halfway. Since she won't hold still long enough to get a pic of the remaining dent, I only have pictures of the scale damage. She seems to have a bruise (pictured first) and some "tearing" of the scales on the other side (last 2 pics). As I was photographing the wound, even, a torn scale came off...

She doesn't seem too bothered by the injury other than the mobility issues, though she definitely reacts when I touch the scale damage.

[TribalWolf77]

I'm no vet, but that doesn't look too bad. Just keep a real good eye on it.

I had a similar thing happen with our Snow, accidentally caught the tip of his tail in the lid to the feeding tank. It took 2 sheds for the injury to go away.

[Floof]

Trust me, it looked worse immediately afterwords... :) I'm not nearly as worried as I was the night it happened, but that's simply because it looks so much better a few days later. I'm still concerned, and the beardie is due for a vet visit anyway, so I'm still definitely getting it checked out still... My biggest worry was that she wouldn't really be able to move it at all! Thank goodness she can. :)

Good to hear your snow turned out fine... I'm probably overreacting, but, hey, she is and always will be my first and consequently favorite snake, but it may turn out to be worth it if this is worse than it looks... I've learned to let my gut get its way when it comes to the animals. -shrug-

[TribalWolf77]

We have a friend who's very experienced with treating sick and injured reptiles (he does rescues). He took a look and said it was just a few injured scales, and it would heal on it's own. I felt so awful, though.

Better to overreact than do nothing. Shows you care alot for the well being of your animals. Hope everything turns out well. :)

[Floof]

Thanks. :) I'll update after the vet appointment.. It isn't until 4:30 pm (about 9:40 am over here), though... -shrug-

[cornsnakeboy12]

Looks like it hurts :(

[Floof]

Yeah, that's part of why I'm so worried. I know something like that on any human--whether or not it was so minor--would just ache for DAYS! I'm glad she's not acting like it hurts, but I still try not to touch the injury unless she's the one wrapping her tail around my arm...

[Floof]

The vet agreed that there's nothing we can really do about it. She took a look at the tail, and, since she can still move it, deemed it wasn't serious. I'm extremely pleased with this vet, too! I was half-expecting someone who was only in it for the money, or who didn't even know anything much about snakes. She didn't charge us for looking at Mallie, even.

I'm happy that Mallie's alright, especially since I get to stuff a feeding tube down the beardie's throat once a day for the next couple months... It turns out he has MBD! A preexisting condition from his former life, of course, but I hate myself for not noticing a problem earlier... He's also malnourished, which really says something about his old owner, because that's even after fattening up since he got here! I hadn't realized that his condition was "emaciated" for a bearded dragon... That in itself is HUGELY weird for my household. The only other "underweight" animal we've ever had is the boston puppy, but it took him only a month to get up to weight, and with his bottomless appetite, he's the only reason the other dogs aren't FAT anymore! The vet told us to start feeding waxworms along with the norm to fatten the beardie up, as well as a calcium glubonate syrup once a day for two months... I hate myself for not seeing that it was such a big problem from the start!

[measley]

I'm glad the vet deemed Mallie ok and that there was no serious damage!

I'm sorry to hear about your beardie though. I hope he gets better soon, and keep your chin up, at least you caught it before it got too bad and he's on his way to recovery now.

[Floof]

Yes, I was so relieved to have a medical professional deem her healthy! =)

I'm sure the beardie will pull through no problem... He's already gotten the idea behind the tube, and he almost lets me slip the feeding tube into his mouth without holding it open! =D He's already more active than he was prior to the appointment, for that matter... :)