Sad Accident. Advice?

Originally Posted by Gintha

I shut poor Hunter's tail in the lid of his ziploc feeding tub, it was kinked for 3 or 4 days and I was SO worried about him! I also had one of those glue on thermomiters on the inside of his tank and he managed to glue himself to it

Man your snake sounds as accident prone as me! Lucky for me I only manage to step on cats (an in the instance yesterday break my own toe )

I'm hoping for you Dean it's only swelling. Best wishes!

Wow, missed this thread till now. Sorry to hear you had such a thing happen, Dean. Like everyone else, I will add to the..... It wasn't intentional so don't beat yourself up too much over it..... remarks you have been getting. While it was definitely an extremely unfortunate accident, it was just that, an accident.

Anyone who has owned any number of snakes will be able to tell you that they have made costly mistakes or accidents at times. And I use the word costly not in the money sense but in the "life" sense. I have accidentally killed or hurt a couple in my dealings and, although it bothered me horribly (Terri can attest to one incident in which I was ready to get rid of all my crew I was so terribly upset with my stupid mistake), I have to regretably say that I know that it is inevitable that sometime, someway, a mistake will happen again. This may be your first such accident but if you continue in this hobby, I would venture to say it won't be your last. We are not working with dogs or cats here, with animals that are domesticated and pretty much do as we expect them to. These guys are going to try to get free at all costs, they are going to get themselves into situations, such as you experienced, when we don't expect it, and we are not going to be able to forsee all the possible accidents that can happen. AND it is inevitable that when we find we have to multitask that the chances of things happening rises. This is not said to excuse what happened/happens but to try and put a logical prospective on it.

I don't want anyone to get me wrong......I am NOT trying to say that when things happen we should brush it off and think, 'oh, well, it's going to happen sooner or later', but that after we suitably "beat ourselves up over it" that we also understand that we are human and we are going to make mistakes and that these mistakes are much easier to make with a species of animal that would rather not be in contact with humans and have no social tendencies. I am also NOT saying that we should ever take these incidences with an indifferent attitude, never. Our care should always be with the best health of our snakes in mind. I guess what I am trying to say is that you did the right thing, you came to a place where people would listen and understand and help you through the trauma of the event, and also, that if you stay with this hobby be prepared for more heartache as well as the joy of it.

I hope that the little guy ends up ok, even if it means having a tilted head all the rest of its life. Hey, he just might be your most endeared snake after all is said and done and get special status treatment...lol....not a bad trade off for him, hey?

Well hopefully with all these stories being posted, we'll all learn the lesson of not getting complacent. I'm sure I'll spend extra time making sure no one is snapped in a door or lid, and I'll certainly never have any tape anywhere near my snake. And Dean.....for extra protection, you can always wear a cup with those sweats......

Dean, this is the Cornsnake Police. You must forfeit all of your snakes at once, to me.

I will PM with the address later.

Oh puleeezzzzeee Joe!! We know you have psychiatric problems that has led to your placement in a rubber room on more than one occasion! I think they should all go to me....uh, could you send the rack too.....I'd need something to put the babies in......

Originally Posted by Joejr14

Dean, this is the Cornsnake Police. You must forfeit all of your snakes at once, to me.

I will PM with the address later.

Originally Posted by MegF.

Oh puleeezzzzeee Joe!! We know you have psychiatric problems that has led to your placement in a rubber room on more than one occasion! I think they should all go to me....uh, could you send the rack too.....I'd need something to put the babies in......

Thanks for your support. We'll work out the details later.

Just caught this thread, and I hope your little Bill continues to do well. As a fairly new snake owner, I am also paranoid. If an accident like that can happen to someone who has the experience and commitment to your animals that you do, it can happen to any of us.

The funny thing is that, before I went to the herp show to get my first corn snakes, I actually went to a local pet store to 'test handle' a hatchling! I was terrified that I would either grab it too hard, or let the little thing slither right out of my hand and fall to the floor! I passed the test, and was so captivated by the one little hatchling that insisted on crawling back up my arm when I went to put him back, that I bought him, over-priced little amel that he was. He's still probably my favorite, friendliest snake.

You're one of my heros, so keep your head up. Things just happen sometimes.

Dean,

I have read only the first page of this thread. I want to give you a story that happend at my place. I was feeding two Butters that where pretty weak feeders. They where close to a year old. These two snakes where housed together. After feeding they where placed back in their enclosure. These two snakes lived in the same cage. After I had locked the cage I noticed the male zooming in on the female as if she was a mouse. And wham, he grabbed her and started to constrict her. Before I had the key of the lock and opened the cage and had him to let go we where a few minutes futher in time. The female felt limb and hardly moved. I thought I had lost her. I placed her alone and she started to move after a few hours.. Ever since then when I handled her she acted really weird. Like crawling backwards and twisting her head. But she continued to feed. And at age two she was 300 grams and she laid 8 fertile eggs after I had placed her with the male. I think snakes are quite hardy animals. Especially corns. I really hope your Blizzard will be as though as my female Butter.

Happy too hear he's doing ok. Should be fine.

Here's my story. So I get my first corn and put him in his 5 story viv. He escaped 2 times. So I build him an inescapable viv out of a melamine side table. The little bugger was pushing on a seam and found out the melamine was hollow. Well I get home from work and find his whole head stuck in the wall of his viv.(this was at the top of the viv so he was hanging) I picked a little piece of melamine away and his head popped out. Where his neck meets his head there was a cut right through the skin(from rubbing on the edge of the melamine) you could see red muscle or somesort of inside in the cut. Also the top of his head was pointing straight and the bottom was on a 90 degree angle. Head looked live a "v". When he got out he started twisting in circles.( trying to snap his mouth back in place). So I put papertowel for a substrate and put polysporin on his cut everyday. He popped his mouth back and today he only has a little scar under his chin.

Sorry this is so long but its not the end.....

I was so mad at myself and didn't find this site yet that I put duct tape on every sharp edge in his viv. Well...
The next day I find him hanging again, with his whole body stuck to the tape. For the second time I think he's dead. Not the case. I put on oven mitts and so gently got him off the tape. This was three years ago.

Needless to say he is fine. He pulled through and he's my favorite, calmest snake I have.
Sorry this was so long.........

Best of luck

Hey Dean-
How's Bill? Hope he's doing better!