• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Snake injury... advice?

M

Madame

New member
My snake escaped, and of course, a cat found the poor baby before my boyfriend did...

When he picked her up she did a lot of flailing about as if she was regurging, when she finally closed her mouth her jaw seemed out of whack, that's back to normal now though. I noticed he had a blood clot on him but we're unsure if she gagged it up or if it's from the wound on her neck (about an inch down from her head; she's only a few months old, still tiny.) She also may lose the opposite eye (cat probably bit her, the wounds seem far enough apart to be cat teeth), and theres a few missing scales on her side a few inches down, and she'll probably lose the very tip of her tail too. She wasn't bleeding when we found her but a little swollen looking; the swelling has gone down though.

I put some ozonol on the wounds, she's in a deli cup with water and substrate (aspen). I've kept a close eye on her; it seems she drank some water (the substrate isn't wet around it so I hope that's what she did.) She's mostly relaxing but moved around a bit since, and a few minutes ago I watched her doing a lot of jaw stretches and "yawns".

For the record there are NO herp vets in my city, and I'd rather take an animal to a butcher for medical advice than the vets that are here. Never mind my financial situation atm...

Basically what I'd like to know is, of course, will she live? And, if she does, since today was supposed to be feeding day, how long should I wait to feed the poor girl after all this trauma, since most the damage is around her neck?

Thanks for any advice you guys can give!

I'll update in the morning.
 
Are the wounds deeps? Because I think neosporin is only good for scraps and such. But keep him warm and don't feed for a week or so.
I hope more help chimes in soon.
 
Use polysporin or something like that on the wounds. Use a papertowel substrate makes it easier to watch for waste, fresh blood or anything like that. I'd say leave her alone for a week or so and feed a smaller then normal food item(less then the biggest body width). Higher then normal temps while maintaing a gradient will help her battle any infection that might happen. (raise the temps by ~5degreesF)
 
Infection or internal injuries are your biggest problems. Cats bites are notoriously bad. If you are unable or unwilling to take it to a vet, the only thing you can do is what you're doing right now and hope for the best.
 
Well, she's still breathing, I don't see any blood on the aspen but I'll take the advice and put paper towels in.

It's actually Bactroban (not ozonol, my bad) that I used, its basically the same as polysporin.

I have to go to work now but I'll be home in about 7 hours, hopefully she'll still be OK till then.

Should I keep her in the deli cup for the week, or let her back in the viv? (The cup is in the viv, but you know what I mean.)

UPDATE:

I just changed to papertowel in her little cup, and as I was holding her to do so she seemed as energetic as usual, if a bit jumpy (but wouldn't you be?)

When I put her back into the cup I watched her drink water (spilling some too of course), she drank a lot! Afterwards she did a little "yawn." Is that normal for snakes to do after they drink, or is she having trouble swallowing? (I rarely catch her drinking...)

She's avoiding the wet but she's doing the typical nosing-about-for-an-escape, so I think she's ok. I'm really worried about her eye though, it's dented right in at the top, and also the cut on the opposite side of her neck, seems deep, and her neck is skinny so it wouldn't take much to pierce it... But she's breathing ok and drinking so hopefully it's not THAT deep.

Anyways, I'm late for work now!
 
The only thing you can do at this point is keep her clean, keep her warm (slightly warmer than normal...85 - 88 F) and minimize stress. Nature is very good at healing itself if given enough time. Good luck!
 
Snakes are very hardy too. She may have only damaged the eye cap which will shed off and repair itself. You'll need to be certain the eye cap comes off completely when she next sheds. Dry, clean paper towels in the viv will be fine. Resetting the jaw is not unusual so I wouldn't worry too much about that. She may have not gotten it all the way back into place after her attack and she's now out of shock enough to attend to it better.
 
Really weird, but she pooped!

I could have sworn she pooped already, like 2 or 3 days ago. She really didn't like going back in the deli cup, but I was cleaning her viv so that was too bad for her, and I guess it perturbed her so much she had to poop! (Is this a good thing?)

Anyways, there is nothing in her viv that was there before other than the water dish; I took out all the aspen and put down paper towels and made a couple small hides. She had a lot of stuff in there (rocks, branches, stuff like that) so the new decor seems to be bumming her out. But I don't think it would be good to have all that stuff in there, because it might irritate the wounds or infect them, I'd think. But at least she can roam a bit rather than being stuck in the cramped deli cup.

Am I doing the right thing?

Also, what should I look for in case it gets infected?
 
Sounds like you're doing what you can. Swelling would probably be the most obvious sign, lethargy and general unwellness. An abscess would be the most likely problem. Serious internal injuries would have already manifested themselves. If she's going to recover, she'll probably do so rather quickly. I've seen some pretty bad injuries resolve themselves rapidly in reptiles. After all, they are out crawling thru stickers, branches and predators in the wild. They are tougher than you think! Keep us updated!
 
Good luck and I hope your snake makes it! My snake got out of the cage for two weeks during this summer, but I was lucky enough to find Rose unharmed. It's too bad you weren't as lucky... Good luck once again!
 
Well when I was handling her today to put the stuff on her wounds, she seems to be doing much better. She's a bit skiddish but that's understandable.

I think she'll do ok... I'm just so paranoid of infection!

How long should I be putting the polysporin on for? I do it every morning but I mean, for a week, two weeks?

Thanks everyone for your advice!

Also, I heard that I should feed her more often while she tries to heal. I think I'll feed her Friday rather than waiting a whole week but only half a pinky. Then what? I'm so confused...
 
If I were you, and this is only my advise, others may disagree, but I would give her a vitamin dose about every other feed for a few weeks just to help her get a jump start. She will use alot of energy to bounce back from that attack and a vitamin supplement, I think, would be a good thing to give her to help her bounce back. Also, the eye wound should heal if it isn't too deep because snakes have less sensitive eyes than we do. They can take numerous accidental pokes and jabs without resulting in permanent injury. Hope all gets well, Nathan
 
You can try getting some Nutribac from Kathy Love's site. It's a good powder that should help also.
 
Good luck, and well, I'm sure she'll be fine! My snake was badly injured by my cat and he recovered just fine. His battle scar goes away with every shed. :grin01:
 
She pooped again, and there were DEFINITE cat hairs in it.

HA!

No wonder the cat has been jumpy, too! I thought she was that way because she could smell my fury.
 
Use the polysporin until the wound(s) look fairly healed over. More frequent feedings of smaller prey items sounds like a good idea.
 
It sounds like your snake is getting better. Good!
Keep us posted A picture would be nice too.
Take care.
 
I'd take a pic but my memory card for my digital has gone awol. Probably went flying when I was tearing my room apart trying to find the snake!

The biggest wound seems to be healing up for the most part but theres a little chunk still hanging there, it'll probably die and fall off if its anything like human skin. The two minor cuts are doing fine I guess, I'll be taking a look again in a few mins but as of yesterday morning they looked ok.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top