Hi Lynne,
When it happened to me, I thought I had gotten it all off. But, when I put SneakySnake back in his tank, he was slithering across the bottom, with the last 2 inches of his tail sticking straight up in the air, (90° to the bottom of the tank). Looked really dumb, and wrong. So I got him back out to take another look, apparently in those couple of minutes, he had gotton it, "restarted", as soon as I got ahold of him, he slid right on through. Boy were we both proud and relieved. Good Luck.
P.S. Hold gentle, but a little snug.