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Tails gone black.

MissyChild

MissyChild

Missy
I got my Albino Red Corn Snake in December, so he's still rather young. From the very first time that he shed, probably two or three weeks after we got him, he wouldn't shed the tip of his tail. I gave him warm bathes, and massaged it gently to try and help loosen it up. Well, last time he shed I noticed the tip of his tail started to get darker, so I spoke to one of our friends who used to own snakes. She said to massage lotion onto the tip of his tail, to try and help loosen it up, but the dead skin still wont come off. The tightness around the end has loosened up some, but over the past week his tail has gotten darker, and is slowly turning black. He no longer responds to it when you touch it, and he doesnt bend it at all. He used to curl his tail around my fingers and hold onto me, and even though he still does that, the tip is always left stiff.

My sister, who is attemping to become a vet, told me to use some sort of vegetable oil, or olive oil to massage into instead of lotion, but she doesn't know for sure since she hasn't studied snakes much.

Any ideas of whats going on, and how I can get the skin off his tail without hurting him? I'd appreciate it alot.
 
i read this method on another forum so i dont know if it will work but anything is worth a shot right?

find a pillowcase and soak it in warm water
then take the pillow case out of the water and put your snake in the pillowcase, the pillow case should then be tied at the top and you can either hang the pillow case somewhere or hold it up yourself. make sure your snake is moving inside the pillowcase by moving the case alittle bit or gently touching your snake from underneath to spark a movement, after about 10-15 min, open up the case and see if the tail shed came off or is loosening, if you feel its loosening you can try to get it off yourself or do the pillowcase method again.

Again i got this off another forum so you can wait for someone elses advice or try this, i dont see the harm in trying it though.
 
Unfortunatley it sounds like the tail tip has already died and in that case there is nothing you can do about it. He will drop it eventually but he will be perfectly fine :)
 
Black tissue is tissue that lacks oxygen. If tissue can't get oxygen it becomes necrotic (dead) tissue, and that is what has happened to your snake's tail. It sounds like you've done everything you can do, I'm my best suggestion is that if it isn't totally black already then I'd get to a vet asap. If it is black you can either go to a vet or you can just wait until the snake drops it like Elle said. Sorry to hear it happened man. Hopefully everything turns out alright for ya.
 
COLOR="Lime"]It's not completely black. It has small little patches on it that show color through, though they're getting darker each day. I want to take him to a vet, but there are no good vets for reptiles around here. The best vet for reptiles around here is one I used to work with, and he REALLY has no idea about them. So.. I'd vote against taking Twizler to him.
 
If it's just the tip of the tail it honestly isn't even worth going to a vet. The best thing you can do is every shed just make sure all the skin is coming off and nature will take care of that tip.
 
Oh, really? What part of Springfeild? I live in Fairfax. And, I don't know how to get the skin off without hurting him. This is the first snake I've owned, and I haven't had him for that long. I've been giving him warm baths and massaging lotion on it, but the skin still wont come off. The edge of it loosened up a little, so it's not cutting his circulation off, but it hasn't made the color improve at all.[COLOR]
 
*was born in fairfax*
Well you don't want to cause the snake more aggrivation by tugging at the skin needlessly. If soaking and constant gently rubbing with a terry cloth doesn't do it it's probally still just going to fall under the idea to just make sure all subsequent shed's come off, keep a good eye on the snake and just make sure everything else is good for it's health :)
 
Sorry, Missy, been busy today.
Dr. Hanna Siemering, Exotic Pet Clinic, 7297 Commerce St., Springfield, VA 22150
Ph: (703) 451-3414
I have personal experience with this vet, most impressed.
 
Ah. Thank you everyone for the advice. Other then the tail, he's in amazing health. He's shedding about every two weeks, and eats every three to four days. He just recently started to use his vines to, and the last shed was a full one, aside from the tip of his tail. But it was beautiful. He's a sweet boy. ^-^
 
No, I dont. My sister has my camera right now. She's going to bring it over the next time she comes by, but it is a pretty crappy camera. I'll try to get a decent picture of his tail.
 
Alrighty.. Sorry it took so long to get back on. I tried getting some pictures with the digital camera, but it's complete crap. It can't take decent pictures of small things. So, we tried to get a disposable camera, but the pictures didn't come out to well. They're blurry and a mess.

His tail has gotten alot worse though. The very tip of it is completely black, hard, stiff, and just dead. And, where I had managed to loosen the skin up, now has a scab that's making the white ring of his skin tighten more on his tail.

I've been giving him baths, and still messaging it with water every night.
 
I saw a post about incomplete shedding, where you put a towel down in the water for the snake to crawl around on, and my sister and I just tried it. It worked, for the most part. We got alot of the skin off, and its not longer contricting and cutting the circulation off, but where it had been, there is a red blood spot that circles around his tail, underneath the scales. Do we need to worry about that, what type of cleaning things can we use for it?
 
If you didn't get all the skin off, I'd keep repeating the treatment until you do. Maybe try once a day. I'd keep the snake on paper towels until the tip falls off, if it is going to. You could use triple antibiotic ointment on it.
 
Yeah. We were going to try it again tomorrow. We got most of it off, and we were still trying to get the rest off, but he started getting really aggravated, so we decided to let it rest of today just in case it was to sore. Thanks much. ^-^
 
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