I had been doing my morning care today, and saw one of my snakes wasn’t in his enclosure.(he escaped from a small hole at the top of his enclosure.) Ended up finding him in my crate storage shelvings. He was extremely stuck and lost a lot of scales. I ended up getting him out, but he has bruises and a lot of redness. I have no idea how long he was stuck. I’m headed to the vet soon, any advice?
Just wait to see what the vet says. They’ll probably provide an ointment to put on him for 7 - 10 days. It’s not super bad, and could have been a lot worse.
makes me feel a little bit better about the situation, thank u!!
Poor baby. Glad you were able to get them out as safely as you did.
I agree with Anna. The vet will know best.
The ointment they may prescribe will be for any secondary issues that can pop up as well. Sometimes they will get some fluid buildup under the damaged areas and they can make small wounds when the skin breaks like a blister. The ointment will help keep any secondary infection that can happen under control.
I hope this is an issue where the wound looks worse than it is because your baby is a pale color. I had an albino retic get stuck from a vent in her enclosure a few months ago and thankfully she healed up well too aside from 2 or 3 spots where she got that friction blister sort of thing that took a bit longer.
Poor thing!
You’ll most likely be provided an antibiotic by the vet to make sure the injured area doesn’t become infected, I’d definitely keep close attention to the areas that scales were lost.
If you have access to betadine I’d use a diluted solution (in water) of it and soak a cotton ball with it and rub the area down. It might be able to prevent futher bacterial contamination and subsequently an infection until you see a vet. Just keep in mind that its a temporary fix and your BP definitely still needs to see a vet in case there is any internal injury.
Keep the area dry and if you can, put the BP into a temporary enclosure with just paper towels so you can monitor the injury and have something simple to avoid making the wound worse.
As someone who has had a snake get stuck, there are a few things you’re going to want to look out for. Your vet should do x-rays to check for anything broken, and honestly I’d say this might require injectable vs topical antibiotics, due to the possibility of secondary infection, but the vet will know best on exam.
Long term you’re going to want to keep a close eye out for any changes in the injured area or behavior of the animal. Based on the location of where he was stuck, pay close attention for any breathing changes since he may not have been able to properly expand his lungs. I’d even suggest feeding smaller meals for a bit in case of any bruising or damage to the esophagus. Make sure he’s well hydrated, too, muscle damage can produce toxins that affect the kidneys. Otherwise it’s just a lot of watching and waiting, hopefully he’s not too worse for wear and heals up without issue.
Ooh! That looks painful. I bet he’s probably going to be sore! Poor guy!