My snake is injured. Help?

Question

I left a rat in my snakes cage with him over night, i figured he would eat him, because he didn't eat the last time i tried feeding him, and he has shed since then and generally he eats right after he sheds. But this rat chewed the end of his tail off pretty bad, i felt terrible, i took the rat out of there as soon as I noticed. I know some animals can regrow body parts, especially reptiles. Should I take him to the vet, or will this heal? Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Clean the wound with mild soap & warm water then apply some antibacterial ointment. Cover the wound with "Liquid Skin" which you can buy at most drug stores or you can even use Instant Glue to close the wound, just be careful not to stick your fingers to the snake's scales. The wound remains clean & the Liquid Skin/Instant Glue keeps the wound closed until it heals from the inside out. It wears away in about 5-7 days.

Answer 2

Yeah, you need to take if to a vet. And you need to be careful with those rats, They can kill a snake.

Answer 3

Take him to the vet right away. He will need to be examined and  a shot of antibiotics.

I am sorry you have learned the hard way, but this is the very reason why so many people advocate feeding pre-killed or frozen thawed, myself included. And if a live moving animal is all that it will eat, never leave it unsupervised.

Answer 4

take the snake to the vet. That is why you should never leave live prey in with any snake over night or when you cannot keep an eye on it.

Answer 5

You should take him to the vet...best thing to do for him now.

And this is way you should NEVER feed your snake live rats or mice........

Have you tried switching him to frozen/thawed? It would help a lot on the vet bills too.

Answer 6

The tail will not regenerate.  You need to take it to a vet that specializes in exotics, and have it treated.  It may need stitches, and will most likely need antibiotics.  The sooner you get it to the vet, the less likely the infection is to spread.

Answer 7

Things like that happen often when you feel live food.

If you can get him to take to it (a lot dont once theyre used to live) try and get him to eat defrosted food.

How bad is the injury??? i once had a snake that had a scar on the end of its tail that looked like a small claw. He'd had the end bitten off at some point before i got him.

If its not bleeding and theres no tissue hanging off then it should heal ok by itself. If it is, there are things you can do to disinfect the wound. Have a look at this post, seems to be what might help.

http://www.mombu.com/reptiles/boas/t-dys...

Ive never tried this myself however as i've never had a wounded reptile.

If in doubt call your nearest zoo and ask if you can speak with one of the herpitologists. They should be willing to give advice. failing that, find a vet that deals with reptiles. I found it very hard to find one here in the UK.

Hope he gets better soon!