Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Thanks to everyone for their helpful and supportive replies to my earlier post.
I learned a lot from the replies and by searching the archive for similar posts.
I took her to the Vet a couple days after my original post (almost 2 weeks ago).
My regular Herp Vet wouldn't see her because she is a wild snake.
I couldn't get past the receptionist on the phone.
After some pleading and a sad story, I convinced my dog's Vet to see the snake.
He doesn't normally treat herps, but was willing to help.
The vet gave her Silvadene cream and a series of 5 antibiotic injections (2 left to go)
Her burns and cuts have started to heal and it looks like she is getting ready to shed.
Her eyes and much of her lesser burned skin turned a milky blue 2 days ago.
Today her eyes started to turn clear again.
I hope she will start to shed in the next few days.
I am still soaking her each day. I see her drink her bath water each time when she starts to soak.
I add a few drops of Reptile Vitamins to her bath every other day.
I hope the baths will keep her hydrated and help with the coming shed.
After the bath she gets wiped down with diluted Chlorhexidine and then smeared with the Silvadene cream
I offered her a fuzzy last week, but she was not very interested.
I will try again after she sheds.

How does shedding work with injured or burned snakes? I imagine this will be a difficult shed for her?

The tip of her tail is beginning to heel, but it looks like bone is exposed at the end, will the bone slough off if it doesn't heel over?

How long is it safe for a snake to go without eating after they come out of brumation?

There are some pictures below, she was in blue so the color is a little off.
The white spot on her side is the large puncture, with a lot of Silvadene cream on it.

Thanks again,
Tom

It sounds like Smokey's having some great progress. I find it a little silly that your herp vet didn't want to see a "wild" herp, maybe out of fear that you'd bring something venemous? Who knows...

She may have some difficulty shedding over the burn spots, herps usually have a little bit of difficulty even shedding over scars. When she sheds her body piece, check both the shed skin and the corresponding parts of her body where the missing chunks are. If it looks like they can be gently teased off, that's good, but a bit of water-based lube like KY Jelly can help soften up any stubborn shed. A warm water soak would also help remedy any stuck shed.

If the tail tip looks like it's healing, then it's probably still alive. If it was necrotic (dead tissue), then the whole portion would probably just dry up and fall off. If it looks like it's healing, then the bone may likely be re-covered by new skin. I've never personally seen how snakes scar up over this type of trauma.

About eating after brumation, I'm not too sure. I believe racers have a faster metabolism than other groups like the boas and pythons, but not so fast as other colubrids like garters. Someone else more experienced with rodent-eating colubrids will have to answer that one. Try to rate her body condition- can you easily feel the vertebrae of the spine? Does the body feel nice and round, or can you really feel the pits where the groups of muscles meet? If she's very thin, I'd be more concerned about getting some food in her, but from the photos she looks decently fleshed out (although photos can be misleading).

Also, out of curiosity, what's the antibiotic you were prescribed?

Good luck,
Christina
www.herptiles.net

A slight variation to your regime, is called "hydrotherapy". Flushing water (syringe, from a tap, hose, or basin), over the wounds for a good 5 minutes helps to softly debride the dying tissue. Adding your chlorhexidine to the latter part of this flush, will help kill any leftover pathogens, then another rinse, allows the silvedine cream to come right into contact with the wound and aid in healing.

At this moment I wouldn't be worried about feeding if as herptiles said, the animal is in good body condition (it appears to be from the photos). Keep humidity up around 80-100% these next few days until the shed, and the skin should still come off around the wounds. If there is a patch remaining over a wound, don't worry about it coming off, it'll happen when it's ready (usually during the hydrotherapy mentioned above).

A lucky racer for sure

Ian

Smokey started to shed last night while taking her bath.
She scrapped loose the old skin starting at her nose and then started to panic.
I imagine she was worried about drowning all tied up in the old skin.
I wasn't sure what to do, so I held the old skin as she wriggled out.
Everything seemed to go really well until she got to the first deep burns
Dead scales and scabs started sloughing off with the old skin.
This left exposed pink areas that were basically see through.
The tissue looked clean and healthy, but I could see the muscles/tissue underneath.
There was only one small spot that bled, and it only bled a little.
It looked like there was a thin clear membrane covering each of the exposed wounds
I continued to help her shed, trying my best to leave the old skin alone on her wounds.
Despite my best efforts, most of the scabs and dead scales still came off with the old skin.
I was freaked-out to say the least.
I left the end of her tail alone, rinsed her off and covered the exposed wounds with Silverdine.
When I checked on her this morning the exposed wounds started to dry up and scab.
They looked a lot less frightening than last night.
She seems to be more alert, and tried to bite me for the first time since I brought her home.
I can definitely understand why, I apologized to her throughout the whole shedding ordeal.

Is this normal? Or healthy ? Liam mentioned continued sloughing in an earlier reply, but I didn't expect it to be like this.
Did I do something wrong?

Will the scales grow back to cover the wounds?
If not, will the scars darken up to match her regular background color?

Should I modify my routine because of the exposed wounds?
Should I let her scab over for a day or two before soaking/bathing her again?

Should I bring her back to the vet? Should I ask the vet to prolong the series of antibiotics? (she has 1 shot left to go)

Please help, I thought she was getting better, but now I am worried

I will follow up with pictures as soon as I can.

Thanks,
Tom

This sounds perfectly normal, albiet, not a nice thing.

Cleanliness is of utmost importance during this time, so adjust your routine with this in mind.

As per the antibiotics, give the vet a call, let him know the wounds are still a long ways from healed, and see if he thinks further antibiotics are necessary.

The wounds, and then the scars will continue to shrink with each shed. The end product will be a scaley skin again. Differences may include a bit of discolouration, wrinkled skin/scales, and/or scales set in an abnormal pattern.

Ian