Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My cornsnake recently escaped his cage and got loose in my apartment. I found him the next day but my kitten (I thank God it wasn't my full grown cat--she's have killed him) had gotten a hold of him and did some damage. I took him to an emergency vet after running around hysterically for about 5 minutes. They gave me Baytril to give to him and told me to do some soaks. Only one problem: he won't take the medicine. Its liquid and they gave me a dropper to give him 4 drops twice a day and he tries to eat it every time and then if I do get it in, most of it squirts out the sides of his mouth. I'm terrified I'm going to hurt his teeth and he's going to get mouth rot. Irrational I know but he's my baby. And I was wanting to know what kind of soak would be best since he has puncture wounds on top of puncture wounds?

Thanks for reading my rambling,
Katie

I don't know how big your corn is, but it's possible the vet gave you an eye dropper that is too big for your snake,I don't know. I have administered liquids to many snakes in my day, and it's really not a big deal at all......It would be helpful if I knew how big your snake is though. In any case,if it is a tight fit, the "glass" eye droppers work better than the plastic ones, they are thinner, and slide better. You must get the medicine down the throat a good ways though, do it very slowly or it can tend to shoot out the snake's mouth. I've also used syringes with thin rubber tubes put on the end for this.Use what you think is size appropriate.It is important that you gently, but firmly hold the snake's head in an upright position so gravity will help the medication down. Also, when you pry the snakes mouth open,be VERY, VERY careful you don't force liquid down the snake's glottis (wind pipe), as this would go into it's lungs and create a whole other issue that you don't want!!! .....also, if you gently spin the dropper or tube it is less likely to snag any of the snake's teeth on the way out....Keep the snake in the upright position for a little while after you pull the tube, and gently massage down the belly with a light pressure of the thumb. This will help ensure that the liquid goes down where it needs to be............On a different note,....I have said this to hundreds of people in the past. Snakes are natural born "escape artists" and will get out of any nook and cranny that most people would think impossible. You know this first -hand now, and should take better measures so it doesn't keep happening..................hope this helps.............Doug

I forgot to tell you, hydrogen peroxide, and or Betadine will work very good for the puncture wounds. Also, it doesn't sound like the vet explained the procedure very well to you(if at all)......remember you are not offering this to the snake, you are making it take it regardless. Also, I forgot to tell you to get someone to help you hold the snake, as this can be difficult for most people to perform by theirselves...............good luck,........Doug

Actually the vet didn't talk to me at all... the receptionist talked to the vet and then to me. He's almost 2 years old... haven't measured him really.. maybe around 2 or 2 1/2 feet. I'll definitely try the glass dropper. I don't want to put peroxide all over him because he literally has probably around 50 tiny puncture wounds along with about 5 or 6 pretty good sized ones, not to mention the tip of his poor tail is one big sore. All the vet said to do was soak him and give him medicine. He hates warm water soaks. And to top it all off, it was my fault he got out. I fed my other 2 corns since he was shedding and forgot to put the locks back on their top.... Went out of town for Thanksgiving and came back one snake shorter. So not only do I feel utterly horrible about that, he won't cooperate with me at all.

And thank you so much. You have no idea how much I've been stressing myself out about this.

Gosh, its been years since I've had to administer meds and I couldn't have said it any better than "DMong" did.

Instead of trying to go straight down it's throat from the front of it's mouth, try pulling its' mouth open and holding it while someone else places the dropper in a corner of it's mouth and angle it down the throat.

If you could continue to hold the snake's mouth open a little, with it's head up like "DMong" said, while someone else gently stroked it's throat to get the meds to go down it might help.

I hope it makes it. Don't be too hard on yourself, ain't none of us perfect. Learn from it, forgive yourself, and move on.

Have a good one!
Mike
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It is said that 1 out of every 4 people are mentally unbalanced. Think of your 3 closest friends, if they're normal, then it's you.

Since you have been given an oral antibiotic and it sounds as though yuor snake harbors a feeding response, you may wish to inject a small prey item with the antibiotic and feed such to your snake.
as for soaking, I would be leary of betadine, as many specimens do not tolerate such very well and I have seen more then a few incur anaphylaxis from such, while H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) can be painful, especially in the event teh punture wounds you indicated are deep. Personally, I would soak the snake in Chlorhexidine gluconate 2%, diluted as per labeling instructions and such is available OTC at most any pharmacy or farm supply store and you can use whatever is left over for disinfecting your enclosures!

Best regards,

Jeff
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Jeff Snodgres
University of Arkansas
snodgresjeffreys@uams.edu
501.603.1947