Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Earlier today my female Brazilian Rainbow Boa got stuck in between the space where the door opens on the cage.Thankfully it was the smaller cage that I feed her in and I broke the door off.Unfortunately before I managed to stop her she had wedged about six inches of her four foot long body in the crack.This caused pressure on her spine and when we got her loose there was a dent in her skin but not her spine, the area appeared to be tender but there was no obvious brusing.She's acting normal, drinking her water and hiding under her log. What I want to know is should I take her to my vet and have her checked out and possibly get an x-ray to be sure there's no injury.

You likely won't see any obvious bruising even if it is occuring. Scales and dark skin tend to hide this. If the snake is showing not adverse signs, I would wait overnight. If at anytime you see the snake holding an abnormal posture; is stiff in that area, goes off feed, and/or hesitates to move around as per normal during handling, then indeed take the snake to the vet for further evaluation. With all this said, it's never a poor idea to decide upon an exam; the best thing that could happen is a clean bill of health by the doc

Ian

I went ahead and took her to be sure. My vet did and exam and took an x-ray and said she would be fine in a week, he then went on to tell me if I would of allowed her to push through the crack then she probably would be either paralyzed or done so much damage to herself that she would need to be euthanized. She's acting normaly and moving perfectly fine. Thanks for the advice.

Thanks for the update and nice looking snake

Ian