Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hey a baby redtail got shut in the door by some freak accident and he know has a crease in his side what do you think his survival rate is? still moving, injury is about mid body, and he opens his mouth quite often will show pic thru e mail not bad but not some thing everyone wants or needs to see.

You really just need to bring it to the vet if you shut it in the door. It's probably got quite a few broken bones and hurting real bad right now. Bring it to the vet...
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Luke Martin
Bronze Serpent Reptiles

More than likely he has internal injuries, broken bones/spine. If he is opening his mouth you could have injured his lung which is elongated through his body as are the rest of his organs and he could be having difficulty breathing. If there is a noticable crease in his side and it is a small snake then chances are that he has some pretty bad injuries. You need to get that snake to a specialized reptile vet ASAP!

JH
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~ ASK ME ABOUT MY BALLS ~

Sounds like some broken ribs, and may have internal injuries as well. I'm more worried about the open mouth breathing than the ribs. Take to a vet immediately. With fast treatment the prognosis isn't terrible since reptiles tend to handle physical trauma better than mammals (much more prone to stress though). I hope it is a male, because such an injury may compromise the animal's ability to give birth.

P.S. I had a ball python that suffered similar injuries. She has a lot of broken ribs, but nothing internal. She got caught inside the washer after escaping. After much TLC she pulled through with some minor scaring.
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Travis Rose
Lazy S Snake Ranch
(859) 582-7310
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