Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i own a 2008 born brazlian rainbow boa. tonight, while out on my lap, she crawled below me and into a gap in the structure of my office chair, and did not want to come out. through use of patience, food, and a heat lamp, i got her to try to come out on her own, but noticed while she was coming out that she is cut on her side. the cut runs roughly latitudinal, that is, like a ring around the snake, not a line down the snake. the cut cover about one side of her body. what it looks like is that the patterned skin, or scaled, are torn, and i can see pinkish tissue underneath. the cut is maybe half a centimeter wide, and a centimeter long, maybe bigger, its hard to be a good judge in my state of near panic. what do i do? there was no blood, jsut the exposed pinked tissue. she doesnt appear to be in pain, but i just got her out of the freaking chair piece. she has retreated to her favorite hide box, and im providing normal temp and humidity control trying to find out what to do. any help is greatly appreciated!
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cdohna.googlepages.com
1.0.0 WC SD Gopher Snake, Max
1.0.0 CB Albino Banded Cal King, Manny
0.1.0 CB BRB, Mucalinda

update:
i was a little more panicked than i should have been, sorry if i caused undue alarm. but, took her to the local 24/7 animal hospital, and though the cut pierced her scales, it did not pierce the subcutaneous tissue, so shes been given a topical antibiotic and an antibiotic injection, tomorrow first thing when the reptile experts get in they will talk about attempting to rejoin the scales. she should be fine. phew! didn't need that, but glad she'll be okay with a little extra attention.
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cdohna.googlepages.com
1.0.0 WC SD Gopher Snake, Max
1.0.0 CB Albino Banded Cal King, Manny
0.1.0 CB BRB, Mucalinda

good move getting to the vet. It's always good to be safe.
Snakes are pretty resilient to cuts. I've had to tuck a racer's organs back inside after he was attacked by a lunatic with a shovel. He had half a dozen lacerations. After lots of peroxide, neosporin and prayers, he was released back into the wild. (then my ignorant little brother shot him 5 years later and I recognized the scars).

I've seen lots of wild snakes with pretty nasty scars. I'm sure your snake will be fine. Follow your vet's instructions and try not to let your snake move around too much while the wound is healing.
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The Reticulated Rattler

1.0.0 Great Plains Ratsnake
1.0.0 Corn, Lavender Aztec het for Amel
0.1.0 Black Ratsnake
0.0.1 Texas Rat (tame)
1.0.0 Broad Banded Water Snake, Hypo
1.0.0 Black Bassador Retriever
2.1.0 Godchildren, 1 Evil, 2 possible hets

In the future, you can treat minor cuts and abrasions with Neosporin. I've had a few snakes that had cuts that went below the scales, and cleaning the wound and applying Neosporin daily did the trick.
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Mark

Neosporin and Betadine work good for cleaning and healing the wounds. I've know several people that have had luck gluing cuts back together with supergule as opposed to getting stitches or something.. alot of times they end up healing ok open like that too depending. I'd go with what your vet sais though.
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"It's my snake, I trained it, so I'm going to eat it!" - Mad Max, The Road Warrior