Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i found a beautiful desert kingsnake tonight but unfortunately he had been hit by a car i'm guessing. he is drinking water and he is moving around good but there is a small section of intestines coming from the wound and i just want to know what i should do to help him. should i try to poke the intesine back in and seal the wound?

If you can't take him to a vet, I might consider putting him out of his misery. It can't be fun to be eviscerated...
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Diego

SWCHR

I agree with Diego.

~ Mike Russo

What is the "prefered", or most humane way to do that?
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Kent

I will send you an Email..

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Diego

SWCHR

i can't bring myself to kill an animal with so much life left without giving him every chance so i called the vet who wanted a $500 deposit to even look at him. then i decided to give him a good look myself and if he was hit by a car it barely clipped him b/c only the skin was broken. i washed him very well with sterilized water and there was no obvious signs of damage to the intestine so i gently massaged it back into place and sealed the wound. he immediately perked up and is now acting pretty normal. i am in no way an expert or qualified to work on snakes but i figured this is better than nothing. hopefully he will continue to improve until i can release him back where he belongs.

It's tough for us to know the exact condition of the animal sight unseen.. I was under the impression that intestines were hanging out of him.. but, if you were able to things back in place and he looks fine then I would say give him a chance and he may just be VERY lucky that you were the one to find him!

Good luck and keep us posted!

~ Mike Russo

i guess i could have been more descriptive in my first post. there was intestines outside the skin but only a short peice (about 2 inches) and they were still intact and didn't appear to be damaged. he is now taking a nap in his new enclosure and seems very content.

I sincerely hope it is OK and that it doesn't suffer from a secondary infection. Like Todd said below, keep the heat high.

Best of luck and keep us posted!!!
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Diego

SWCHR

If it were me I would not put this snake down. I've found snakes in the wild that had scars from some pretty horrendous looking injuries (one garter snake looked as if someone had taken a shovel to it, healed just fine). If it is drinking and seemingly moving around good then the car strike was maybe glancing and not crushing. Take it to the area you found it (well away from the road) and release it. If it dies then it dies. Give it the chance however to survive.
Paul

If you decide to keep it a while to rehab, I would bump the heat up pretty high on one end and give it two hides, one over the heat and one in the cooler area, and keep the water fresh and low. (small dish), it may not be a good thing for it to soak immediately. Hope everything works out, one of my favorite kings.

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Todd Hughes

thanks for all the support. i'll keep y'all posted on his progress.

Nice work on trying to save that snake. Post a pic if you can as I am sure we would all love to see it.

sorry for the bad camerawork but here's a couple pics of him.

How did you close the wound, superglue?
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Todd Hughes

yeah, i figured if superglue was good enough for me then it was good enough for him.

I had an eastern hognose a lot like you describe. I was eight years old and didn't know any better - I shoved his intestines back in, wrapped him up in a band aid. I sold him five years later.

Don't write him off.

well i went out of town for a couple days and he died while i was gone. at least i tried.

I see so many dor snakes during travel for work that I have become sort of immune to it, I hate seeing them but it is a sad, sad part of this day and age. You gave it your best shot, that's all anyone can do.
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Todd Hughes

Sorry to hear that. You were a good friend to him.