Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I took in a rescue adult ball python who has a large open wound on the side of his body about half way down. The snake eats and poops regularly and seems active. I am keeping him warm and dry, and have applied neosporin to the wound a couple times. My problem is that he cant shead past the would on his own, so I ended up trying to soak him. I got the shead off, but soaking him makes the wound look pretty bad. It is a 1x2 inch large, deep woung (looks like a good amount of muscle and tendon exposed.

My questions are...
1. Should I avoid soaking him to let the would stay dry
2. Other then neosporin, should I dress or cover the wound?
3. Any other help with this is welcome

Emily

Let them stitch it up and it will heal faster.....

I am a medic, and while I dont know a lot about snakes, I do know about wounds, this wound seems too wide to be stitched, im worried it will be too tight of a closer. I plan to take him to the vet soon, but was hoping for other options. Vet bills, especially exotic vet bills are not cheap, especially if i am going to go in there for him to tell me to just keep the wound clean and dry

Humans and reptiles require completely different care. A large open wound on a snake invites infection and infestation. Bring him to a vet. Its not 'rescuing' any animal if it isn't given proper medical care. If you are unable or unwilling to spend money to ensure the health of an animal, then it is no better for the animal if it stayed where it was.
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PHLdyPayne

thank you for your rightous save the world attitude, it is really helpful for my situation. I guess you right, i should have never rescued it, i should have left it in the 10 gal tank with no light or heat source and and mites and fruit flies in its skin. Its much worse off now.

How about instead of making a comment like you did, you spend the amount of time I have researching snake wounds on the internet, and posting around asking for help. Like I said before, I am working on getting it to a vet, and want to provide the best care for it I can right not.

Ridiculous.

If anyone has some serious advice for how to care for this animal it would be a big help. I have an appointment with the vet on tuesday, but if I can start progress now, that would be great.

>>If anyone has some serious advice for how to care for this animal it would be a big help. I have an appointment with the vet on tuesday, but if I can start progress now, that would be great.

Unfortunately with out seeing the wound in person its hard to even garner a guess. The other issue is if you do not know how the wound occurred it is best left in the hands of a vet. Bite wounds from feeders are often best left open, cleaned and treated with silvadene (SSD) ointment. More often than not, wounds are also treated with an oral or injectable antibiotic. The medications and doses are best received from a vet. Wounds can very easily and quickly go septic as well as systemic. Also there is the issue of if the wound needs to be debrided or not. All things that need to be assessed by a vet.
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Cindy Steinle
PHFaust
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The very fact the snake has been in a poor set up from the get go, before you took it into the care, the more important it is to have it brought to a vet right away, not 4 days later. Who knows how long that wound has been on the snake before you acquired it. This sort of situation requires immediate treatment by a qualified herp vet.

It doesn't take hours of research online to know large open wounds become infected, especially when flies and other insects have full access. Though topical antibiotics do help kill germs and bacteria they are not designed to work internally. Septic wounds poison the blood and require injected antibiotics to be administered to a vet. The wound will need to be cleaned out and all necrotic flesh removed, something that should be done by a vet. Flushing with clean water will help remove debris etc but won't be very comfortable for the snake. In fact it could be quite painful.

I do applaud your efforts to give this snake better care but there is very little one can do at home, and as Faust points out, without seeing the injury itself, its virtually impossible to even guess at what is going on with the snake.

Perhaps my earlier post was a bit strong, but I see countless posts of people 'rescuing' sick and injured animals who have little to no clue what they are doing and they come here for help. Some even outright say they won't bring it to a vet. I am glad you are making the effort to get this snake in to see a vet, though I do worry Tuesday may be too late. I hope it isn't, as I would love to hear the snake pulled through and is well on his way to a long healthy life in your care.

The fact the animal is eating and pooping regularly doesn't mean its not in pain. Many animals, especially reptiles, 'hide' sickness and injury to avoid looking 'weak' to predators. Often by the time you realize something is seriously wrong, its too late to do anything about it.

Can you take some pictures of this injury and post them? Having a visual of the injury will be helpful to give other guidance besides 'take it to a vet', to hopefully increase the chances the snake survives till the vet appointment you have for Tuesday.
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PHLdyPayne