Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A month ago I was devastated to find that the cage I put my husband's '03 Outer Banks King into was NOT secure. AND it was in my outdoor "mouse house", also NOT secure enough to keep snakes inside. I felt SO BAD and looked everywhere, but she was gone. I figured that the loose rat in the mouse house, or the loose mice, probably found her and ate her, or she escaped outside and would definately be gone (lizards, birds, cats, dehydration!).

This morning hubby decided to check the trap on our swimming pool and Lo and Behold, there she is doing her best to remain above the water. (In the fall we had a LOT of toads in there, some really bloated). Our swimming pool is the kind that is "salt" based... needs less chlorine and the water is salty, but I don't really know much about the chemical constitution of the water. She didn't appear to be WATERLOGGED or anything dreadful like that. In fact if I didn't KNOW she just came out of the pool, I wouldn't have guessed it from her appearance.

Aside from being immersed for who knows how long she did have a small injury about one fourth of the way down from her nose... we were on our way out the door to go to work, and I didn't have enough time to check her out thoroughly other than to put her in a SECURE cage with fresh (bottled) water and new substrate. But she appeared to have a bit of a dent, and perhaps a belly scale or two damaged. (like some bird caught her and pinched her a little before she got loose. AGain, she appeared to be in perfect shape, and seems to have grown a LOT in the month she's been gone. (Lots of wild mice live UNDER the mouse house, so she probably had a snakey buffet of pinkies.)

Should I be concerned about her belly injury? Should I be worried that she was poisoned or otherwise compromised by her immersion in our swimming pool? How long should I give her before I offer her a pinkie meal?

She slithers fine, bright tounge flick, fit and fat to all appearances.

The picture i'm posting is what she was like when I first got her, I'll try to get a picture later tonight or perhaps at the weekend if it seems the best thing to do is leave her completely alone to get over the "stress" of being loose in Arizona for a month.

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~Sasheena

I'm glad you found your OBK. Sounds like that little snake is pretty tough, and will probably fine with a little TLC. Here's hoping it grows into a big'un someday.

Oh she's a toughy all right. I took a good look at her when I got home from work, and the injury looks a little worse than I thought, but still not that bad really. I think given a few couple of months it will be like new, or at most a teeny tiny scar. She was the TINIEST hatchling I'd ever seen, yet she POUNCED on the newborn pinkie I gave her at her first feeding, unlike her super fat brother, who never did develop a desire to eat. I'm just so glad that we found her
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~Sasheena

Wow! Congrats on getting her back. Probably had to pinch yourself, right?

Usually when my kings get out I find them curled up on my cornsnake cages (not kidding about that).

Sounds like the snake will be fine - I usually do not find a picture-perfect snake in the wild - they are tough. Seems like you have a "survivor". Let's keep it in the captive bred "gene pool" of sticticeps!

Peter

Lucky you! I think you'll be allright, but I would keep an eye on the injuries for a while and watch for any changes. Hopefully if there are any, they'll be for the better. But there's a possibility of bacterial or fungal infection if scales were damaged.
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MichaelB

Bob Bull