Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Okay, I have an adult female snow corn that I have been breeding. Well, a couple of weeks ago she dropped her first clutch of the year and I started getting her to gain weight back. After reading the Corn Snake Manual (bill and cathy love) I saw in there that they recommend feeding live prey to adult corns as they feel it strengthens their muscles and can help prevent egg binding. I decided to give this method a try. That's where the problems started...

The female grabbed the snake and proceded to constrict it and I thought all was well. Her head was hidden in her coils where she had bitten the mouse... Well, when she unwrapped, I noticed that the mouse had bitten her on the head. The bite had broken through her eye cap, but her eye was still intact. I put listerine (just a little to ward off infection) on the bite both exterior and a dab on the cut inside her mouth. I did this once every two days. Well, I think she's gotten infected anyway.

I thought the eye cap would fix itself with her next shed, but it didn't. Not only that, but she has some brown stuff in her mouth that looks to be scabbing. She is still eating, though, which I took for a good sign. Two days ago, though, I noticed a grey, cloudy look to her left eye ( the injured one) and her right eye is clear, so it's not a shed thing. I think her eye might have gotten infected.

Is there anything I can do? I know the immediate answer is going to be go to the vet... but I want to avoid that if possible. I'm in college right now and a herp vet is a bit out of my budget... unless I sell a kidney or something. Any advice would be more than welcome. If it comes down to it, I will try my best to find the moeny for a vet visit... I hope it doesn't come to that, though. I thought the antibacterial listerine would keep infections out.... guess I was wrong.

Like I said, any input at all would be greatly appreciated...

Dave

PS> and yes, I've learned my lesson about feeding live prey...

I just yesterday lost a cornsnake, it died on me. The cause an eye infection! My corn had an eye infection from me force sheding the snake to early ( she would have died if i didn't ) she was a WC animal. But the eyes become cloudy , then she slows movement down. the eyes get a viscousy slime on them , 3 weeks later shes dead. get a vet fast.

Sorry to hear that she passed away. Sometimes there is just nothing you can do to prevent it. Breeding snakes always comes with a risk to the animals. even a wild caught gravid animal may not be healthy enough to recover from the stress of breeding.
I hope you have good luck with the eggs and that you snake will live on in the babies.
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Jim Hopkins "Hoppy"
Hopkins Holesale Herps
Hopfam1@aol.com

Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it. Yes she did pass away, but she did the best she could leaving 33 young and ALL GOOD eggs, not one slug! The eggs are on week 3, and are puffy, white and doing great. All show LOTS of veins when candled, and should do GREAT. THANK YOU a lot for your help, she was scik when I caught her gravid, and lived only 2 weeks more, but she safely passed all her eggs. THANK YOU

Well a snake that has been fed prekilled and thawed mice KNOWS the animal will not put up a huge fight(obviously because it's already dead!)but they still coil around them sometimes. Now your snake having been fed frozen/thawed mice most likely was a little lazy when constricting the mouse and the mouse got an upper hand. When feeding live prey,which I always do,I usually stun the mouse first. Just hold the mouse by the tail and thump him against something hard..just don't thump it to hard as you don't want blood splatter! Anyway,once the mouse is stunned just drop it in your snakes tank and the snake has the upper hand already by coiling around a KO'd mouse.

As for the snakes eye it most likely will be blind in that eye if the mouse gave it a good puncture wound. I have seen snakes that are blind in one eye and the eye is always blue/grey/white color. You should take the snake to the vet ASAP. An eye infection could lead to death.

Personally I would have her at the vet, hopefully to get her on some systemic antibiotic to prevent her sinus/eye/mouth from infecting. I have known of, thankfully not first hand, snake bitten in the face and dying or having to have surgery to remove abscesses when the infection went too far. Vet.
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Sonya

Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron