Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My yearling cali king escaped back in mid August. Today she showed up under the porch in my backyard. The guys that found her said a cat was playing with her and she was stuck under the cement where they dug her out from. She is badly scarred. There are 3 large gashes where no skin remains and muscle is showing. One of them is a quarter inch or so in diameter. She is also missing a lot of scales throughout her body and some are peeling off. Im really worried about her. She had some sand stuck in her wounds so I placed her in a bucket with water to wash her off a little. After a few I put her back into her cage. She is still moving around and tongue flicking and striking at me as well. Will she be able to recover from this? How long should I wait to feed her? Anything else I can do for her without going to a vet?

If I was in your situation, and didn't have a good vet I could take her to (or couldn't take her to one due to monetary constraints) then what I would do is keep her on VERY clean substrate, probably paper towels. Allow her a large water dish to bathe in, but change it frequently. Make sure she has a WARM spot, they use the heat to heal. Treat the worst injuries with neosporin. Wait a couple of weeks and then give her some food item that is at most 1/2 the size of her largest part.... if she is adult, that would mean feeding her fuzzies, if she's still small (less than 2 feet) I would feed her pinks. Large meals will cause her skin to stretch, but if it's healing, it will retard the healing process. I'd feed her once every ten days or so. She'll shed very frequently as her skin heals, so expect that in addition to everything else. Change her cage EVERY time it's dirty, and her water daily, cross your fingers, and see if she lives.
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~Sasheena

So neosporin is OK for them? Is bactine good to clean out the wound with? I was thinking about wrapping the wound with a cloth but I was worried about swallowing prey, but if I give her small enough prey then would a bandage help, or is that not good when regrowing skin on snakes?

Thanks a lot for your answer. That was what I wanted to hear.

I would say take slightly warm water and add enough betadine (povidone iodine) to make it a weak tea color, and bathe the snake in it for 5-10 min. Then put the neosporin on. My king got out and my cat found it, there was fur and dirt filling the wounds on his neck, but he pulled through and is as healthy as ever now. It was nowhere near as bad as yours but snakes are pretty resilient. Good Luck!
~Dan
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0.0.1 San Luis Potosi Kingsnake
0.0.2 Yellow Rat Snake
0.1 Normal Cornsnake
0.0.1 Eastern Garter Snake
0.0.1 Northern Water Snake

My concern is the size of the wounds. I dont think I should apply neosporin as it says not to put on deep cuts. Her muscle is showing, and I dont know if I should put anything on it. I soaked her again today and plan to soak her daily and I sprayed her with bio-mist which has helped when scales have been burned off. She doesnt seem to be in too much pain and I think she may be healing on her own a little. Should I go ahead and neo her, or could that be harmful to the big wounds?

Here are her injuries:

I'm not 100% sure on what is okay and what is not, I wish I could tell you something for certain. If I was in that situation, I would use neosporin, a light dab, I wouldn't try to actually bandage it, nature provides the best bandage, when air gets to the wound it promotes healing. Just have to worry about systemic infection or internal injuries. I had a snake escape, just a hatchling, and she was found three weeks later in my swimming pool. She wasn't waterlogged, but had a "dent" in her neck.... she ate twice then died. I set her in her rubbermaid container outside after she died, with the intention of disposing of the body, and events got in the way and I forgot about it. Next time I looked, she was a perfectly preserved skeleton.... you could see where six or seven of her ribs were broken at the neck, probably punctured something when she was swallowing her prey, and/or constricting it (I feed live pinkies) and she died. Next time I have this happen, I'll give a break from eating also, if I'm worried about any skeletal injuries.
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~Sasheena

She moves around great and doesnt seem to be in much pain. I dont think anything is broken, just the skin. I didnt see her out of her hide today though, except for when I took her out to soak her in water. She still moved through my fingers ok and held onto the side of the bucket when I tried to put her in. She tongue flicks fine and everything. Did yours move about and tongue flick fine? I was hoping this meant she was going to be ok. Also, looking at these wounds, I was wondering if healing already began. I dont know how old they are or what they looked like when she got them.

Also, Im worried about parasites.

Is neosporin ok on bad wounds like these?