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i would really apprecieate it if i could just get answers and no critasizm here... i have been chewed up and spit out a few times...

my questions:
as i stated before my snake had a bad experience with at rat to do my carelessness........ anyway i have been treating his wound and all together their is about 10 good sized bite marks... i took him to the vet right after it happened and the vet had me giving him antibiotics 2 every other day (i have stopped doing this) and hydrotherapy 2 times a day... and after the hytrotherapy (washing out the wounds for 15 minutes) i would put on some medacine that is about the same as neosporin... the vet antisipated that he would be almost if not totally healed in 2 weeks... i thought that was a little fast but he did call 4 exotic vets nd they all said the same thing... however the wounds dont seen to be healing... their is so sign on infectionsand the wounds are looking better but they dont seem to be healing... AT ALL... i was wondering if maybe i should stop washing out the wound so much and just do it every other day... i have cleaned his cage and their is no substrate in the bottom so i dont think an infection is likely... i have had snakes most of my life but this is the first time i have had to deal with this problem... out of all of my snakes he was the only snake that i could not transfer over to f/t... and he is about 3 now... since the accident he has been eating prekilled on his own... so i am vary happy for that...
so i am asking if he should be healing faster or if snakes are just slow healers... i have got all the patience in the world... i owe it to my snake to make sure he had a good recovery, but on the same token i dont want to cause further problems...
also when i am baithing him twice a day he seems to be on a regular schedule of deficating every other day during his bath... i would guess it is more or less a reaction to the water, but thats still alot of deficating... they have all been mostly fluid and a few while and black chunks... nothing out of the ordinary...
he seems to be in good health and still loves to be held...

i would perfer hearing from people that have experienced these problems or have heard or the same thing...
the way i was told is that most of the time the rat kills the snake so i dont know how many people know of this happening without killing the snake

here is a pic of the large wound for those that dident see it...

the hole is a little larger then a quarter and a good 1/2"-3/4" deep..

I would imagine that being a cold blooded animal with slower blood circulation the healing process and cell regeneration would take much longer than one could reasonably expect.
With that said, please don't post pictures like that on the internet. With legeslative action against reptiles on the rise, supporters of bans will use these types of pictures and cases as a reason to dissallow people to keep animals. One person's ignorance to a variety of events can destroy the hobby for others. Personally I think you should adjust your husbandry techniques, I have read all the posts following this inccedent. While I am sorry to hear about the problem I am more sorry for the snake, who endured such injury due to your carelessness. EVERY caresheet states that you should NEVER leave a live rat in with a snake unsupervized. Had you abided by this simple requirement you would not have to endure the headache you now encounter, and your snake would have a better life. As opposed to growing your collection you should concentrate on the lives of the animals you are responsible for.

First off,

Snakes DO heal slow. I would recomend keeping temps about 2-5 degrees(F) warmer. But still provide with a cool spot! Also, the hole itself may not go away! I have seen Green Anacondas with "scars" from battles with prey that at best will only slightly heal over many years.

Is this picture new? or right after it happened? It looks to be pretty healed to me?!? How long has it been? If no more blood/swelling/fluids are coming from the wound then thats probably as good as it gets. The only other thing to do is wait to see what happens after a shed...may get slightly better.

Only time will tell! Best of luck, and no worries..everyone makes mistakes!! It is what we learn from the mistakes that keeps it from happening again! So be very careful! And from now on, NEVER EVER leave live prey unattended with you animals!!

Chris
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0.0.2 Gila Monsters
3.3 Solomon Island Ground boas
3.4 KSB plus 5 babies (3-17-05)
1.0 Leopard Gecko -Dudly
1.0 Pacman Frog- Frigity
1.2 Rats - Twitch, Killer, and Flower (babies are food)hehe

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Edited on March 30, 2005 at 13:51:21 by phwyvern.

i did raise the temp and few degrees... the pic was taken right sfter the accident... it looks a little better not and their does appear to be tissue growing back... their was never any blood... that pic was taken RIGHT after the accident... their has not been any swelling of fluid from the start...
i would really like to see the hole heal better then that... the hole at first appeared to be closeing up... or rather getting smaller, but hasent been doing any different in about a week...

i am wishing that we went ahead and stiched it up, but we were worried about it filling with fluid... he did recieve stitches in 2 other places and i removed then yesterday...

shiloh

That has to be the most serious wound I've seen short of killing the animal. It really sounds like you are doing everything right except I don't know about bathing it. I was always taught to keep the wound DRY AND CLEAN....(please double check with your vet).

I have had animals that are trouble eaters and will only eat live and only if it has been in there a couple of hours and no one is looking and seeing this picture will definitely make me re-think how I'm feeding the animals. Best of luck but I think there is no way on earth that this wound could completely heal up or close in that short period of time. I would say no less than 6 months and that is about 6 sheds.

i was thinking about 6 months as well...

i'm not exactly baithing him... i take him to the sink and spray out the wounds with the sink sprayer... and i am told to do it twice a day for 15 minutes...

but i am starting to wonder if keeping it wet all the time is slowing the healing process...

but all the same when using neosporin it keeps the wound healthy and wet. and also reduced a scar... i am willing to wait longer for it to heal if that means it will heal better... i dont want my snake having any problems down the road...

shiloh

Ok so its not a rat bite I feed all my snakes pre killed but any ways I have a 5' male boa that I purchased. When I got him he had pnemonia and mites. A few days into treating him I noticed a lump on his side.
Thinking it was an abcess of some kind I soaked him to drain it. The wound seemed to open but the scales seemed to be rotting off. I don't exactly know what actually caused it but I cleaned the wound daily and put neosporin on it. Within 3 day thins wound that was originally the size of a quarter had spread from the middle of his belly to just over the middle of his back and was about 5" long!
So What I started doing was cleaning his tank really well every day and NOT the would. No Neosporin nothing. I kept him very dry. Within a week he was 50% healed the following week he shed and was about 90% healed. And he keeps getting better. I believe that the neosporin was keeping the moisture in and was giving him some kind of scale rot.
I don't know if this will help seeing its a different type of wound but I figured I would throw it out there for you.