Reptile & Amphibian Forums

There was a large brush fire in a marsh near my job on Friday.
I went back the following day with my wife to look around and take some pictures.
We found a 4+ foot black racer with some really bad burns and cuts.
She (not sure) has burns on her back and sides running down 3/4 of the length of her body.
The tip of her tail was burned clear off. She also has several cuts and a deep puncture wound about 3/8 of an inch deep.
It looks like a Hawk tried to eat her while she was recovering from the burns.
I brought her home to try to help.
The first day I soaked her in a mild solution of Chlorhexidine and water, then finished cleaning her wounds with full strength Chlorhexidine and put some triple antibiotic ointment (Bacitracin) on the deep cuts and puncture wound.
Today I repeated the same process and used Liquid Bandage on the burns and cuts.
She is in a large Sterlite tub, with a heat lamp the warm side is set to 85. It is still winter here in NJ, so I tried to warm her up slowly.
It was about 60 when I found her, uncommonly warm for this time of year.

Is there anything else I can do for her right now?
She is alert and moving around, with a little difficulty, but she is very slow for a racer.
How long should I wait before trying to get her to feed?
I would like to release her in the same place once she is healed and it is warmer, Is that a good idea?

Please help,

Tom

Great efforts so far, but depending on the extent of her burns she may need IV fluids from a vet. Burns can quickly dehydrate an animal because of plasma leakage from the wound.

For now, keep her nice and warm, keeping cleaning the wounds and burns with chlorhexidine. I don't know how well the Liquid Bandage will do on the burns, but using the antibiotic ointment (bacitracin-neomycin-polymixin- also called BNP) will help prevent infection and should protect from dehydration.

I would at least wait a few days before trying to offer food, see if she starts perking up a bit or becomes more lethargic.

Christina
www.herptiles.net

From your original message, I"ll add a bit more of an urgency to herptile's post.
Why?
1)Severe trauma to the majority of the body; the nature of the wounds are such that this snake's prognosis is slim with the best of care. You've done correctly if these same wounds were minimized, but it sounds like they aren't.
2)Your snake is in pain. Who wouldn't be. This needs to be addressed.
3)Your snake is depressed. This is a integeral description in that there is no way to know if it is on it's way up, or down. I would expect the worst, and that this snake will get worse (if) before it ever gets better.
4)For all the above reasons, and thus mentioned already by herptiles, this snake needs intensive care, including fluid therapy, infection control, pain relief, wound management, as well as enviromental control.

Remember that it is much more beneficial (and cheaper) to begin with hospitalized care and then finishing the treatments at home, than beginning treatment at home, and having the hospital finish things off.

Furthermore, this snake should only be released once it's been completely rehabbed, and if you do not have any captive herps (or possibly birds as well) at home.

I hope my concerns make sense. Of course a picture would help us determine the severity, yet, there is no substitute for a hands-on exam.

Ian

Thanks for your responses,
Here are some pictures of the snake, I'm calling her Smokey.
These are from the day I found her.
It is a little hard to see the wounds, but the brown and grayish areas are burns.
The deep puncture wound is in front of my right hand, if you look close you can see the loose scales around it.
She seems to be doing better today, she was much more active. It made dressing her wounds a challenge.
The cuts are beginning to heal a little and she didn't seem as stiff when she moved.
She even coiled around my arm while I cleaned her cuts. Not even one attempt to bite me though.

I do have other snakes...
A WC black racer about 1 1/2 years old from the same area,
he was trapped in my office building and nearly killed by the facilities dept.
And a CB Bairds Rat Snake less than a year old.
I keep them all in different enclosures, but in the same room. I am trying my best not to cross contaminate them or any of their stuff.
Are there illnesses that they can transmit without contact?
Please let me know more, because I am really a novice.

I also have 2 turtles in the same room.

Thanks,
Tom

The pictures do reveal a rather less injured looking snake than what your original post had me thinking. Still, consider my above post, and apply it to your situation. Burns of any kind are very likely to get infected. The natural defenses were, well, burnt away Another misleading nature to burns is often they are much worse than they appear. The tissue damage underneath is often severe, and after a few days, to a few weeks, (remember, everything happens slower in reptiles), you may expect massive sloughing.

The pic's were great, and I still urge you to take this critter to the vet, but now think it will be less likely the vet will want to hospitalize it.

Smokey.. that's a neat name for this one

As for the release,.. keep him. It's not that we know he has a disease, it's that we don't know he has one. Every animal has certain diseases that they can carry, without showing illness. Like HIV in humans. Well, we just don't know enough about the likely thousands of illnesses present in herps. In the western USA there is a huge problem related to this. Desert tortoises are having a very difficult time with a specific type of respiratory virus introduced from released tortioses.

Good luck, and have fun with Smokey!
Ian