I had my Nigrita out for some sunshine today, and after that I decided to let him crawl around a bit in what I thought would be a safe place of the house... Well, he somehow found a 1" by 0.75" hole that goes into the walls of the house to crawl into. I was keeping an eye on him, but the "Oh s***!" factor didn't kick in until he had gotten more than half his body in. I grabbed his body and just held onto it for about 10 minutes hoping he would give up and back out, but he just kept trying to work his body in further.



Eventually I decided to pull him out, which inevitably damaged his scales since the hole was smaller than his body. I did it as slowly and as carefully as I could, but I still had to pull pretty hard and I'm worried about the damage he may have incurred. A potentially injured snake is better than no snake at all, though. After I pulled him out, the half of his body he had gotten through the hole was extremely cold and covered in spider webs (I could feel a draft coming from the hole).



Anyway, I'm just curious if there's anything I can do to help his scales heal. They look pretty bad on the outside but I'm not sure how deep the damage goes. Also, are there other types of injuries I should look out for that can result from pulling a snake from a hole? I have a good reptile vet that he can see if he's showing signs of more extensive injuries. Here are some photos:















The hole:







Thanks in advance for any help.
-----
- Natalie

(San Francisco Bay Area)

[ Hide Replies ]

• Pulled king out of hole, damaged scales - Fish_Demon, Mon Apr 6 14:04:36 2009
• RE: Pulled king out of hole, damaged scales - zach_whitman, Mon Apr 6 17:27:13 2009
• RE: Pulled king out of hole, damaged scales - Fish_Demon, Mon Apr 6 18:12:18 2009
• RE: Pulled king out of hole, damaged scales - Bluerosy, Tue Apr 7 14:11:30 2009
• Thanks n/p - Fish_Demon, Tue Apr 7 20:22:44 2009