EMERGENCY | My Ball Python's Scales Just Split

This is Dave. Abused for years by two different owners, he's been starved. I've taken him in and have been treating him as best as I can and he started shedding. I was using a damp cloth and I had wrapped it around him to help him get shed off easier. I've noticed his scales were very loose but I thought that was because of the shedding, but they're still loose. They're so loose and weak, it tore. This wasn't the first time. A mouse bit him and it tore but it was only a little and I cleansed it. It hasn't healed and it's been a weak.

Just now part of his neck has split open. The vet isn't open and I don't know if we can get an appointment tomorrow.

I don't know what to do. I didn't know their scales could weaken and do this. Should I use my dilated antiseptic? Please, I just want him to live. I wanted him to live for a couple years in a happy place where he had lots of food and a clean cage. He's eight or ten years old and I don't want it to end now.

http://i64.tinypic.com/5wh45w.jpg

I don't know what to even look up for this... and my mom doesn't seem to care. Is there anything I can do?

Do you notice any pus, blood, or liquid in the torn area?


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There is a clear liquid and some blood but not much.

*****VERY SAD***** but for me i would treat MY situation like this:: let mother nature take over.. I would get the cleanest area i can find and keep him in there and let mother nature take it....(but that's just me<---lol)

You sound a lot like my mother.

Though I see a fighting spirit in him.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nixon

There is a clear liquid and some blood but not much.

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I can't offer advice on treatment other than a vet asap .... but I do know that you don't want to take a chance at anything getting in the wound so you should switch the substrate to papertowls until you get it figured out

What are you keeping him in and what is your set up? What kind of hide is being used, it there anything at all that could have cut him? (Like he could have crawled under, in/out of that he may have sliced himself?

On it.

EDIT: I keep him in a twenty gallon long tank. I have two log for him to hide him and I know those didn't cut him.

Get him to a vet ASAP. When you call, explain the wound, don't just "my snake has a cut". Most (good) vets will at least work you in - even if it means sitting in the waiting room for a while.

Waiting a week potentially has already let infection set in. It might not be bad enough to form pus and smell bad, but that does not mean that it isn't brewing. Snakes are tough creatures by design, but if his skin splits so easily there may be a much bigger issue going on. While his immune system and "mother nature" may be enough to get the wound healed he will be much more susceptible to other illness while he is trying to heal.The clear fluid coming out is serum, just like in our own skin, and as that leaves his body, he dehydrates. Essentially a wound like that is acting like a wick for the moisture in his body and letting it evaporate.

I may be jumping the gun here, but... Slipped skin disease, perhaps? I hope it's not, and that he can be treated. There's information on the condition on the Aussie Python forums, though, and I think it's worth a look.