Kingsnake Attacking Himself: I Don't Know What Else To Do

[mopuim]

Hello! I have posted here in the past due to this lingering problem I'm having with my kingsnake. (WARNING: There is a photo that contains blood)

He has had a problem with biting himself ever since he got a bacterial infection. He attacks his tail from the side (sometimes near his cloaca) and doesn't let go. This causes him to get cuts, scale skin falling off, and scars. When this happens, I have to intervene using alcohol (I know I should use white vinegar, I just keep forgetting to buy some) and sometimes that doesn’t even work. After I get him to let go, he usually tightens around my hands or ties himself in knots (that he can get out of) like seen below:


He has had an overactive feeding response and eats fine. I give him pup rats around once a week, where he used to eat every 2 weeks before he got sick and he acted fine.

We had given him oral antibiotics for a period of time and they helped, then it came back and put him on them again. After that he didn't show signs of a bacterial infection, but he still kept biting himself. The exotic pet vet did an XRay with no issues, no parasites, no blockage, just the bacterial infection. Then we put him on antibiotics for a third time because he acted better on them. The vet suggested that there could be something neurological going on, but they aren’t sure.

The thing is now, his stool seems normal, but he still has these behavioral issues. I had posted about an incident where he put a gash in his tail from biting himself (which healed fine), and I got a suggestion to fix the heat on his thermostat, and it seemed to help a lot and he didn’t bite himself as much. He could have been extra hungry due to a hurricane which put our power out for 10 days. The air conditioning didn’t work, but the house averaged 80-90 during the day. On the way back, I picked up a rat and fed him. I know he didn’t attack himself during that time because his tail had no marks.

Today, he attacked himself twice. The second time he did it around his tree (which I have to take out periodically because he keeps attacking himself around it) and there was a lot of blood, and it takes a lot to make him let go:


Long story short, I know he is in pain, but I don’t know what to do. I’m not sure if I should go to the vet again, but I don’t know what they’d do. I’ve considered the possibility of euthanasia, but I don’t know what he has or how severe it is. Of course I don’t want to put him down, but if it means he doesn’t have to live in pain for the rest of his life, then what other choice do I have?

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Any comments are greatly appreciated.