Ball Python Injury Help

[vancouverguy]

Yesterday evening (been 24 hours now) my Ball Python of 3 years got hit really hard with a piece of solid plastic somewhere on the left hand side of his neck or head. ( I didn't see it happen) He instantly coiled and hid his head. I thought for sure he was done for but I quickly put him back in his cage and he crawled around a bit and hid in his hide. I got up this morning and checked on him and he was in a different position in his hid and picked him up and found no evidence of the hit. He was moving around good and had strength in his grip. Does anyone have any experience in this sort of thing? Should there be obvious swelling? He was roaming around pretty good when I held him to check it out but put him back quickly to ensure no additional stress was created. If I look really hard his left side of the head looks slightly bigger than the right but nothing extremely noticable.

Any help is appreciated. (Sorry there is no herps in the area)

An extremely guilty feeling BP Owner.

[frankykeno]

Here's a link I just found through Google of reptile/exotic vets in Canada. There are three listed for Vancouver, B.C.

http://www.triciaswaterdragon.com/canrepvt.htm#bc

I can't comment on how your snake is since I'm not there, I can't handle or exam the snake and I'm not a vet. I hope the link above may be of use to you.

[vancouverguy]

Thanks for your quick reply. I had already found that site but right now Im not in Vancouver. I'll do that as soon as I return to Vancouver off of the top of your head though do you have any thoughts?

[frankykeno]

That link also covers many other parts of both B.C. and Canada as a whole. Worth a look to see if there's one near wherever it is that you're at. Being a Canadian by birth I do understand though that you could be literally in the middle of nowhere in a town with one road (gawd knows I lived in a LOT of those places myself LOL). I lived in one place that it was 5 hours round trip to see a regular vet...for your dog...just to get it's shots....argh!

I wish I could help but I've no direct experience with blunt force trauma on a snake so anything I could say wouldn't be worth a bucket of spit really. Perhaps you could find an exotic vet somewhere close to you and phone them in the morning to at least get some basic information as far as what danger signs to watch for. If you are in a remote area, then most vets will understand it's impossible to transport easily in winter conditions over long distances and may be willing to give you decent advice over the phone.

[vancouverguy]

Thank you very much! I will do that

BC is quite the place.....

[frankykeno]

It surely is. Amazingly beautiful but vast, just vast and empty in some places. Northern Ontario is worse believe me....vast, not nearly as pretty and way worse weather. Best of luck with the snake. I wish I could have been more help.

[Texas Dan]

I've had something like this happen before.. Sometimes Vincent likes to fall off my arm, like he's drunk or something, and I react quickly to catch him.

He likes to grab on to stuff as he's swinging down off my arm, and sometimes I jerk, you know, natural reaction when one of your loved ones is falling. I've always been afraid of smaking his head on the table or him grabbing something and me pulling too hard. This has happened twice and he's been ok both times. I just don't hold him near anything he can grab onto if he falls.

[PythonWallace]

I've had something like this happen before.. Sometimes Vincent likes to fall off my arm, like he's drunk or something, and I react quickly to catch him.

He likes to grab on to stuff as he's swinging down off my arm, and sometimes I jerk, you know, natural reaction when one of your loved ones is falling. I've always been afraid of smaking his head on the table or him grabbing something and me pulling too hard. This has happened twice and he's been ok both times. I just don't hold him near anything he can grab onto if he falls.

Ball pythons are designed to stay on the ground, not to hold onto things up in the air. when you're holding him you should hold him, not put the responsability on him to hang on, since as you saw every time you dropped him, they aren't good at hanging on to things.

[Texas Dan]

Ball pythons are designed to stay on the ground, not to hold onto things up in the air. when you're holding him you should hold him, not put the responsability on him to hang on, since as you saw every time you dropped him, they aren't good at hanging on to things.

Yeah, I keep one hand underhim when he's crawling around. If he's wrapped up his ok, but those scares scared me straight.

[vancouverguy]

Ya so mine didn't fall... it was a moving piece of plastic that caught him.

Anyways its T+5 since the accident and all appears surprisingly well. I was definately concerned he was done for.
So yay for my tough little bugger!