Shedding and wound issue

Hey everyone,

Again i have a question regarding the wound my bp got last week, and shedding

One of my previous posts has pictures of the cut http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=85105

Anyway, he just shed, but had some problems, so I put him in a "luke warm" soak for about a half hour, then had him move through a damp warm towel to remover any excess shed. Unfortunetly none of the shed from the point where he has the cut and lower came off, mainly because i was afraid of re opening the wound by having the shed pull it off.

My question is how long can the shed stay on the last 2 inches of his tail?

I was going to try another soak tomorrow night but I am worried about the wound opening up from the water, or from the shed coming off


PS. I am taking him to the vet on wednesday, but my herp vet is away until then.


thanks

There are a couple of things you can do.

Waiting until you see the vet will be no problem for your snake. I couple of days with a stuck shed won't hurt it.

Soaking may open up the wound if it is still not completely closed under the skin but if it is closed and healed just the scab will come off. Being a newb, I assume, you probably don't have any past experience like this to base it on.

That's no problem either.

You can get the skin off the rest of the tail and avoid the area near the wound. A wet wash cloth would probably do the trick.

With snakes we don't see the healing process as easily as we do with mammals. A snake can be completely healed but still have a nasty looking scab on the outside which will come of with the next shed. Most of the time.

Sometimes the wound is not totally healed and the scab has just enough grip to stay on the snake.

One or two sheds for the wound to heal, with skin only in the area of the wound, won't hurt your snake either.

Eventually it will either come off in a soak or a shed.

A vet visit certainly won't hurt but I wouldn't be worried about it making it until Weds. were the snake mine.

Thanks for the info, any idea how to remove the skin below the cut without pulling the scab off?

In other words... the entire tail for 2 inches still has skin remaining, with the cut at the highest point of these 2 inches, how can i remove the skin if it is all attached like a sleeve?

IMO treat the wound with neosporin and then add a humid hide if soaking does not work. Neosporin either way.

A well soaked washcloth, a rough one, will literally pull the skin of as you gently pull the tail though the hand holding the cloth.

Or you can take a section of said cloth, wrap it around your finger, and rub the skin off that was.

Remember, the skin is dead so it won't hurt unless you actually press hard enough to make the flesh underneath feel pain, don't be afraid to do a little scrubbing; recall your mother washing behind your ears and do that.

alright thanks for the info, i left him alone, and will try again later this week or i will talk to the vet when I go, because I also fed him a nice fat hopper tonight. and hopefully the wound would have healed better by then aswell.

Thanks for the info, It makes me feel a lot better knowing that even though his wound looks bad, it may not be as bad. And that having the shed on his tail wont be too harmful.

PS. This sounds completely noobish (even though I am completely a nood) but what does IMO mean?

IMO- In My Opinion-

At least I think that's what it means.

Most of the time when you see that it REALLY means In My Opinion the ONLY way to do (whatever they were giving an opinion on) is my way which I am about to TELL you and you better do it MY way or you'll be doing it wrong.

Sometimes it's just an opinion.

Figuring out which is which is the fun part. Once you've been around for a while you'll have a better idea how it works.

oohh, now it makes sence

thanks alot

The wound on that guy, dosnt seem to be too too bad. But of course, a vet will have a much better opinion of it than i.

I got a female ball python back from someone who seriously neglected the animal. She was barely fed, and was seemingly left overnight or something, with a prey item.

This is how she looked, when i first brought her home.
http://pics.livejournal.com/mooingtricycle/pic/001334tg

Like your snake, she went through shed, and the wounds DID reopen.
They look nasty, but with some cleaning, and neosporin on them, they are healing. it will just take some time for them to do so. But the scabs that reformed, look better than the previous.

Again, they LOOK bad, but they really arent very horrible. ( nothing the snake cant recover from)
http://pics.livejournal.com/mooingtricycle/pic/001405z9
http://pics.livejournal.com/mooingtricycle/pic/00141ds6

So. A vet will be a good thing to get a professional opinion from, and i do recommend it. But i just wanted you to see mine, and let you know that i dont think the wound on your snake looks too horrible so dont fret too much about it.