Oh no, need prompt advice, have had an accident

I decided to take her to the vet in her little tub (I just took her bowl out and put the lid on) which turned out to have been a good idea. It's a sterilite tub and there is a small ledge where the handles attach and he said it was likely the cause of the injury (apparently he had seen something very similar before). Basically if she was hanging out up there on the ledge, pressed against the roof, and I pulled the tub open her skin and some of her neck probably got caught in the little gap between the top of the tub and the ceiling. Since the injury looks like a tear rather than a cut, and some bruising came up around it he thinks this is what happened. The bruising came up this morning and was not visible last night when I fed, so the injury probably happened when I first opened her tub to offer her the pinkie.

I honestly don't remember if she was up there or not at the time, but I have seen her do it in the past so I am assuming she was since I cannot find any other explanation and it matches the injury. It never occurred to me that her skin could catch in the gap since the tubs fit really snugly in that rack, but she is a very small baby (hatched at 32g, got to 29g, and is up to 60g now).

Treatment at this point is basically keep her and her environment very clean, so I will be F10-ing everything and changing her paper twice a day to keep any bacteria at bay. The edges of the tear had mostly closed back together this morning by itself, but he said since the wound was shallow and her baby skin is so thin he couldn't have stitched it anyway. He did swab it with something to clean the little part that's still open, and if she's up for it I can do a dilute betadine swab every 12 hours until it's fully closed (which looks like it might be tonight anyway). I am to watch closely for any signs of infection, swelling, or changes of color, and if I see them come back immediately to get her on antibiotics, and we'll be going back for a checkup in a week regardless. I wanted to start antibiotics anyway, but he gently reminded me that I would have to do it by injection when she's already pretty stressed out (and also very tiny and thus trickier to inject correctly) and that prophylactic antibiotic use is what breeds resistant bacteria. Her prognosis at this point is good, he expects a full recovery and the mark should go away in a shed or two.

She seems perkier today, which is a relief. I'm going to go measure the rack slots and then head to the store and see if I can find replacement tubs with no ledge. I am mortified that I have injured an animal that I am supposed to be nurturing, and I hope others can learn from my mistake. It doesn't matter if you're rushed, or feeding one snake or 200, pay attention, slow down, and look where they are and what they are doing.

ETA: thanks for the happy thoughts and good wishes everyone, I'll keep updating as she progresses.

Glad she's going to be ok. :) The little diva makes her life rough. Thanks for the warning. I'm looking to add a small rack and will pay attention when opening tubs.

Here is a quick pic from ipad (awful camera, so the colors are WAY off), the bruise looks worse in the pic than real life since this thing seems to pic up a lot of red. I might try to get a better pic tonight with the good camera, but for now I want to leave her be and stop traumatizing her.
http://i1029.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0ec85148.jpg


And here is the offending tub ledge, there is about a 1/8 inch gap between the top of the tub and the rack. Too small for a regular size hatchling to get caught (because they would still be in 6qt tubs then, not 15 qt) but since she's so little that was likely enough of a gap to catch her wee neck (not sure why the pic is upsidedown, but priority at the moment is to go find new tubs).http://i1029.photobucket.com/albums/...ps07feb400.jpg

Thanks for the update. It sounds like you've got a good vet who was able to spot the cause, not just treat the injury.

Please don't be so hard on yourself! I'm sure I would feel the same way if it happened to my animal, but you did everything right to take care of the baby and get her to the vet right away. Also it's very good of you to warn others about a potential problem.

I hope you keep on updating with her progress.

Thanx for the update, glad she looking up already!!

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Glad everything turned out okay for your little one :)


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Wow glad she's gonna be alright. Things happen, don't be hard on yourself because she got hurt. It was an accident. You didn't intentionally injure her. Also it sounds like you have a very good knowledgeable vet. Keep up the awesome work and keep us posted.

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Originally Posted by Badgemash

I think it's just the top layer of skin or cartilage-type layer right underneath that. The exposed part underneath is a silvery color and doesn't seem to have much blood supply. I would think if it was the muscle it would be pinker and have some blood/bleeding, but I'm not certain.

Edited to Add: It's after 1 am now, so I'm going to try to sleep a bit. I'll report back tomorrow when we return from the vet.

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it wouldnt be cartilage...it sounds like underlying connective tissue...or tendon (usually silver/grey and very little to no blood)...muscle is usually very red or pink looking and almost always blood is involved if muscle is visible.

Thanks everyone. Still no signs of infection, and the bruising is going down. She was out of her hide and doing her usual morning exploration routine today, so I think she's feeling a bit better.

I am also very lucky to have not one but two very good reptile specialist vets nearby, it's stuff like this that I have to remember when it's 120 degrees outside and I can't remember why I choose to live in Phoenix.

Oh crud, apparently the stress of it all has made her go into shed (that or she just has the worst timing ever). Her neck is healing slowly, but she's in blue tonight. I just hope she doesn't reopen it trying to get her skin off. :(