Urgent please help: Peaches got hurt

I'm trying to be rational and not freak out, but my brain is just like 'PANIC'!!

I tried to do some online research into Metacam and Meloxicam in snakes, but really all I could find was other reptiles, Green Iguanas, and one study on Ball Pythons which said it was no good used during surgery (At least, that was what I got from it... I failed A level Biology badly).

The vets I went to are supposed to have specialised vets for reptiles, and it's where I took cinnamon to be sexed before as I didn't really know any other reptile people in my area. When we phoned the vet back today, she said that Metacam has to be given with something in the stomach (I guess like you said Zina to stop stomach irritation). She did also say that it would be better to just not give it rather than do it on a empty stomach, as Peaches should heal by herself, but the Metacam will help speed up the recovery. I know that ball pythons don't have a metabolism that means they need to eat everyday, so I'm hoping feeding a small weaned rat every 5ish days will leave enough time digesting for the Metacam to not cause any irritation, as force-feeding her a small prey will stress her out a lot and I don't want her thrashing around with her injury.

I cleaned her out again this morning since she peed everywhere and left me a nice little present in the corner lol :D I'm guessing bowel movement is a good sign.

Would there be anything similar to betadine I could use before it arrives? You can only get it on prescription (chemists here apparently stopped selling Iodine products early last year) so I've had to order online and it probably won't arrive until at least Wednesday. Antiseptics I would usually use on myself are rubbing alcohol, saline solution, or TCP antiseptic. But I am not a snake :P Any ideas would be great.

I'm sorry again for being so worried, I am trying to be rational I promise!

If the vet said Peaches will heal without medication, that is great news. Just relax, and make sure the injury stays clean.


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Whatever you do, don't use alcohol ! :O

I'm sure it would kill bacteria, but OUCH.

I like ointments that contain an antiseptic, but you have to make sure they do not contain added pain relief. Perhaps you could go do a drug store and ask the pharmacist what would be comparable to a betadine solution?

Do you have nice/big petstores? Not sure if you have vetricin over in Europe, but that is a nice sanitizer as well, and quite safe.

If in doubt, though, just wait, Keep an eye on the wound, make pictures when you have to handle her anyway. This way you can document the healing process and you will notice if things get worse, instead of better.

Well, you did pay for the vet visit, just call them one more time.

Ask what would be safe to keep the wound clean, and whether you even SHOULD put anything on it. I tried to google it, but you do not seem to have any of the products I'm familiar with.

What did they say about the risk of infection, or giving an antibiotic? To prevent septicemia?

What have you got to loose calling one more time ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zina10

Whatever you do, don't use alcohol ! :O

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Read loud and clear!

I had a look online for vetericyn, but it seems I can only get it online even from Pets at Home so I'm in the same boat as the Betadine. It's 6pm here now so everywhere is closed, but tommorow I will have a look around and see what I can find.

I've read online that saline solution can be used on snakes, so I might grab Peachy in a bit and use a syringe to flush it out.

If you have chlorhexidine (brand name includes novalsan), that also works with an appropriately low dilution. However, since it seems to be really difficult for you to get anything useful there (how does anyone clean their cuts in the UK??), there's really nothing wrong with just leaving it to heal on her own as long as the wound is already clean. Just keep an eye out on it for signs of infection beginning, and as long as it is healing at an appropriate rate, just have faith in her immune system and keep her home extra clean.

Saline solution can irritate the healthy tissue - if there's no signs of infection at this point, I'd just leave it be.

Edit: Looks like I might be behind the times on saline solution. Properly prepared, fresh saline solution seems fine. But it also looks like just flushing with tap water had the same results soo there's that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Booper

Read loud and clear!

I had a look online for vetericyn, but it seems I can only get it online even from Pets at Home so I'm in the same boat as the Betadine. It's 6pm here now so everywhere is closed, but tommorow I will have a look around and see what I can find.

I've read online that saline solution can be used on snakes, so I might grab Peachy in a bit and use a syringe to flush it out.

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You won't have to do a super thorough scrubbing kind of cleaning at this point. That is only beneficial when the wound is fresh, or infected.

If the wound is healing nicely, you don't want to irritate the tissue. At this point you just want to make sure you keep it clean. Since snakes sometimes tend to lay in their mess, or it soaks the surrounding paper towels, you want to clean it when needed.

Since the injury happened a while ago, bacteria either entered deeper tissues, or it didn't. My biggest concern would be that the injury might possibly have been deep enough to let bacteria enter into deeper tissue or the blood stream. In that case, antibiotics should have been given as a preventative, so the snake doesn't get infection or worse case possible, septicemia.

I'm hesitant to even mention this, because I don't want to freak you out, and its not like you can do something "right this second", not even call the vet.

Most likely this has not happened, or she would begin to decline. I'm only mentioning this because "IF" you call the vet back, you might want to ask about this. He is the one that saw the wound up close, so he should have a better idea about all this.

So do not worry so much at this point, just write down everything you can think of that you may want to bring up to the vet, before you call :) I tend to forget half of what I was going to ask, by the time I'm talking to a doctor/vet.

The vet did say about internal infections, and said that it didn't look deep enough to worry about it right now, but obviously if it starts to feel warm/swell up/leak etc. to go back straight away, so I am on the look out for an internal infection.

I did get a photo of her today, it still looks quite bad, but it is a lot better looking than Thursday night:

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/CfbyQ05.jpg

We're pretty sure the 'lumps' around the wound are just swelling, as they have started to go down.

That is great :)

I think she will be just fine.

Also look out for dark spots under the belly scales, discoloration and such.

She is lucky to have such caring owners.