911 Petey Is Wounded!!!!

Well Petey escaped lst night and I think one of my cats got to him. He has a wound right behind his head. Looks like the skin is pulled away about an inch down his body. There is no blood just raw meat. What do I treat him with? Right now I have antibiatic ointment on the wound and he is hugged up to my chest.

Can you post pics so I can ge an idea of how large the wound is

Neosporin without the pain killer. And try putting some books or something on top of its cage so it doesn't escape -_-

Take him to the vet!

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Originally Posted by llovelace

Can you post pics so I can ge an idea of how large the wound is

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Its covered in ointment right now, its about the size of the end of my pinkie finger. Heres a pic from my cell.
http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/446...1609375319.jpg

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Originally Posted by gold217

Neosporin without the pain killer. And try putting some books or something on top of its cage so it doesn't escape -_-

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There was a small opening in the door where the seal had pulled away last night. Stupid mistake on my part for not checking before bedtime. I have fixed it now so hopefully this wont happen again. Poor little fellow slept on the cold basement floor all night. He seems ok for now, let me put the ointment on him without any trouble and he laid in my hand against my chest for at least 20 minutes getting warmed up.I cant take him to the vet right now, ours wont be in the office until Wed of this week.

Jesus wept.

That is not something you treat at home.

Take him to a good reptile vet. If yours is unavailable ask him to recommend an alternative - or possible ask someone on here if they know of one.

They will probably want to put him on antibiotics to try and prevent infection - cats mouths are filthy and that is a huge oepn wound for an animal that size.


dr del

Get that little guy to a good vet asap.

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Originally Posted by killbee

There was a small opening in the door where the seal had pulled away last night. Stupid mistake on my part for not checking before bedtime. I have fixed it now so hopefully this wont happen again. Poor little fellow slept on the cold basement floor all night. He seems ok for now, let me put the ointment on him without any trouble and he laid in my hand against my chest for at least 20 minutes getting warmed up.I cant take him to the vet right now, ours wont be in the office until Wed of this week.

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Oh, sorry :P Now that you posted a pic go to the vet. If u can't find one there are lists of vets on websites of reptile shows in your state.

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Originally Posted by killbee

Well Petey escaped lst night and I think one of my cats got to him. He has a wound right behind his head. Looks like the skin is pulled away about an inch down his body. There is no blood just raw meat. What do I treat him with? Right now I have antibiatic ointment on the wound and he is hugged up to my chest.

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It's hard to see clearly, but that does not look like something a cat did. Cat wounds usually have deep punctures. That looks like he pulled the skin off getting out from under the lid on his cage.

Regardless, that snake needs to see a vet.

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Originally Posted by Redneck_Crow

It's hard to see clearly, but that does not look like something a cat did. Cat wounds usually have deep punctures. That looks like he pulled the skin off getting out from under the lid on his cage.

Regardless, that snake needs to see a vet.

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After looking better at it looks like what you said that he's scraped it against something. There are no puncture wounds or any other marks on him anywhere except there.

The clear looking stuff is not the wound but the glob of antibiotic ointment. Its not as bad as the pics look. The raw area is about half of what you see in the pic.

That is horrible, he needs a vet ASAP. You should probably triple check your husbandry and safety measures thoroughly as well, that shouldn't happen.....

Well, seeing as how you've addressed the escape problem, I won't tell you that this shouldn't have happened, human error exists, but I will say that indeed, that snake needs to see a vet ASAP.

How deep is the wound? Is it like a a scrape or gouge?
Is it just the scales & skin that is missing?

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Originally Posted by llovelace

How deep is the wound? Is it like a a scrape or gouge?
Is it just the scales & skin that is missing?

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Just scales/skin no gouge no blood, not cut into it any way. Looks like he scraped the skin away in that area or peeled it back exposing the flesh. I have no local reptile vets I can go to, all that are open on weekends for emergencies are for mammals only, dogs, cats, etc. I found one about 20 miles away but not till monday. I'm keeping enough ointment on it to keep any dirt or bedding out of the wound. Hopefully that will be enough until monday.:(

I'd replace the bedding with newspaper or paper towels asap.

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Originally Posted by LGray23

I'd replace the bedding with newspaper or paper towels asap.

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Good idea, didnt even think to do that. I'll go do that right now, that will make it much easier to keep the wound clean. Just dont realize how quick you get attached to something until something bad happens. When I found him hurt I was running around the house looking for antibotic ointment like one of my kids had gotten hurt.

OK, I set my screen on magnification and took another look at that wound. It doesn't look as bad as I thought it was initially. I see what you're saying about most of that being a big gob of ointment.

If I'm looking at it correctly it seems to be about an inch long and somewhat less than an inch wide. On magnification it looks very superficial.

If this were my snake I would call the herp vet on Monday and describe the wound. He'll probably want you to bring it in if he's never seen the snake before. But I think in a case like this my vet would not put him on injectable antibiotics. This might be a case where he'll have you use topicals, which won't be as rough for you or the snake.

I'd take him to the vet and the ointment doesn't work for them like it does for us. For mine I don't use neo at all on any of mine. Betadyne, antibiotics, and there's a antibiotics cream that I would use for a wound like that. But first he needs to go to the vet. Neo can make things worse especially if is a large wound, or needs to applied repeatedly. It can end up making healthy scales flake off, or helping infection set in, as well as making infections worse, or making the injury larger. Anything oil based will do that. Oil based products soften the scales promoting more problems instead of helping them. Take him to the vet, change to paper towels, and keep that wound as clean and dry as possible. Clean it with betadyne 2x daily. And treat with abos of vet recommended.


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