Tail Broken? Bent? Kinked?

A few days after I received my Retics, I noticed a strange abnormality on the tip of Xanthess' tail. I can't say for certain if it was like that when I got her or if it happened afterwards. At first, I was using large dog dishes in their tubs that had enough space for them to crawl under and they were basically living under them, so I took them out. The only thing that could have possibly happened to her tail since i've had her is, perhaps one of the times I lifted the water dish up to check on her, maybe her tail got stuck underneath of it when I sat it back down. Either way, it was stupid of me to have sat it back down with her still under there!

If i'm not mistaken, there aren't any bones or skeletal structure in this part of the tail, is there? So, this wouldn't be a kink, would it? Assuming it's not a kink and her tail got caught under something, will it ever straighten itself back out? One thing i'm concerned about is her shed getting stuck and building up on it and cutting off circulation...

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...ess-tail-1.jpg

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...ess-tail-2.jpg

looks more blister or a boil to me. how does it feel? is it squishy?

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Originally Posted by Aedryan Methyus

If i'm not mistaken, there aren't any bones or skeletal structure in this part of the tail, is there?

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yes there are, here's a retic skeleton: https://www.flickr.com/photos/301202/7159809559/
(hope link works)

Unless your dishes are VERY heavy, i dont think its from that. I set stuff on top of my snakes all the time like hides and they dont care.

To me that looks more like an abscess or a boil like mentioned. Does it feel soft and squishy?

Could also just be something she was born with.

But it doesnt look like a kink or break to me.

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

Unless your dishes are VERY heavy, i dont think its from that. I set stuff on top of my snakes all the time like hides and they dont care.

To me that looks more like an abscess or a boil like mentioned. Does it feel soft and squishy?

Could also just be something she was born with.

But it doesnt look like a kink or break to me.

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It doesn't feel soft or squishy at all to me. It feels hard... These are the water dishes I was using:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/World-Pet...Black/46165737

Filled half way up with water they were pretty heavy and I can totally picture the tiny tip of her little tail getting smashed between the edge of the dish and the tub if I sat it back down on it, since there was only paper towel beneath it (no substrate). I wish I knew for sure if it was like that already when I got her. But, if it happened since she has been in my possession, i'm pretty sure this has to be what happened. If a snake's tail were to get smashed under something like that, do you guys think it will ever straighten itself back out or will it always be like that?

Well i think if you actually squished it enough to do that kind of damage, it would be painful and she would yank away or otherwise show some sign of distress or pain if you touched it.

If it is hard, i personally think it is just a 'defect' so lack of a better term and i wouldnt worry about it too much. Just watch it and make sure it doesnt start to look funky like discoloring, or blood under the scales/skin. But i really dont think you did it. The only thing it would remind me of is if you bent a snakes tail doubled back on itself to make it release a bite but that would basically be breaking the tail and a last resort thing.

I still think it is birth 'mark' and gives her character. If anyone steals your snake, you have an easy way to identify her :D

Honestly, to me it does look like a break in the tail.

If you had substrate that gives a little, it may have made a difference, but such a heavy dish (filled with water) and that tiny, tiny thin tail..yup, no good. Esp. since that dish has such a narrow edge. All the weight was concentrated over that thin edge.

The bone in that part of the tail is quite thin, doesn't take much to break it. She may have yanked right then as well, and separated the pieces internally.

Bone heals rather quick, though, but not always pretty unless set. Of course you couldn't set that, so the bone might have thrown layers of material around that uneven break, hence the bump.

At this point there is nothing you can do about it, other then keep an eye on it, esp. with shedding, like you said.

It was an accident, so don't beat yourself up about it. She will just have a tiny cosmetic flaw..

Well, I could also be wrong, of course. But to me that is the most logical conclusion given to what it looks like and what may happened.

I use the same exact bowls. I honestly can't imagine the weight harming the snake unless it was dropped from a decent height. I put in a good amount of due diligence when deciding whether or not to use them. The sides are not rigid, but not flimsy either. They have some give. The bottom of the "bowl" itself is pretty much flush with the exterior edges, so weight distribution would be much more even than would be required to do damage if set down relatively level. Otherwise, the angle of the bowl would be too extreme and the water would pour out everywhere, lightening the weight of the bowl drastically.

I'm not sure what the injury/deformation could be since I have no experience there, but highly doubt the bowl was cause for the injury.

Obviously, that's just my two cents based on my experience with those exact warer bowls.

Even with the water bowl full of water, though? They can get pretty heavy then and the bone in the tail tip is incredibly thin.

I looked over the photos of her that were posted, some seem to show just about the entire tail and I see no kink..

At this point its probably just a wait and see situation. It doesn't seem to be an infection, since it is hard and not discolored. I don't think it takes away from her Beauty. ;)

i don't think you're gonna find the answer(s) here TBH. it's just all speculation unless u get her an x-ray. otherwise just lookout for her to see if it gets better, worse or stays like the same.

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Originally Posted by zina10

Even with the water bowl full of water, though? They can get pretty heavy then and the bone in the tail tip is incredibly thin.

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I certainly can't say it's impossible, but I would be very surprised. I considered that before buying them. Now I'm curious what they weigh empty and full....hold that thought...

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Originally Posted by craigafrechette

I certainly can't say it's impossible, but I would be very surprised. I considered that before buying them. Now I'm curious what they weigh empty and full....hold that thought...

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LOL!! Go weigh it ;)

Whether that happened in Aedryans care or the former owner, but that tail probably got squshed at some point. It wouldn't take much force to damage that fragile bone. If the edge of the bowl sat down on that tip, her trying to pull it away might have been enough to cause that damage. Since the tail was in between the hard bottom of the cage (no substrate, just paper) and the thin edge of the full bowl.

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Originally Posted by zina10

LOL!! Go weigh it ;)

Whether that happened in Aedryans care or the former owner, but that tail probably got squshed at some point. It wouldn't take much force to damage that fragile bone. If the edge of the bowl sat down on that tip, her trying to pull it away might have been enough to cause that damage. Since the tail was in between the hard bottom of the cage (no substrate, just paper) and the thin edge of the full bowl.

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Sorry for the delay, hahahaha. Had to shower after work.

Empty weight =146 grams
Full weight = 2lbs 11 grams

This is quite the conundrum....

It would have been about half full, so it would have weighed about 1 pound probably...

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Originally Posted by zina10

I looked over the photos of her that were posted, some seem to show just about the entire tail and I see no kink..

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I was just looking over the original thread: https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...en-Child-Retic
In the third, sixith and eighth photos, looks like you can see a bulge, so I would guess she had this before OP received her, it was easy to miss though.

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Originally Posted by AbsoluteApril

I was just looking over the original thread: https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...en-Child-Retic
In the third, sixith and eighth photos, looks like you can see a bulge, so I would guess she had this before OP received her, it was easy to miss though.

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Those are photos I took after I got her. The only photo I have of her from before I got her doesn't show her tail unfortunately...

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Originally Posted by Ax01

i don't think you're gonna find the answer(s) here TBH. it's just all speculation unless u get her an x-ray. otherwise just lookout for her to see if it gets better, worse or stays like the same.

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I think that's the best answer you're going to get.

But you'd know best on how you put down that bowl, I've tried putting back a hide with the snake still under, sometimes it works and other times it ends on top of them and I have to wait until they move. If I'm slowly putting the hide down and its on the snake, there's no way they'd get harmed, but if I had some height and dropped It, that would be a different story. You had a water bowl, definitely heavy enough if you dropped it from a good height, it could cause damage. But if you were slowly and had control putting it down and even if all the weight was on one corner and it landed on the snake, I'd be surprised that occurred.

My take on it all. Hope you and the snake all the best. Might just be a cool "deformation"

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Originally Posted by Aedryan Methyus

Those are photos I took after I got her. The only photo I have of her from before I got her doesn't show her tail unfortunately...

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ahhh okay, I figured those photos were right at the unboxing stage.

I still stick to my original thought of its just ' a thing' like a birth mark, deformity, abnormality, character mark, ID badge, whatever. If it doesnt bother her when you touch it or rub it, then i wouldnt worry about it. Some snakes dont like their tail touched though so dont mistake that for a pain reaction. When i want to get Caesar all worked up, i just grab his tail and he goes bananas and runs like crazy or slaps his tail around to get my hand off it lol.

I bet if i stripped you down naked and searched you, i could find some weird thing too...but we wont go there :P

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

I still stick to my original thought of its just ' a thing' like a birth mark, deformity, abnormality, character mark, ID badge, whatever. If it doesnt bother her when you touch it or rub it, then i wouldnt worry about it. Some snakes dont like their tail touched though so dont mistake that for a pain reaction. When i want to get Caesar all worked up, i just grab his tail and he goes bananas and runs like crazy or slaps his tail around to get my hand off it lol.

I bet if i stripped you down naked and searched you, i could find some weird thing too...but we wont go there :P

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Hey, it's not rape if someone is throwing confetti! LOL!

But, seriously... It doesn't seem to bother her when I feel it. She just pulls her tail away naturally... If this did happen from her tail getting pinned beneath the water dish (I have a bad feeling that it did), it would have happened within the first couple of days I had her, because I decided not to use those water dishes for the Retics until they're big enough to not be able to fit underneath of them and I took them out. I received these guys on February 15th and I would say that I had probably taken the water dishes out by the 18th. I'm pretty sure I had sat the water dish back down with her still laying under it only once. I did it as slow and careful as could be, because I obviously didn't want to set it on top of her, but it was really stupid of me nonetheless! :( So, anyway, if her tail was broken by the water dish, it would have happened sometime between February 15th and 18th...