First Aid for cat bites?

Discovered last night that my pastel male was missing...tub ajar so I had presumably failed to close it the previous day. I scoured last night and again more thoroughly today with no success, but found him tonight hiding under the dishwasher and covered in cat bites. No major lacerations, but numerous (dozens) of punctures. His spinal cord appears sound, as he balled up tightly when I finally extracted him from the metal housing.

He will be seeing a vet tomorrow (there are no late night vets who see herps here in town), but what can I do for him in the meantime? He is back in his nice warm tub (he was very cold; temps here are below freezing and we have cement floors). Is it safe to wash the punctures with very dilute chlorhexadine, as I would with a cat bite to another mammal?

I am just devastated...he is such a nervous shy snake...moreso than the others, and I allowed him to become horribly injured.

aw. poor guy, don't be too harsh on yourself, we all make mistakes.
I am not sure what to tell you about first aid, but if you are taking him to the vet first thing in the morning, i would say to just leave him be. If you use Aspen or Pine though, i would put newspaper over it, i'm not sure what the punctures look like, or how wide they are, but you don't want wood getting caught in them.

Good luck and keep us posted!

They're on newspaper anyway. The punctures look like a cat bite on any other animal...a pit in the skin. There are no open wounds for anything to stick to, but in any other animal I would flush them with chlorhex...just not sure if that's safe for snake tissues.

I would definitely flush the wounds with chlorhexidine(diluted to normal ratios), and maybe some warm water afterwards. If you have some povidone or betadine, that would be fine too. Let dry, then if you have a polysporin ointment, rub a bit of that in to the wounds. Cat claws are gross as are their mouths. I really don't know what the vet would do, other than tell you to scrub the wounds with a chlorhexidine soap or betadine, put polysporin on it and try to keep the outside of the wounds open so they can heal inside out. I don't think a round of Abx would be necessary if you washed the wounds fairly quickly, but the vet may say otherwise.

Poor booger! Give that cat a squirt with the spray bottle for me :)

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Originally Posted by SatanicIntention

I would definitely flush the wounds with chlorhexidine(diluted to normal ratios), and maybe some warm water afterwards. If you have some povidone or betadine, that would be fine too. Let dry, then if you have a polysporin ointment, rub a bit of that in to the wounds. Cat claws are gross as are their mouths. I really don't know what the vet would do, other than tell you to scrub the wounds with a chlorhexidine soap or betadine, put polysporin on it and try to keep the outside of the wounds open so they can heal inside out. I don't think a round of Abx would be necessary if you washed the wounds fairly quickly, but the vet may say otherwise.

Poor booger! Give that cat a squirt with the spray bottle for me :)

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Thanks! I can do all of that...I work at a veterinary ER for cats and dogs, but this is my first time dealing with a snake lac. I would assume abx anyway...he has soooo many wounds. It's just horrifying, and I'm sure they'll abscess. The two nights on the cold floor can't have been good for his immune system to begin with, right?

The cats are just predatory little brutes...I can't fault them for playing with him. And it was a cat batting under the dishwasher that called attention to him, or else who knows how long he'd have gone....

I hope he heals up ok :hug:

dr del

As far as my contact with cat bites, in humans, it is ALWAYS a good idea to go to the ER for a cat bite. That seems ridiculous but in my time volunteering at the ER and working for ER docs, I can tell you that cat bites are treated fairly seriously. I would guess that anti-biotics ARE in order. Cats carry a lot of germs in their mouths, and in humans I've seem the hand swell up and development compartment syndrome (swelling till the skin breaks, cutting off circulation to say the least) if treatment is lax (going into the doctor the next day). I would call an emergency vet to see about anything to do tonight. Cat bites seem so innocuous, but cats are disgusting little buggers and bites can be really harmful to humans, much less to reptiles that can't run a temp.

One thing about animals that can't run a fever when suffering an infection, they will always choose an area of warmer temperature to simulate a fever (really weird phenomenon). I'd be careful that you're snake doesn't overheat. I have no experience with snakes doing this, but I'm a psychology student and in some of my biopsychology experiments in which the preoptic area/anterior hypothalamus of sick rodents were damaged or removed, the rodents would go to the "too hot" area of the cage to simulate the fever. I'd just worry about this happening to the snakes as well. Again, never seen it happen with snakes, so my point could be worthless, but I would worry about it from my experience with other animals unable to thermoregulate.

Jess, I'm glad you got your pastel male back and sorry for his injuries. I hope all goes very well with his recovery. We have an adult female BP here that we adopted last year. She carries cat scratch scars (in her case a cat came down on her through a collapsed mesh lid on a glass tank at the previous owners home). I hope it will go as well for your snake as it did for her. She does carry some scars but they are thin and she's currently in for her first breeding cycle. With good vet care and your own experience, I'm sure your male will have the same happy future though right now it must be an awful worry for you.

Trust me, at the veterinary ER we see tons of cat bite abscesses on other cats, and I'm under no illusions about how badly they can become infected. I'm glad your ER is knowledgable about them; last time I got bitten by a cat on the job and had to go in, they didn't even clean it at all, and tried to tell me that cats don't carry rabies! People seriously understimate the destructive power of infection.

I'm a Vet Tech too and definitely know where you're coming from. Some of the human docs are just ignorant... And sometimes ignorance kills..

If any of those scab up, just pick the scabs off, flush them with warm betadine(watered down a bit) or chlorhexidine, and put some antibiotic ointment in it.

As for the antibiotics, if you want to prevent the Baytril burns(if he's going to be put on baytril, I just assumed), just inject a few cc's of saline or LRS into the muscle before you inject the meds. This helps distribute it better and won't cause the scarring you see on some reptiles. Helps keep them hydrated too and their kidneys flushed out.

For a good flushing technique, I take a butterfly catheter(one of the long, flexible ones, probably 8" or so), and cut the needle off leaving about 1.5" of flexible tubing attached to the syringe. It works great for getting into those small spaces and won't hurt if you get it into the wounds. You could probably use a tom cat catheter too, if you wanted.

Hope that helps!

Okay, update. He got x-rays, which show an intact body wall. Yay!!!! I was so worried that he might have abdominal perforation, since he's not a big guy (420g) and cat teeth are soooo long.



Started him on Baytril 100mg/ml which I've diluted to 50mg/ml in saline. According to the dosage instructions it can be given SID or EOD, so we're going to do SID for a coupla days, then EOD if everything looks okay. That was a hard shot to give, and he bled afterwards. It feels so different from a mammal. He's not patient about it like a dog, either...he writhed and struggled, and I hated having to hurt him, which was unexpected. I'm normally pretty stoic about treating critters, my own included. I think his lack of understanding made it worse. I can't give him a biscuit and make it all better.



Aside from that, he is alert, moving freely, and except for being a little more nervous than usual, is acting okay.


How long should I wait to offer food? Yesterday was the normal day, but obviously I didn't offer him any. Would next week be too soon, or does it just depend on how well he heals?

Thanks for all the advice from everybody; this place is such a terrific resource of shared knowledge. I feel like I have a handle on his condition, which helps a lot. The night I found him I was completely freaked out because I had no idea how to best help him.

Soooo....anybody want a kitten? ;-)

I would just wait until the Abx's are done. He's stressed enough by the shots and his gut flora may be offset by it, making him more prone to regurge, etc. It won't hurt him to wait 2 weeks, he's a hefty boy :)

Glad everything's fine!

I'd agree with Becky. Unless the vet says different I wouldn't feed him while he's stressed by this. A couple of weeks off feed for a healthy, normal weight snake can't be anywhere near as troubling as triggering a regurge I figure. I'd just keep him warm, offer lots of quiet time with no handling other than the necessary stuff, access to clean water and his medical treatments and call it good. I'm not a vet or vet tech, just that's what my own instincts would tell me to do (unless of course the vet suggested another course of action and it was a vet that was experienced with my snakes).

After several unpleasant Baytril injections and a lot of smeared on Neosporin, Topaz is doing wonderfully, and I'm much less panicked thanks to all the wonderful advice received here.

The lacs are all clean and dry, with no puffiness or odor and he is heading into a shed cycle. He's been alert and responsive, and not as shy as I'd have expected.

Today was a feeding day and I wasn't planning on feeding him, but he came out to the front of his tub and was tracking each mouse as I lifted it past him, and even struck at the plastic once. So I offered him a small mouse and he nailed it immediately and went into his warm hide to sleep it off, just like usual. I'm astounded at how quickly he's bounced back.

As far as his shed goes, should I be concerned about it not coming off all the way? I've not yet had any of mine need help, but I'm wondering if all of those punctures will keep him from shedding cleanly. What say you, o wise ones?

Jess,


I'm so glad to hear that he's making a good recovery! I'm not sure what to advise on the shed, whether a soak would be recommended if it didn't come completely off or not. Hopefully someone with more experience working with injured snakes will offer their insight!

Congrats again!!!

Oh that sucks. I always triple check everytime I open/close the lid to my snake tanks as I have 5 cats. Occasionally I realize I didn't double check, I go and do it right away, as cats see snakes as food and if one of them out out, well. Lesson learned, so I'm sure you'll be triple checking from now on.

I'm glad that he is doing well. I would keep an extra close watch on the shed, and provide him a humid hide for this one, which should help any problems before they start.