Injured Python - Help

This evening I went to handle my new baby python and noticed he had a piece of wood stuck to him. Upon closer inspection, its not stuck to him, its inside him. :(

I took him into our office and put him on the desk to get a close look. The thin sliver of wood had pierced the skin and around the wound his scales had come off. I had my wife drive us to an emergency vet clinic where the vet removed the wood and cleaned the wound. He has a spot on his left side now where the scales are gone and you can see his red raw flesh. the vet said he did not know my python needed antibiotics or not, but said he should be good to go now. I brought him home and put a dab of Neosporin on the wound. He seems to be acting ok, he is not lethargic or anything.

The only thing I can imagine is that he rubbed up against the tree root I had put in his cage for him to crawl on. He must have rubbed against it hard and gave himself the large splinter and broke it off. I have removed the piece of wood so this does not happen again.

Has anyone seen something like this before? Even though the vet said he will be alright, I'm still worried as he is a baby. Any insight on this would be appreciated. Thanks!

:gj: You definitely did the right thing by taking him to the vet right away.

Kudos on getting him to the vet quick!
what kind of bedding is he on?

he should heal up good, you should see the mess my male akua was in.. i thought there was no comming back... but he is as good as new =] they are pretty resiliant critters =D

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Originally Posted by ChicaPiton519

Kudos on getting him to the vet quick!
what kind of bedding is he on?

he should heal up good, you should see the mess my male akua was in.. i thought there was no comming back... but he is as good as new =] they are pretty resiliant critters =D

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I have him on Aspen bedding.

Im just worried that his scales are gone. Do they grow back quickly? Do they grow back at all? I know, probably a stupid question but Ive never had any experience with this.

Bless his heart! Sounds like he's in a great home! :) I'm willing to beat that he'll grow all his scales back. It might take a few sheds ;)

they should, it will prolly take a few sheds, like Laooda said... if you want, i can maybe find a pic of the "pickle" Akua got in a year ago... you wont wory so much about a couple missing scales ;)

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Originally Posted by Coins

I have him on Aspen bedding.

Im just worried that his scales are gone. Do they grow back quickly? Do they grow back at all? I know, probably a stupid question but Ive never had any experience with this.

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if you want to monitor his health more closely, you can put him on paper towels as substrate until the wound looks more healed. His scales may grow back after a few shed cycles. If they were too damaged he'll just have a scar.

And with the neosporin, the kind you put on him -wasn't- the kind with the pain reliever in it, was it? you aren't supposed to put that kind on reptiles.

good luck with him recovering. :)

Good job on getting him to the vet so quickly!

I 2nd the recommendation to put him on paper towels for now. It is more sterile than aspen.

I learned my lesson quickly on what to put in the tanks and what not to put in the tanks...but it was at Foster's cost. Poor thing!

We had bought some greenery that came with a suction cup and a hook. It was located in the very top corner of the tank. While my son was gone I was checking on her and the poor baby got stuck on the hook! Being scared to death of her, I didn't know what to do so I called my sister who was next door. By the time she got here, Foster had gotten herself off the hook but had me worried sick. I had no way of checking to see if she had impaled herself.

Glad your bp is on the med. I'd like to see what her scales look like once they come back....out of curiosity. GOOD LUCK!

you did a great thing by having him treated.. is it possible that he ingested it from the bedding? I would suggest putting him on paper towels or newspaper to avoid it from happening again

Well, I found out how he injured himself. I have a 20 gallon high with a wire top. There is a groove in the top of the aquarium where the glass for the fishtank is supposed to go and the wire top. The little :cens0r::cens0r::cens0r::cens0r: is somehow wedging himself up there trying to force the top off. Last night I awoke to a very loud banging and thought someone was trying to break into my apartment through a window. I went into the bedroom and when I turned on the light my snake acted like he was caught and panicked.

:)

When he saw the light turn on he fell from the top of the aquarium to the spot his log was previously before I removed it. He must be at the perfect size to get his body in that groove. I took him out and checked him for injury but he seemed fine. I wedged some aluminum foil into the groove and put a couple of gym weights on top of the enclosure until I buy him his new enclosure that has a sliding top and a lock.

I called a reptile vet today and I am going to be taking him for a checkup thursday morning where they might give him antibiotics just to make sure no infection sets in. Im nervous, though, as it will be administered by mouth. I foresee getting tagged doing this but the vet said he will show me how to do it.

Just thought I'd update. Im very nervous about him being ok as this is my first reptile. I appreciate all the replies.

I had thought about suggesting that he could have impaled himself on the cage furniture, but I was unsure what you meant when you said the splinter was "inside him".

Glad to see that things are working out. BP's are not great climbers and do much better when that risk is minimized. Short cages work best for BP's. :gj:

Heres his injury. It looks painful. :( You can also see his alienhead. So cool!


http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c1...x/HPIM0214.jpg

And here is another of him chillin'.

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c1...x/HPIM0216.jpg

I got Zod into the exotic pet vet this morning who looked him over and said no antibiotics are needed. He weighed in at 52 gram!! So tiny! Talked to the vet about his lack of eating and the vet told me to try live food. Bought a pinky on the way home and Zod was practically trying to get away from my wife and head toward the bag the pinky was in. Got him back in his cage and dropped in the pinky and....NOM NOM NOM NOM!

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c1...x/HPIM0218.jpg