My Red Tail Needs HELP!!

so i get back in town from work to find my 8 month old red tail almost dead.... my room mates had some people over partying and someone wanted to see my red tail eat a mouse. so they got one out of our feeder room and dropped it in with her. she was in shed so i guess thats why she didnt show any interest. well they ended up forgetting about the mouse and left it in with her. still dont know exactly who did it.. but anyway the mouse ended up chewing her all up.. she has two spots on her back about an inch long that are all the way down to the bone......

when i found her she was extremely sluggish and i didnt think she was goin to last more than a few days. its been almost 2 weeks now and she seems to be doing a lot better. ive been giving her a bath as much as i can, and putting some neosporin on the open wounds every few days. as far as i can see they arent too red, so i think its helping and holding back infection.


just want some input from you guys on how i should keep everything clean and when i should try and feed her again. its been almost two months since she ate last.

and i might even try and find a good home for her if someone pays to have her shipped. but only to someone that has some major rep so i know they would give her some special care.

Oh my gosh-- I am so sorry for the ignorance of others that has caused pain to your snake.

I would take the snake to the vet. I mean, you know this is what many people will tell you~ right? With honesty?- I am surprised that you have not done this already with wounds all the way to the bone.

Please. Take your snake to the vet.

She should have gone to a herp vet.

I am guessing you just cant afford it, and I probably couldnt either so I am not going to get on your case.

Try to get some betadine and do betadine soaks. It is a sanitizing solution kind of similar to iodine in properties. It would work much better than the neosporin and would be much easier to use.

I would bump her heat up just a little, maybe a degree or two.

Keep her on a clean, sterile substrate....unprinted newspaper or paper towel would be best. Be sure to change it if ANYTHING gets on it....water, pee, poo, urate, w/e.

Get pics up if you can.

If you think she can pass food, and would possibly be interested in feeding, I would offer something smaller than normal.

Get her on F/t so this can never happen again, and find out who did this and make them pay for all the medical attention that is neccessary.

I would be finding a new roomate if I were in your situation, but that is your call. I wouldnt be comfortable living with someone who cannot respect personal boundaries, especially when it comes to things like this, where one dumb move can have some very serious repercussions. If they are not mature enough to realize that, maybe they need to find another place to live.

I am probably being a little harsh, I have not slept very well at all for about a week now.

Overall, I hope your boa heals up well, and if you do end up deciding to rehome her, make sure you do your research and find someone who will really give her the care she needs. You may be able to find a reptile rescue in your area that will let you surrender her for free. If not, I am sure that someone on this forum can point you to someone willing to take her.

Edit: I noticed you are from Kennesaw, GA...I am pretty sure BeardedDragon, another member here, is also from that area, and is well respected in this community. If you need help rehoming her, he may be a good person to talk to.

My first suggestion is get her to a vet. It's been 2 weeks already, but it is still a good idea.

Second, if you don't get her to a vet, call a vet for some free advice(if you can get a hold of one). I know that these guys are great at all things with snake husbandry, but an experienced herp vet will be your best bet at giving advice for keeping infections at bay checking for serious tissue/nerve damage.

From someone who has just rudimental knowledge of trauma and the healing process: putting neosporin(without painkiller) on is a good bet, and hopefully the snake will heal and pull through. I don't know when/if the snake will take another meal, or when it will be safe to offer another meal. Animals are pretty hardy, and it wouldn't surprise me for your rtb to pull through and heal all the way, and go on to eat and live a long life. However, there will be some kind of permanent damage, scarring for sure, and mental trauma(snake PTSD?), and like I mentioned before nerve damage is very likely.

Good luck, and call a vet first thing in the morning!

oh i know, ive got an appointment for her in two days. just wanted to see what kind of help you guys can give me for now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ThyTempest

She should have gone to a herp vet.

I am guessing you just cant afford it, and I probably couldnt either so I am not going to get on your case.

Try to get some betadine and do betadine soaks. It is a sanitizing solution kind of similar to iodine in properties. It would work much better than the neosporin and would be much easier to use.

I would bump her heat up just a little, maybe a degree or two.

Keep her on a clean, sterile substrate....unprinted newspaper or paper towel would be best. Be sure to change it if ANYTHING gets on it....water, pee, poo, urate, w/e.

Get pics up if you can.

If you think she can pass food, and would possibly be interested in feeding, I would offer something smaller than normal.

Get her on F/t so this can never happen again, and find out who did this and make them pay for all the medical attention that is neccessary.

I would be finding a new roomate if I were in your situation, but that is your call. I wouldnt be comfortable living with someone who cannot respect personal boundaries, especially when it comes to things like this, where one dumb move can have some very serious repercussions. If they are not mature enough to realize that, maybe they need to find another place to live.

I am probably being a little harsh, I have not slept very well at all for about a week now.

Overall, I hope your boa heals up well, and if you do end up deciding to rehome her, make sure you do your research and find someone who will really give her the care she needs. You may be able to find a reptile rescue in your area that will let you surrender her for free. If not, I am sure that someone on this forum can point you to someone willing to take her.

Edit: I noticed you are from Kennesaw, GA...I am pretty sure BeardedDragon, another member here, is also from that area, and is well respected in this community. If you need help rehoming her, he may be a good person to talk to.

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thanks for the advice guys!!!

and yeah, the only reason i haven't had her to a vet yet is because at the time when it first happened i had just found a kitten that someone left in a dumpster... all his shots and what not made me even more broke than i already am..

but again thanks for the help, and ill let you guys know how the vet visit turns out.

thytempet's ideas are pretty good, I hadn't even thought about substrate being an issue.

As stated previously: STERILE. Everything should be as sterile as possible. Mammal urine luckily is sterile(can be used to clean wounds in the wild in a pinch in fact, from what I've read), but I don't know about snake urine/urates, so get any excrement removed asap when it appears.

and once again, good luck and keep us updated!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TheShortBus

oh i know, ive got an appointment for her in two days. just wanted to see what kind of help you guys can give me for now.

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Wow, that was fast.

I just want to say props to you for not messing around when your animal needs vet care. It probably should have been done sooner, but good to see that you sought out help and are taking the advice.

Oh man, i'm sorry for the issues! I hope everything works out!
I can relate, i had a similar issue but my mouse did not chew my snake to bits.
Ok, as for the snake they are hardy species. In the wild you can see some with missing tails, HUGE missing pieces from their side, even a punture that has healed with the foreign object still there! We all learn by trial and error, it's the same with snakes. So, with proper treatment lets hope that this is one error your snake will quickly recover from.
Let us know how it goes!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ThyTempest

She should have gone to a herp vet.

I am guessing you just cant afford it, and I probably couldnt either so I am not going to get on your case.

Try to get some betadine and do betadine soaks. It is a sanitizing solution kind of similar to iodine in properties. It would work much better than the neosporin and would be much easier to use.
I would bump her heat up just a little, maybe a degree or two.

Keep her on a clean, sterile substrate....unprinted newspaper or paper towel would be best. Be sure to change it if ANYTHING gets on it....water, pee, poo, urate, w/e.

Get pics up if you can.

If you think she can pass food, and would possibly be interested in feeding, I would offer something smaller than normal.

Get her on F/t so this can never happen again, and find out who did this and make them pay for all the medical attention that is neccessary.

I would be finding a new roomate if I were in your situation, but that is your call. I wouldnt be comfortable living with someone who cannot respect personal boundaries, especially when it comes to things like this, where one dumb move can have some very serious repercussions. If they are not mature enough to realize that, maybe they need to find another place to live.

I am probably being a little harsh, I have not slept very well at all for about a week now.

Overall, I hope your boa heals up well, and if you do end up deciding to rehome her, make sure you do your research and find someone who will really give her the care she needs. You may be able to find a reptile rescue in your area that will let you surrender her for free. If not, I am sure that someone on this forum can point you to someone willing to take her.

Edit: I noticed you are from Kennesaw, GA...I am pretty sure BeardedDragon, another member here, is also from that area, and is well respected in this community. If you need help rehoming her, he may be a good person to talk to.

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Betadine & iodine are the same, just different strengths they are microbicides, when soaking your snake I recommend not using full strength betadine. After soak pat injured area dry and apply the neosporin regular strength without pain reliever.

Watch for signs of infections i.e inflamed reddened tissue (not consistent with new tissue growth), any foul smelling discharge/drainage from the wound.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TheShortBus

so i get back in town from work to find my 8 month old red tail almost dead.... my room mates had some people over partying and someone wanted to see my red tail eat a mouse. so they got one out of our feeder room and dropped it in with her.

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Boy, does that bring back memories. I had two Desert Spiny Lizards in my dorm room and my A HOLE roommate and his friends would play "earthquake simulation" with them in the tank when I was away.

I brought the lizards home, got a new roommate and brought my Amazon parrot to school. He didn't take cr*p from anyone and he could bite really hard. :)

Good luck.
JohnNJ

thanks again for the hlep guys.

yeah i would love to know who actually did it, but it wasnt one of my room mates for sure. we have over 25 reptiles so they know better. we just have a lot of people come over on the week ends sometimes and when they bring new people dumb stuff tends to go down..

After taking care of the snake I would be on a man hunt to find out who did it. I would hand the roommate the bill and tell him if he didnt want to pay the bill find out who did it. If he refuses to pay hes an ass and a bad roommate who dosent respect your property. He invited people over he's responsable for the place and any damage done by his friends to your stuff.
I would find a new roommate, but before he moves out have a party and trash some of his stuff and refuse to pay so he gets the point. Thats just me though.

That's why, when I lived with roommates, I had locks on all of my enclosures. They had wild parties all of the time.

Hope your red tail's doing better, though.

well thats the thing we have a lot of close friends who just tend to show up.. so i have no clue who it could have been :/.

i got her a very small mouse today. she was extremely grumpy tords it and kept snapping at me every time i came near. she also would rear back and his as me. ive never herd her hiss that loud either, lol it sounded like she was a full grown snake :p.

but she ended up eating for me! and she seems to be doing a lot better.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TheShortBus

well thats the thing we have a lot of close friends who just tend to show up.. so i have no clue who it could have been :/.

i got her a very small mouse today. she was extremely grumpy tords it and kept snapping at me every time i came near. she also would rear back and his as me. ive never herd her hiss that loud either, lol it sounded like she was a full grown snake :p.

but she ended up eating for me! and she seems to be doing a lot better.

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I would hiss at a mouse too, if the last one chewed me to the bone! :O

"I told you. How many times? We needed a locking mechanism for the doors"
~Robert Muldoon

Have you ever offered her f/t?

My boas came from Jimisnakes, so I didnt have to worry about the whole switching off live process....but from what I hear, boas are pretty easy to do. You might want to try it and see if she will take it, if you have not already.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ThyTempest

Have you ever offered her f/t?

My boas came from Jimisnakes, so I didnt have to worry about the whole switching off live process....but from what I hear, boas are pretty easy to do. You might want to try it and see if she will take it, if you have not already.

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This is really a great idea!
Boas need larger and larger prey and so it just makes sense, from a safety point, to start on frozen/thawed. Boas switch super easily and it would be best :)