Degloved Tail

[djinnfriend]

Warning: The images are huge for some reason.

My friend, who is not a member, has gotten his first snake and I've seen to it that his husbandry was as perfect as can be. That's why we were surprised when Rubbish, a normal BP, retained a tiny amount of shed on her tail and we weren't able to gently manually remove it with soaks, damp cloth, or humidity boxes.

So we were even more surprised when her last shed took the tip of her tail with it.
Here's the fresh degloving:


This is weird because the humidity is consistently kept in the low 60s. You can see she retained another small bit of shed on her side, in the lower left corner of the image. That came off fine though.

After having a betadine soak, here's the resulting scab.


I am confident she will be fine, but Patrick, my friend, is freaking out. It is his first snake. I had him empty out substrate, replace it with paper towels, simplify her enclosure, and apply a triple antibiotic ointment. There is a little tag at the tip of her tail that has begun to dry out and I am confident it will fall off and be fine, but Patrick cannot be convinced that something falling off his snake would be good for her, haha. She has a decent hospital setup now. He is VERY concerned and wants to know if there is anything at all else he can do for Rubbish.

Do you have any input, any encouraging words or advice? I will relay it to him!

[WhompingWillow]

I'll let others speak for the more medical side, but I'll chime in with my experience with one of my snakes. The very tip of my BCL's tail is ever-so-slightly hooked/curved and has been since I received her. It's barely noticeable at all, but I do make sure to check her tail every time she sheds because occasionally like a .5 to 1 mm piece of shed might get stuck at the end of it. I know you said your friend wasn't able to remove the shed manually - do you by chance know if the snake may have had multiple sheds (either in his care or before he got him) where maybe the tail shed did not come off and it just wasn't noticed? I ask because tail shed should be very easy to remove. On the couple of occasions it's gotten stuck on Artemis, I take a wet rag and basically "pinch" the shed off. Or I use wet fingers.

If he runs into issues with sheds going forward, I'd recommend buying a bottle of Shed-Ease. It works wonders to soften up retained shed. I'd also have the snake on paper towels for the time being (can't remember if you had him make this change) until the tail heals.

[Alter-Echo]

I had this happen to a sunbeam snake due to a faulty thermostat that cooked the tip of her tail. The tip will fall off, but should heal just fine, as did the one on my snake.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

The snake will be fine, as a owner that's what you want to pay attention to: stuck shed, if it's on the body it's fine it will come off eventually but stuck shed on the tip of the tail should be tended immediately to prevent this (little too late now but it can happen again)

[Bogertophis]

It's not a big health deal...but it's mostly preventable with any other snakes he decides to keep. Always check after a snake sheds, to be sure the eye-caps &
tail tips properly came off. Your friend's snake should be just fine. Most snakes shed their tail tips just fine, but just when you fail to check, a few can easily get
retained & pinch off the circulation. A snake's tail tip is like our feet are to us...that is, the circulation isn't the best to begin with, so a few sheds retained can
cost the tip, but it should heal up just fine, & will be hard for anyone to notice (unless they're looking for it). In the future, he might want to raise the humidity
above 60% when the snake is in shed. Like to 70-75%.

[djinnfriend]

Thanks! The encouragement that it will be okay is likely what he needs to hear the most, so thank you for the kind attitude. I guess it's hard to help him out when we are long-distance friends.

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@Alter-Echo Do you have a picture I could send him to prove it's just a tailtip and will be fine? He's a real worry wart.

[Alter-Echo]

Thanks! The encouragement that it will be okay is likely what he needs to hear the most, so thank you for the kind attitude. I guess it's hard to help him out when we are long-distance friends.

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@Alter-Echo Do you have a picture I could send him to prove it's just a tailtip and will be fine? He's a real worry wart.

Unfortunately, I dont, and I no longer own the snake, but the vet had me follow the same iodine soaking routine your friend is doing with this snake and the tail formed a clean scaleless nub on the end, and far more of the tail was missing than on this snake.