Wound near eye

[benhamtroll]

Well, over two years with a clean safety record now shot.

Our guy was fed a small rat today, and when my daughter went to check the feeding box, she noticed blood. He at the rat just fine, but after pulling him out and rinsing his head with warm water, I realized that he has a sizable gash near his right eye.

It seems to have bled fairly profusely at first, but looks to have slowed now. I've moved him to a plastic tub with paper towels to avoid any contamination from his substrate (which is due to be changed).

I'm a little concerned with putting any ointment near his eye, but I can't get him into the herp vet until Monday (it's Thurs evening right now). Any advice, suggestions?

Thanks!

[Kaorte]

Change your substrate and put him on paper towels. this will help to make sure nothing gets in there and gets it infected. Just keep an eye on it. You don't need to put neosporin on all of your cuts, most just heal on their own.

If you notice any sort of infection developing, go to the vet.

[benhamtroll]

Thanks.

I actually took him into the vet today. On top of everything else, we finally know that he is a 'he'. . . :-)

The cut was pretty big, but not too deep. The prescribed some antibiotic ointment, and made the suggestion that we move to pre-killed. She also mentioned that sometimes they won't take live rats after such an encounter, especially with a wound so close to a vital area.

She described how to humanely pre-kill the rats, but I'm thinking will go frozen, since I don't think anyone in my household is up to breaking a rats neck manually.

[llovelace]

This is just me but, I never leave my snakes unattended until they strike and coil, if it's a good strike & coil I leave them, if not i use the tongs to prevent them from biting.