Help! Surgery wound injury...

[Malaika]

Back in October my ball python had a surgery on his nose to remove and abcess it never fully healed and always had a scab on it. He shed today and although the original surgery mark is gone there is now a new bigger hole.

Help! What do I do. No good vet in the area I refuse to bring him back to this vet that did the procedure because I had to tell her what to do in the first place.

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[mackynz]

Check and see if there is anyone near you on this list: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...d-Exotics-Vets

If you tell us about where you are located someone may know of a good vet. That doesn't look infected to me, but it's important to keep it clean. I haven't had to deal with injuries so I'll let someone with experience chime in on if you can just treat it yourself/how to.

[FireStorm]

That tissue actually looks pretty healthy to me. It's hard to say for sure without seeing how it looked before he shed, but to me it looks like that is just the hole that was left when the abscess was cut out, and you didn't see it before because of the scab. Did the scab just come off when he shed?

[SaintTawny]

That tissue actually looks pretty healthy to me. It's hard to say for sure without seeing how it looked before he shed, but to me it looks like that is just the hole that was left when the abscess was cut out, and you didn't see it before because of the scab. Did the scab just come off when he shed?

X2. Nothing about that looks exceptionally bad, do you have any pictures of how it looked before and immediately after surgery? Personally, I'd keep him on paper towels for a while longer with triple antibiotic ointment or possibly silver sulfadiazine if you were prescribed any post-sx. It looks like it should continue to heal normally as long as it doesn't get infected.

[satomi325]

Looks ok to me. Just keep it clean. Swab with betadine. It will fully heal in a few sheds.

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[Sita]

Looks ok to me. Just keep it clean. Swab with betadine. It will fully heal in a few sheds.

I agree with all this. Don't use triple antibiotic ointment or anything similar, as they can soften and damage scales with repeated use. Silver sulfa is ok to use though.

With snakes, as they heal it looks like it's getting better, then when they shed, all the scabs come off and it looks horrid. But give it time, and as long as you don't see swelling or drainage, you're probably ok.

[Malaika]

Thanks for the replys. He has gotten a lot better the last few days. It's way better now and healing over.

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[wilomn]

What they said. It's healed, but because they don't replace skin cells as quickly as mammals people sometimes think they're not healing. Another 4 or 5 sheds and it'll look pretty good.

[Goey]

Make sure you keep it clean I believe it can scab back over which would most likely be good