Rather than a full-body soak (I hesitated to suggest it because from your description, he was already quite stressed & snakes usually hate "soaks" because of the loss of traction) you mostly just needed to lower his face into water, as horizontally as possible. Even holding him so his face was passed under a slow running faucet may have worked, to get him drinking & rinsing his mouth. So, for "next time"...![]()