Reggie the snake survives ordeal - Talk about a bad day for a snake.

Ball Python escapes and survives alone in house with 10 cats. Why can't everyone have a real cage?

Reggie the snake survives ordeal
By TERESA MCMINN
For the Daily Record/Sunday News

Posted: 02/26/2009 04:41:18 PM EST


Reggie the ball python is at home in North Codorus Township recovering after 12 stitches were required to repair his shredded skin. He was injured trying to escape his cage and then was attacked by the Jacobs family's pet cats. (submitted)It is a miracle that a pet python is alive after nearly skinning itself during an attempted escape and then being mauled by a gang of cats.

That's what Jodi Jacobs said of Reggie, her 8-year-old son Ben's pet snake.

"It was his Christmas present," she said of the ball python that's less than a year old and about 11/2 feet long.

About three weeks ago, Reggie apparently crawled through an opening in the top of his cage, and in the process, caught and ripped his skin.

"He peeled himself like a banana," Jacobs said. The snake's colorful skin of gray and brown was torn and exposed its "red meat," she said.

Jacobs said nobody was at the family's North Codorus Township home when this happened.

Except for their 10 cats.

"They decided to play with him," Jacobs said. "The cats bit his jaw ... He has cat bites all down his body."

Ben found Reggie balled up in the bathtub. The family doesn't know if the snake crawled there or was dragged by the cats.

Jacobs said she cleaned the snake and treated it with some topical medication for humans.

The next day, she took Reggie to Animal Emergency & Referral Center of York in Spring Garden Township. Center owner and medical director Shaka Monroe operated on the snake, which required about a dozen stitches.

"He looks like he has his head sewn back on," Jacobs said. She's amazed Monroe was able to save the reptile. "I am just so happy."

Since the surgery, Reggie hasn't been able to eat a full-size mouse because

the stitches around his neck won't allow for his head to expand to swallow a rodent, she said.
"We tried a baby mouse, and that was still difficult," Jacobs said. "But ... (Reggie) is growing despite his tragedy."

However, the snake isn't out of the woods yet, said Katina Palm, practice manager at the animal emergency center.

"It's too soon to say if he'll make a full recovery," she said of Reggie, who is back at home. "He had several lacerations ... his muscles were exposed ... It's a slow healing process."

Palm said the center does not specialize in exotic pet medicine.

Palm also said when an animal like Reggie is hurt, its owner should immediately call a veterinarian rather than try to treat the pet at home.

Monroe on Thursday was hopeful Reggie would recover.

"It would be an awesome thing," he said.

http://ydr.inyork.com/ci_11792630

Poor Reggie, he's lucky to be alive.

Balls are tuff little snakes I had one roaming my basement for amost a year! When I finally found her she was half the size , in three weeks she looked as if nothing had ever happened.Really amazing animals.Glad your little guy survived.

Wow that definitely is quite a survival story. Similar to the one I have of my own about my first bp that I still have. I bought him as a baby from a pet shop and went on a family trip across the country to visit my father's side of the family for a week. We had a neighbor that agreed to take care of the animals while we were gone and I made sure to ask him over and over again if he would be ok with feeding the snake since he had no experience with reptiles. He said it'd be no problem after I explained to just stun the mouse and place it in the cage for the snake to eat and to stay and watch until he was completely finished.
Well apparently he was actually afraid of the snake so he tossed the mouse in and left immediately. That was just the day after we had left. When I got home there was a dehydrated, bloody mass of a tiny bp just lying there with a dead mouse lying on the other side of the cage. He had his head torn wide open and I thought he was dead. I immediately just dropped to my knees and started screaming(I was only 11 at the time). I thought he was dead. After the hysterics I opened the cage and carefully picked him up to see if he was still alive, amazingly he was. He had 2 major gashes on his back that were all the way down to the spine and a large piece of the top of his head hanging wide open.
I immediately took him in to rinse him off in some luke warm water and placed him in a temporary sanitary cage. I went to the only local vet in the area and they said they didn't treat reptiles and suggested just putting him down. I know it was selfish but I couldn't do it. I went straight from there to the library and got online to see what the strongest wound healing medication was that you could buy over the counter for animals. I found biocaine which I had used before on the family dog where he kept chewing on his knees until they bled(hot spots). I coated the areas multiple times daily and kept him well hydrated and he healed so amazingly fast I just couldn't believe it. It was like he was thriving. Within a 2 weeks the wounds were completely closed and just showing a little pink where the skin was not quite covered back up with scales. Within another couple weeks he looked nearly perfect. Just the 2 larger scars that were down to the spine were visible but fully covered with scales. He ate 3 weeks after the incident without issue.
Of course I immediately tried to get him to eat pre-killed but after over a year of trying all of the usual techniques I found it just didn't work. So to this day he still eats live stunned only. But he's still alive, 12 years later.
They really are amazing creatures.