• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Avulsion on a Ball Python

R

rowselki

Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2011
Messages
37
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Tucson, Az
I just picked this girl up tonight and could use some advice. The story as I was told is the owners decorated the tank and used duct tape on the inside of the tank. The snake ended up with the duct tape on her and her skin was ripped off. I do not know if the injury was caused by a person removing the tape or if the snake managed such damage on her own. I only know this basic story and that it happened "about a week ago". The wound is ugly but could be worse and has been treated with Neosporin daily. At first I thought this would be a minor injury with a few missing scales but the skin itself is torn and there is a large "open wound" type area.

As you can hopefully tell in the pictures there is a good amount of ripped skin hanging near the belly and just to complicate matters the snake looks like she's about to shed. Any advice on treating the wound or how to make the shed any easier for her would be appreciated.
 

Attachments

  • DSC03151.jpg
    DSC03151.jpg
    92 KB · Views: 173
  • DSC03153.jpg
    DSC03153.jpg
    96.3 KB · Views: 180
  • DSC03156.jpg
    DSC03156.jpg
    104.4 KB · Views: 176
  • DSC03157.jpg
    DSC03157.jpg
    97.8 KB · Views: 169
You saw that, and you took her anyway? Without knowing what is involved with the care of such a wound?
I'll try to remember to check back, when I can view the images on a bigger screen - I don't want to comment on the wound & treatment until then (other than to suggest that you seek the care of a qualified vet).

The first shed, aside from being painful, will probably not be particularly problematic. Once she starts healing, however, it is likely that she'll reopen the wound if you aren't careful.
 
Honestly, I think I would take her in and see what a vet would say. We have a very, very good vet here in Tucson.

Dr. James Jarchow
Orange Grove Animal Hospital
3091 W. Orange Grove Road
Tucson, AZ 85741
(520)877-2626
 
That is pretty ugly...and neosporin (IMO) will do about diddly. Aside from wound closure, you've also got a serious risk for infection to deal with. I know people like to think they can manage without a vet, but that wound merits a visit. Good luck.
 
I would say vet ASAP. That's horrible. Like Harald said serious risk of infection. Keep us posted on her condition.
 
hhmoore said:
You saw that, and you took her anyway? Without knowing what is involved with the care of such a wound?
Click to expand...

Yes, I thought the snake would have a better chance at recovering with me than with the people who clearly were not going to take her in.

It was pretty late last night when I got the snake and wasn't sure when I'd be able to get a vet appt, so I thought I'd come on here for advice in the interim. I've since been able to schedule an appt (with Jarchow) for tomorrow.

I'll let you guys know what I find out
 
The vet appt yesterday went well. He used wet gauze to clean up the area and remove the dead skin, said the wound was just superficial and that he was not concerned about infection. I got a tube of silver sulfadiazine and instructions to apply daily.

He seemed very confident she would be fine and said he expects everything to heal up nicely.
 
I think it cleaned up pretty well. Here's a picture I snapped on my cell, its not the best pic so I'll try and grab a better one with the real camera tomorrow.

He did tell me this is actually one of the most common injuries he see's on snakes. Apparently lots of people use tape around snakes and learn the hard way its a horrible idea. I am completely baffled at how common place he said this is
 

Attachments

  • after vets.jpg
    after vets.jpg
    40 KB · Views: 150
That looks SO much better. In the first pics, the part that was removed looks like a gaping hole, rather than just missing skin. Whew. I bet you're incredibly relieved.
 
Good news!

I cannot see how people can do this - especially continuing to pull off tape when they see what is happening....(if that is what happened, but I can't see her doing this to herself).

Well done with the rescue, and hope she continues to improve for you.
 
Well the saga continues with this little girl. On Sunday she started displaying signs of an RI and by the end of the day had a good amount of mucus in her mouth. I double checked all my temps and cranked the heat a bit. Monday she seemed about the same but somewhat swollen like she was going to poo soon, didn't look to unusual. Tuesday she was rather bloated looking and by Tuesday evening it was clear something was wrong. She was literally inflated like a balloon. I tried soaking her in he's it would help her "deflate" but it didn't seem to help at all. Plus she was so bloated she was floating in the water.

So today its back to the vets for bad news. The vet agreed that she was very bloated and attempted a fecal sample, but couldn't get one with the usual manual manipulation. He inserted a probe into the snakes vent and tried again this time he got "severe diarrhea" which he examined under the microscope. He came back and told me it was basically red blood cells and stomach material and this was life threatening.

On or first visit she was given some Flagyl for "a very small quantity of a very common protozoa in ball pythons". The theory is getting rid of the parasites upset the balance in her gut and existing bacteria took over. She dropped in weight from 415 grams on Friday to 375 today.

She was given an injection of Fortaz (antibiotic) and a fluid pack injection to help hydrate her. I have a follow up on Friday and till then I'm to keep her in an 85-90 degree temp range, give daily soaking and hope for the best.
 
Sorry for the delay in an update. Since my last update we've had an appt last Friday and another today. Friday her weight was steady at 375 grams so they gave her another injection of fluids and cleaned out her mouth. They gave me a total of 3 shots of Fortaz to give her one every 72 hours and asked me to bring her back today for another check up. Today was good news, she looks nice and hydrated and is back up to 392 grams. There is much less mucus in her mouth and her tape wound is healing nicely.

I have one more injection to give her and then another follow up on Friday to make sure she's out of the woods. She's still bloated but not nearly as much and still hasn't passed anything (not looking forward to the smell when she finally does). I'm cautiously hopeful at this point
 
Thought I'd post another update for everyone. She seems to be doing better over all, starting to get active again, but still not interested in food. The intial tape wound is looking good and I'm posting a few photos so you can see the progress. The bloating issue "resolved" itself today, so thats another problem off the list.

The RI is the last thing I'm concerned about. We're still doing Fortaz injections every 72 hours but her mouth seems to be slowly clearing up.

Thats about it for now.
 

Attachments

  • good.jpg
    good.jpg
    110 KB · Views: 101
  • up.jpg
    up.jpg
    114.7 KB · Views: 98
Posting another update in hopes sharing info will help someone else...

I left town a few weeks back and didn't have anyone that was comfortable giving the snake her antibiotic injection so I figured what the heck and decided to board her at the vets office while I was away. When I dropped her off she was looking good and getting pretty active again. When I picked her up she looked terrible. She dropped to 300 grams while I was gone and the vet said the infection seemed to make a raging comeback.

She was started on Amikacin and sent home with pipettes to clear her trachea as she had aspirated mucus while being boarded. Obviously not what I wanted to come home to.

I'm soaking her 2-3 times daily and cleaning her mouth about the same. Last vet visit was on Monday and she's looking better again, back up to 345 grams and less mucus in her mouth. This evening I noticed she was REALLY struggling to breath, open mouth and trachea but no air movement and she was obviously straining. I pulled a good amount of very thick glue like mucus out of her trachea (clogged 3 pipettes in the process) and then she was able to breath again.

I've been watching her since and haven't really seen any mouth breathing so lets hope I'm about to see the light at the end of the tunnel here as I'm getting tired of snake snot
 
Time for the update I didn't think I was going to have to write. My snake passed away last night. She had been doing better and was active and even putting on weight again. I'm really not quite sure what happened obviously but I dont think it was from her RI.

If you've been following the thread you know she had some 'severe life threating' diarrhea according to the doc. I thought that had all passed when she was able to pass all the gas and bloating issues were resolved a few weeks back. Somewhere around Wednesday she started getting bloated again but not as bad as the first time. Friday she attempted a bowel movement but ended up only getting rid of all the bloating and leaving a very large hard mass right above her cloaca as if she was unable to pass it. I gave her a warm soak for a few hours and by Saturday morning she had passed it. She definetly looked dehydrated from the ordeal so back to more soaking and by Sunday she was looking better again.

I went in this morning to get her for our weekly vet appt and she had passed away during the night. I did notice she had also defecated twice last night. Nothing of real substance but you could tell from the stains on the paper towels a good amount of fluid was passed. Not sure what the hell happened but I can't imagine it was from her RI as her mouth was SO much clearer in the last few days than it had previously been. I honestly thought we were out of the woods (again).
 
Im so sorry to hear about your loss :( your snake was very lucky to have such a dedicated owner.
I stumbled across this thread while reading about RIs... We were recently hit by hurricane Sandy in my area and caused us to loose power for a week...I tried everything I could to keep my collection as warm as possible but there was only so much I could do. One of my youngest (4 months old) seemed to be acting odd last week and i checked his mouth (no bubbles or snot) but he seemed to be struggling to breathe, and immediatly made a vet appointment for fear of a RI due to the low temps... Unfortunalty the little guy didnt pull threw for me... Its very upsetting to see them go through so much and not pull threw.
Once again I'm terribly sorry for your loss :(
 
Back
Top