Harlock
New member
I picked up a desert kingsnake recently that got clipped by a car, and am trying to get it back to health. It's passed 2 fecals since I got it with no blood, so I'm not too concerned with internal bleeding, but its head is worrying me. One eye is pretty messed up, but after a shed it is looking like the snake still has sight on both sides. The lower left jaw is swollen and slightly distended.
So far it refuses to eat, and spends a lot of time raised up and yawning. It had a few bloody spots on the bottom of its mouth but these seem reduced. It also starts drinking if it feels any moisture, including spending time "drinking" air. I have no idea why it does that. The snake can also no longer tongue flick properly, instead the forks stay connected even outside the mouth, and it can't flick out as far as normal kingsnakes.
I've tried to feed it twice (~5 days between attempts, after acclimating for 10 days in its tank) first was just a thawed hopper left in its tank (ignored) and the second was a brained pinky. It ignored the brained pinky, so I tried to get it started by gently putting the head in the snakes mouth. Didn't work.
I'm concerned it may have a broken jaw and is unable to eat, or has neurological damage and isn't eating from that. If the jaw is damaged, I don't want to be too rough trying to get it to eat, but the snake is thinner than I like, and survival is more of a concern. I might be able to take it to some other researchers I know who have practice force feeding coral snakes just to get some food in it.
Should I just back off for awhile, and try feeding it again in like a month/anyone have experience with head trauma to a snake like this? The other thing I have been considering is trying to either feed it an anole, or scenting a pinkie with an anole (or heck, I could try scenting it with another snake using an old shed).
I attached one of the few decent photos I could get of the messed up eye. The other side looks completely fine.
So far it refuses to eat, and spends a lot of time raised up and yawning. It had a few bloody spots on the bottom of its mouth but these seem reduced. It also starts drinking if it feels any moisture, including spending time "drinking" air. I have no idea why it does that. The snake can also no longer tongue flick properly, instead the forks stay connected even outside the mouth, and it can't flick out as far as normal kingsnakes.
I've tried to feed it twice (~5 days between attempts, after acclimating for 10 days in its tank) first was just a thawed hopper left in its tank (ignored) and the second was a brained pinky. It ignored the brained pinky, so I tried to get it started by gently putting the head in the snakes mouth. Didn't work.
I'm concerned it may have a broken jaw and is unable to eat, or has neurological damage and isn't eating from that. If the jaw is damaged, I don't want to be too rough trying to get it to eat, but the snake is thinner than I like, and survival is more of a concern. I might be able to take it to some other researchers I know who have practice force feeding coral snakes just to get some food in it.
Should I just back off for awhile, and try feeding it again in like a month/anyone have experience with head trauma to a snake like this? The other thing I have been considering is trying to either feed it an anole, or scenting a pinkie with an anole (or heck, I could try scenting it with another snake using an old shed).
I attached one of the few decent photos I could get of the messed up eye. The other side looks completely fine.
