Some sort of injury. (Pic)

[MouseKilla]

I noticed about a week ago that this guy's nose was a little darker than it should be. I couldn't tell whether it was just newsprint he'd smudged on himself or if he'd maybe rubbed it a bit raw in the corners of his enclosure. He was due for a shed I so I decided to let it be until then. This is what he looked like immediately after shedding yesterday.

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/2511Im000359-med.jpg

Needless to say, I feel like hell about the whole thing and wish I knew what I could have done to prevent it. I figure a little polysporin will clear it up, just not sure he'll let me apply it to him. I can only hope it doesn't scar too much. Anyone else ever have this happen?

[NewLineReptile]

I also have had a problem like that before. Sometime just enough rubbing will take off a bit of skin. But it does not look real bad and should heal up nice. Good luck with it and keep it clean

Brandon

[Stockwell]

That will be gone in a couple sheds. Its likely the snake was prying in a corner or between sliding glass panes.. It looks like it might have got its snout squeezed in some narrow opening. Snakes are great for doing this. Sometimes snakes will find lids, or glass openings that will move slightly and sensing that they can exert a lot of force to try to make it move alot and allow an escape.
If you can find out where exactly in the cage it happened, try to close the gap up, so injury doesn't continue.

[MouseKilla]

Thanks guys!

Roy,

It's funny you should mention escape attempts because it was only a couple of weeks before this injury that I had to do some midnight carpentry because he had found a way to pry his way out between the sliding plexi doors.

Without going into the details of how I did it, I managed to fix the cage and he can no longer get out. Since I fixed it though he's continued to try to find a weakness but I didn't think he'd made such an obsession of it.

I gave him a nice, big meal the other day and that seems to have slowed him down somewhat, I just hope he doesn't go back at it again.

[vanderkm]

Amazing how snakes will persist in working at a spot where they have escaped (or almost escaped) before and how they will go back to the same area repeatedly. I know they are supposed to be stupid and act on instinct, but makes me wonder sometimes!

I am sure this little guy will heal with no problems,

mary v.

[MouseKilla]

Thanks Mary.

I hope he heals well, I'd hate for him to end up with an ugly scar. With any luck he'll accept that he can't get out anymore and not re-injure himself.

This all made me think they are more intellegent than they're given credit for because once he'd found a weakness in the original cage design there was no way he was going to just go back inside and forget how he'd escaped. No way, he went right back up to the sliding plexi doors and pried them apart again. He knew to push out on the one panel while wedging himself more and more between both of them. Once he'd defeated them there was no keeping him in there so we had to lose the sliding plexi altogether, probably a dumb idea to begin with looking back on it.

So in this case he was smarter than me, which doesn't say much but it's not bad for a snake. On the other hand, the skin on my face remains relatively intact. lol!