injured rat snake

[Smilts]

Hello, last night me and a buddy went out cruising looking for snakes we didnt find anything untill on the way home. We go on back roads to do our herping but drive home on a busy interstate. well ironicly thats where we were when we saw this little emory rat the prolem is we saw it to late and couldnt dodge because of cars.we hit the poor guy and of course turned around and picked it up, it was off the road when we got there and heading out not looking to bad. so i took it to the house checked it out it had some road rash but otherewise looked fine. i was going to see how it did till today then clean it up an send it out. Well it was fairly good till i gave it a bath then it just died in the water. It was doing fine swimming around then just freaked out i took it out of the water but it was to late. i bathe all my snakes in the tub and sit with them ive never had problems till now any clue on what mite have done it.

[C.m.pyrrhus]

I think you answered your own question.

we hit the poor guy

These things happen while you travel roads for snakes, regardless if you think you will see one on such a busy highway. Comes with the fun.

[snakehunter]

True. The hit and the added stress of you and the water may have sent is system on over load.

[Linds]

Sometimes internal injuries are not outwardly apparent until it was too late. It may have just caught up to him, or the stress and movement of the bath may have fatally worsened the injury. Just curious why you were bathing it? For the most part, they just end up getting entirely stressed out by bathing. It isn't really necessary in most cases.

[Smilts]

I talked to a vet. He said most likely it had a punctured lung and the water seeped in or was drank accidently and the pressure collapsed the lung. i bathed him because he had blodd all on the under side of his belly i had tried to clean it but couldnt get to it all