RCReptiles.com

[kristal_kaos]

My new young BP, was feeding on a med size feeder mouse -which the pet store told me would be an ok size for my BP to eat (I was feeding smaller mice). I noticed that during the swallowing, my BP has a tear in her side, like a huge stretch mark kinda. (No real blood, but no scales are visible in the tear)
Ive never seen this happen, has any one else? And will my baby be ok?

[deborahbroadus]

Sorry about your situation.
Pictures would help as it's hard to know what may be going on from a description of the problem.

[kristal_kaos]

sorry, dont know how to take n post pics just yet, new to internet n computers, sorry.
As for the situation, i believe she will be ok, only maybe scarred from this. During her swallowing, i noticed she stretched so wide in one area behind her head (neck area?), that the scales seperated entirely, creating an inch of non-scaled skin that appeared to be still intact n not bleeding, although somewhat moist. when she finished swallowing the space of non-scaled skin wrinkled up on itself n seems to be painful to her. Again, i do not see blood.

[SJ126]

Well i'm not a vet or anything, but u might want to put some antiseptic on the problem areas. Then switch back to smaller mice!

[markstockham]

How much of a lump is in your ball's stomach now?

[kristal_kaos]

There is a about an inch of a lump, not too huge, but I will switch back to smaller feeders! lol, she looks like she will be ok, and i thought bout putting some neosporin on it, but wasnt sure if I should, so its been about a week now and i havent touched her, should i still put something on it after all this time passed since it happened?

[MikeandSlick]

Axl's last rat (small) was a little larger than usual and there was some good stretching going on, but didn't result in any injury. And the lump seemed to be a good size when all was said and done.

So how's that area of stretched skin doing anyways? What's her name again?



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[a_green]

Was it actually a tear, or was it just stretched skin?? You do see the scales separate when they are stretching a lot, and there is pink skin underneath like in Mike's pic.

[kristal_kaos]

well, i see what u mean about the skin stretching the scales apart a lil, but the skin on my baby stretched sooo much that the skin split and there is a gash/slit in her side. I put some antibiotic ointment on her, but the slit is still visible, like a scar or something. she seems to b ok, but im not feeding her a lil while out of fear that it may reopen.

[deborahbroadus]

[markstockham]

[kristal_kaos]

[quote="deborahbroadus"][quote="kristal_kaos"]well, i see what u mean about the skin stretching the scales apart a lil, but the skin on my baby stretched sooo much that the skin split and there is a gash/slit in her side. I put some antibiotic ointment on her, but the slit is still visible, like a scar or something. she seems to b ok, but im not feeding her a lil while out of fear that it may reopen. [/quote]

What kind of antibiotic ointment are you using? I have heard that it's not a good idea as we thought to use Neosporin. Apparently, some aver that it is the number one cause of contact dermatitis and can make the cut worse.

Is there any seeping, redness? I find it very difficult to believe that a MOUSE could cause a split. Perhaps it scratched itself on the edge or hood of the tank some other time trying to get out, and you are only now noticing it when it ate?[/quote]


well, i did use neosporin ...someone said to put antiobiotic ointment on her so i did. i didnt know it was bad to use. The cut looks like it is healing, but will leave a small scar prolly. I know it happened while she ate, not before or after, because my 5 yr old likes to watch it eat and stretch its mouth, lol...so it happened right in front of us. I figured since all of her neck was stretching and scales were seperating, that all would return to normal after she ate (like usual)...only, that didnt happen. All her body n scales went back to normal after eating, but that particular spot i saw stretch really badly, actually tore (a centimeter in length)...no blood (or leakage of any kind)- just looked a lil wet. She didnt seem to mind it tho...moves around normally and i will attempt to feed her this weekend again for the first time since it happened. she shed too, last week. so i will see how that scar looks now. oh, and her name is Deep Throat (someone asked in an earlier reply, lol)

[kidchaser5]

Kristal- How is your snake?

I just read this post, and wanted to tell you about an experience I had. Last summer we kept a garter snake for a couple of months(we always let them go before fall). Anyway, she was pounding tons of worms and getting fatter by the day. One morning, the tank was full of 17 baby garter snakes! It was so cool. She ended up accidentaly trying to eat one while I was feeding her worms, so we let her go and kept the babies for a while. Well we caught worms for them which they seemed to eat just fine, but one snake while eating just started flipping out all of a sudden! I noticed the same thing you did with the splitting of the skin. Well, that baby snake ended up dying a few days later! We just let the rest go for fear of the same thing happening. Just figured they would find the right size food on their own.

So anyway, my point wasn't to scare you, but I would take your snake to a vet just to make sure that this isn't something you can't handle at home. Pythons can go alot longer without eating than a garter snake, and I would definitely wait a while longer to feed her. I don't know how long it would take to heal, but I would call your vet and at least get some questions answered over the phone. My vet is always helpful that way. Hope yours is.

It stands to reason that if the skin split(like the baby garter snakes did), that means her esophagus did too, and I would not feed her anything until you got some advice from your vet. I felt so bad for the little snake, and I'd hate to see yours suffer too! Let me know if everything's okay?

[markstockham]

[deborahbroadus]