his tail is fallin off!

[iluvsammy]

I have an albino corn snake and he has had some difficulties in shedding. His tail wasn't completly shedding. and i didn't know what to do with it. i just found out what to do but it has already turned black and i'm not sure what to do with it. can somone help i don't know if this is a common thing or not. it's wierd.

 

[Dennis Gulla]

There isn't much you can do about it now. Yes, the tail becoming black means it is dead. That snake had several bad sheds where the end of the tail never came off during a shed. All the sheds after the original where the end of the tail did not come off were repeated. The next sheds finished where the original bad one did. This caused the end of your snakes tail to have the blood circulation cut off. Due to the blood supply being cut off the end of the tail died.

There really isn't much you can do. Just wait, it should just fall off. In the future, maybe try misting the snake with warm water a couple of days while he/she is in shed. This should provent skin from remaining on the snake after a shed.

 

[Amanda E]

I had this happen to the last few millimeters of the tail of my first snake too.

The dead part fell off with no problems, however, I've heard that in some cases the tail can bleed a bit when this happens. If you see an open wound, try to keep the tail clean (keep the snake on papertowels rather than wood chips) and put some antibiotic ointment on it until it heals.

 

[MegF.]

Mine had a bad tail from a bad shed before I got her. She lost that part and the part that remained has a little nub. I had to get the last little bit off on the shed before this last one, but this time she shed all the way. Even with the weird bit. Here's what it looks like. You can see the end of the tail in this photo. Her tail tip is near her head.

 

[iluvsammy]

thank ya'll so much it really helped to hear from ya'll. glad i'm not alone.

 

[Skye]

I had this problem once in the past too - just make sure from now on that you pay particular attention to the tail tip after all future sheds since the end will be more stubby than it would naturally, and so may not shed as easily.

Skye