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ripped skin

Bluebeard

Bluebeard

New member
Ok so when I was feedning my Annabella, part or her skin around the neck area riped, is there anything i can do for the wound? there seams to be a bit of tight skin around her neck it dosn't look like excces shed skin and theres one alittle lower that looks more like a scar but it also casues problems for feeding as it looks like its doesn't streach as well as the other skin, after she got it down she'd keep't rubbing her nose against somthing my hand casue she wouldn't let go and came back up into my hand while feedning then her feed dish, it seamed like she might have been trying to reajust her jaw is this normal?
 
Hi Bluebeard!

It kinda sounds like it might be a retained shed, have her sheds been normal?(in one piece?) One of my new snakes had some "ripped" skin that was an incredibly bad shed, I had to soak her for a while to remove the skin. Snakes will rub their noses/ side of head to get a shed started- also you mentioned "wound" is it just skin or are you seeing other tissues?
Well, those are my thoughts... maybe someone will have some other ideas!
good luck & keep us posted :)
 
it looked like its just skin i'm pretty sure it isn't shed when its healed up i'll try and see if i can give her a bath and see if i can get it off gently,
 
I'd check and see if the skin itself tore or she has some retained skin. If it's a retained shed, you shouldn't see white/pink down the tear line. If she actually tore her neck skin just eating by herself (not being forced) then I'd be highly suspicious of hypovitaminosis C (lack of vitamin C). Snakes get their vitamin C from the rodent's diet. It's possible if the snake is eating mice that didn't eat for several hours prior to being euthanized or fed to the snake, that they have empty intestinal tracts and therefore don't provide any vitamin C to the snake. The classic case is when people buy live rodents from somewhere and they've been sitting there a few hours not eating, you buy them and take them home, they sit another couple hours, so that by the time they are fed, they've emptied their intestinal tract.

In any case, if she really tore her skin, you need to protect the area from getting infected while it heals. Honestly, it would be best to see a herp vet to ascertain severity of the wound and if it needs stitched. Keep her in a dust free enclosure, use paper for bedding, DON'T use peroxide on the wound, it's detrimental to deep tissues. A little triple antibiotic ointment or a very weak betadine solution may be used. It's also best to not feed her for a bit or if she's very young to just feed her very narrow meals that won't stretch out her skin. Adding a bit of vitamin C to the meals may be necessary if it's truely the result of vitamin deficiency.

Best recommendation is talk to a good reptile vet.
 
Unfortantly shes in her viv i put her back in befor i came on here to find out what to do, it defently was a skin rip there were no scales and there was a clear fluid ozzing out, and it was a white /pinkish flesh, should i risk a regurge and take her to a vet right away or leave her till tomorow night when it should be safe to pick her up. A friend at work said he had a python that got cut really bad, into the mucle by some broken glass, and he said it went through a couple sheds and there wasn't even a mark, and he didn't do anything? i'll defently find a vet that has herp excperince tormow morning first thing. how can i add Vitamen C? grind up some pills and in the pinky?
 
Keep the area clean, the risk of waiting a day isn't more than the risk of regurge, so if you want to give her a day and take her in, that's ok. Just get her off of dusty substrate and keep the wound clean (very dilute betadine is ok to cleanse - weak tea color, barely brown).

As far as supplementing vitamin C, if you can get ahold of sodium ascorbate (injectable vitamin C), you can inject it into the next mouse she eats. You could alternatively crumble a vitamin C tablet and put a piece in the mouse's mouth or make a rip in the skin and place a piece under the skin. You could dust the mouse, but I'd worry about the acidity of the Vitamin C if it sits in the esophagus. Better to get it internal.

This isn't the only cause of brittle skin, but is a known cause. Like I said before, it's especially common in those snakes eating live/freshly killed mice that have been fasted.

There's a reference on it in the SACR Reptiles and Amphibians by Frye and Williams from Iowa State University Press, it you have access.

Best off getting it to a good reptile vet and getting their opinion.
 
Just thought i'd give an update, tonight was Annabella's first whole pinky since, and it went down no problem.
 
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