When i was cleaning my snake cage and feeding my snake i noticed my snake had kind of a scab looking thing at the tip of his tail. and when i was cleaning his cage i found about 2 centimeters of his tail on his cage floor. (he is about 4 months old). he acts normal, if not nicer then before. but he looks fine. the only thing weird is a scab. but i think he lost it because he had just finished shedding so i assume this happened during his shed. what happened? what should i do? will he be ok?
Hello, Firstly it's unusual for a baby snake to loose tip of tail. You say he's 4 months old, that would mean he's had 4 sheds, it sounds like he hasn't shed the tip everytime and it has caused restricted blood flow at tip and it has come off. That is the most likely cause. What you need to do now is remove any substrate from tank and keep him on kitchen towel to stop any irritant and possibly further infection. It would be a very good idea with a trip to vet, in case he has infection, dont try to remove scab yourself. The vet will probably clean it and apply anti-biotic cream. I dont think this will be serious and he should make a full recovery. Please go to vet. Once it has healed you will have to make sure he sheds fully each time, it may not cause him any problems, just keep an eye on shed.
Dido on that advice. The injury should not be life threating to the snake...assuming theres not an infection or other complication. Keep the snake and cage clean. let a vet take a look and if nessary put the correct antibiotic on the wound. Next thing you need to do durning next shedding cycle, is keep the humidity correct, for a corn 50% is more than enough. than when the snake does shed check it over and make sure that ALL the skin came off and there is nothing left on the tail that would cause more blood restriction and more tail loss. snake do not heal the same way people do, the wound will close asit sheds, so it may be 6 or more shed before the wound is fully closed up. so keep on top of thing and yo snake should be just fine.
So to maby ease your mind, to how snake fair with injuries. here is a medical paitent we (wife and I) had about 2 years ago. Kyra (the snake, boa) got out of its cage and go tangled up in some chicken wire (pet sitter failed to close the cage correctly). the wound here is down into the muscle structure. Now she is doing well and back with her owner, there is still some visable scaring but gettting better with each shed. Kyra required antibiotic shots and a antiseptic rub, pluss feeding scheduals and very strice humidity control. When we got her. one month later, looks alot better, unfortualy I do not have a more recent pic of the wound fully colsed up.
we already keep him on paper towel but we wil change it more often than normal. we had never even noticed any stuck shed, i think because he is so light in color but we will keep an extra eye on him. we will also take him to the vet as soon as we find one who deals with corn snakes. the exotic vet i normally go to only does some lizards and rats. there is another vet who i know deals with large snakes so ill see if he takes in corns aswell and the pics make me feel alot better, thats alot of healing in between sheds. if your girl better yet? annd no worries, we arent touching the scab unless we have to thanks for the posts. my sister and i have been worried sick about him. i guess this explaines why he was in such a bad mood for so long
