Snake with a scrape?

topic posted Sat, March 22, 2008 - 6:48 PM by  )'(Ms. Meow)'(
I have a snake with a tiny sliver of red above his upper lip. At first I thought it was just substrate residue, but it has gotten a little bit bigger and has been there for a few days so I think it's a cut or scrape. Should I try to clean this with warm water on a q-tip or disinfect it somehow?

I can't tell if it is big enough to worry about, it hasn't reached his nostril, but it has gotten bigger than what it started out as...
posted by:
)'(Ms. Meow)'(
California
  • Re: Snake with a scrape?

    Mon, March 24, 2008 - 8:58 AM
    best thing to clean the wound with is Nolvasan (chlorhexidine diacetate). This is what the vets use to clean animal wounds, and I use it to clean my enclosures as well (much safer than bleach!). Put the snake on newspaper or a towel (remove anything it could get caught in the sore, and clean it daily.

    Unless you can get a special type of antibacterial from the vet (I forget the name, I have a small container of it at home though so I can check for you later but the salve I have was for an abscess in the snakes mouth) you can use neosporin instead but the problem with anything type of salve on the exterior snakes is that their skin/scales are not very absorbent so mostly they will just run it off the exterior.

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