My poor baby girl hurt herself!!

[Dallas]

I'm devastated!! My beautiful 6 month old Olive has somehow hurt her little head. I was in tears when I saw what she had done, I'm praying she hasn't done any permanent damage to her pretty little face!!! I have no idea how she has done it, she was right one minute then next time I looked in her enclosure she had done this. Nothing sharp in her enclosure and no holes to try and poke her head through.

Has anyone had any similar injury? There is no blood, it isn't weeping, it looks like the scale has been pushed back? She is due for a shed in the next week or two so I am inclined to wait until she sheds and see how it looks then. Is this the right thing to do?

I have absolutely no hesitation to take her to the vet if need be (its 2 hours away which is why I am not there already being a paranoid mum), we're off to see the vet straight away if I'm wrong in thinking it will mend itself with a few sheds.

To top it all off I've had three globes blow in the last 24 hours and my coastal has a retained eye scale and he's a cranky bugger when he wants to be so that will be fun to remove! We'd been away for four days, everything ran smoothly then when we get back everything happens all at once!

Here's a pic of my poor Sookie's head :cry::cry::cry:

 

[Pythons Rule]

whats your enclosure got, wire, glass or pet mesh? they can damage obove the nose, front of there nose by puching there face against it to try get out. but after a few sheds it should be back to normal

 

[benjamind2010]

You know mate, that's the VERY same thing I'm concerned about with my woma. No, he hasn't done it...YET, that is.
I am going to change the backing of my enclosures, tomorrow - as fast as hell as I can, replacing the 8mm ventilation holes with 3mm ones before he really does do himself damage.
Will be breeding him next year with the female that I have now. She's only a young'un but she'll be big by the middle of next year and at that point I'll just throw them in the same enclosure. If my male hasn't committed suicide by then (snout infection, broken neck, et cetera) they will be staying together from that point onwards, separating only for feeding times.

Considering that she's only a juvenile, there is a chance the scale may grow back. However, may I digress against Pythons Rule, in that in my own experience with Slatey Greys (and yes, I USED to keep cornsnakes, so corns too), scales do NOT grow back. Once they are gone, they are GONE. If they do grow back they will never be the same, else after a few sheds you'll just see a scar with or without pigment (whatever colour the original scale was).

 

[hypochondroac]

She's obviously stuck her head in between something, put some diluted betadine on the wound and try and find the cause, posting a picture of her setup might help.

 

[Dallas]

Thanks for the replies, she has a wooden enclosure glass front and the common plastic vent you find at hardware shops. The only thing I can find that she could have done it on is the glass is mounted flush on one side and out by around 5mm on the other (if that make sense) I've filled the gap in. That has to have been it, there isn't anything else it could have been.

Will post a pic of the gap in the morning. Worth checking how your glass is installed, I am soooo careful with my enclosures and I hadn't even noticed it. My poor little girl

 

[Tsubakai]

One of my water pythons has that same mark from always getting under his substrate (carpet).

 

[Chris1]

looks exactly like what Loki did to himself pushing his nose into a gap between the wood and vent, (by gap i dont mean gap to the outside but a 5mm deep gap where the wood is recessed where they put the vent in)

he'd been doing it for months and it didnt get tight enough to damage him till his nose got bigger.

stuffed toilet paper in the gap and havent had any probs since,..it has left a little scar, but his face is still beautiful.

 

[Dallas]

That's alot better description than mine Chris lol That sounds exactly the same.

I poked some cord in there to block it. Here's a pic that shows the gap and my really bad paint job!!