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Vet Visit for Seraphim
I took Seraphim to the vet today. I finally reached the end of where I was willing to just let it go. I had thought his mouth injury (caused by a hair getting wrapped around his lower jaw) would heal on its own and that he would start eating again shortly after we removed the hair, but he didn't. He still didn't eat this morning when I offered a pinky. Around 3 this afternoon, I finally decided to take him to the vet. A Google search on "Reptile Vets" "Rockville, Maryland" turned up this: http://www.metropets.org/YellowPages/Vets_Birds.php
I chose one relatively near to where I live, set up an appointment, told work I had a doctor's appointment, and set out to retrieve my snake and take him in. Seraphim got the royal treatment at the vet's office. First they prepared a warm bath for him to warm him up and performed a snakely physical on him. Other than being totally empty they said he didn't look too thin. Then all the techs came in and cooed over him - apparently he is an exceptionally nice-looking snake, according to snake appreciaters. Then they wanted to be photographed with him (someone had a digital camera).
They told me several things I could do to speed up the healing process - The main one was to keep him warmer. I had thought that because he's from a more temperate climate that cool temperatures would be ok for him - but apparently he will heal faster if he's kept warm. They also said he will need a black light to stimulate serotonin and make him feel more content. That's one I'd never heard before. I knew they needed moderate UV but a black light - wellp worth a try anyway. They said that bark substrate was not a very good idea because it could become impacted and recommended newspaper. I happen to have a paper shredder and a daily supply of junk mail. What could be cheaper... (Thanks again, junk-mail people!)
Doctor Hollifield, (fire-engine red, close-cropped dye job, a lot of piercings, and a sense of humor/attitude), examined Seraphim's mouth. The damage was worse than I thought - I had thought there was external scale damage and maybe some to the inside of his mouth, but apparently the hair cut all the way through the muscle. Luckily, because the cage has been very clean, it wasn't infected ... yet. To prevent infection, she recommended three shots of Baytrill and topical iodine. He had his first shot today and will have the second and third on Friday and Monday.
I asked them to feed him, so she gave him a large dose of Nutrical with a syringe that went all the way down to his stomach (Poor Snake). After that she gave him two pinky rats, and then after that another large dose of Nutrical to make sure it stayed down. He was Not Pleased (TM) but very energetic after that... They gave me a plunger of sorts and instructed me how to put the pinky in and how to push it down with the plunger. I will have to admit that if anyone ever told me ten years ago that I'd be doing anything like this, I would have told them they were crazy. I will definitely have to grow my forefinger nail out, since I learned by observing Dr. Hollifield that comes in *really* handy when force feeding a snake...
So anyway, he's had a full meal (the real reason I took him to the vet)... He gets his second shot of Baytrill on Friday, and the third on Monday, each time at 9:00 am. Hopefully I can get them to give him some more food when he goes in.
I feel much better about his chances of survival now. For a day or so I was sort of getting resigned to losing him, but now there may be a chance. They said he looked healthy, and that reptiles take a long time to heal up. The doctor said that if it doesn't knit together enough she can apply some microscopic stitches to knit it together (they use a high- powered magnifying glass to do that). I'm hoping for the best.
Oh, and upon cursory inspection, the vet verified that Seraphim is in fact a boy. I thought so. So Asherah has to be female then, since there were eggs a couple of times. I always thought it was her, but never positive until now.. I am really relieved to find a vet that (ironically) treats both snakes and mice. An exotics vet that I like in my neighborhood is something I should have found long ago, considering the pets who live here.
I chose one relatively near to where I live, set up an appointment, told work I had a doctor's appointment, and set out to retrieve my snake and take him in. Seraphim got the royal treatment at the vet's office. First they prepared a warm bath for him to warm him up and performed a snakely physical on him. Other than being totally empty they said he didn't look too thin. Then all the techs came in and cooed over him - apparently he is an exceptionally nice-looking snake, according to snake appreciaters. Then they wanted to be photographed with him (someone had a digital camera).
They told me several things I could do to speed up the healing process - The main one was to keep him warmer. I had thought that because he's from a more temperate climate that cool temperatures would be ok for him - but apparently he will heal faster if he's kept warm. They also said he will need a black light to stimulate serotonin and make him feel more content. That's one I'd never heard before. I knew they needed moderate UV but a black light - wellp worth a try anyway. They said that bark substrate was not a very good idea because it could become impacted and recommended newspaper. I happen to have a paper shredder and a daily supply of junk mail. What could be cheaper... (Thanks again, junk-mail people!)
Doctor Hollifield, (fire-engine red, close-cropped dye job, a lot of piercings, and a sense of humor/attitude), examined Seraphim's mouth. The damage was worse than I thought - I had thought there was external scale damage and maybe some to the inside of his mouth, but apparently the hair cut all the way through the muscle. Luckily, because the cage has been very clean, it wasn't infected ... yet. To prevent infection, she recommended three shots of Baytrill and topical iodine. He had his first shot today and will have the second and third on Friday and Monday.
I asked them to feed him, so she gave him a large dose of Nutrical with a syringe that went all the way down to his stomach (Poor Snake). After that she gave him two pinky rats, and then after that another large dose of Nutrical to make sure it stayed down. He was Not Pleased (TM) but very energetic after that... They gave me a plunger of sorts and instructed me how to put the pinky in and how to push it down with the plunger. I will have to admit that if anyone ever told me ten years ago that I'd be doing anything like this, I would have told them they were crazy. I will definitely have to grow my forefinger nail out, since I learned by observing Dr. Hollifield that comes in *really* handy when force feeding a snake...
So anyway, he's had a full meal (the real reason I took him to the vet)... He gets his second shot of Baytrill on Friday, and the third on Monday, each time at 9:00 am. Hopefully I can get them to give him some more food when he goes in.
I feel much better about his chances of survival now. For a day or so I was sort of getting resigned to losing him, but now there may be a chance. They said he looked healthy, and that reptiles take a long time to heal up. The doctor said that if it doesn't knit together enough she can apply some microscopic stitches to knit it together (they use a high- powered magnifying glass to do that). I'm hoping for the best.
Oh, and upon cursory inspection, the vet verified that Seraphim is in fact a boy. I thought so. So Asherah has to be female then, since there were eggs a couple of times. I always thought it was her, but never positive until now.. I am really relieved to find a vet that (ironically) treats both snakes and mice. An exotics vet that I like in my neighborhood is something I should have found long ago, considering the pets who live here.
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