- Joined
- May 1, 2004
- Messages
- 2,290
I found this girl sitting on the blacktop right at the driveway entrance to the teacher parking lot on my way in to work early this morning:
I almost ran her over, thinking that she was a piece of black-and-white cloth, like a bandana or something, because she was coiled up in a square, and it was only at the last second, before it would have been too late, that my "snake radar" went off and I stopped, backed up and moved to the right of her so I could get a good look out the driver's side window to confirm that the object was indeed a King Snake. Unfortunately, as I picked her up, it became apparent that she had already been hit. Her movements were "spastic" and uncoordinated and she was unable to tongue-flick and there was some blood around her mouth. Since it was cloudy, I put her in a snake bag and left her in my truck, hoping for the best. She hopefully had only gotten "dinged" on the head, and when I went out to check on her during my planning period, she had made a lot of progress. She was better able to control her movements, was actively tongue-flicking and following my movements with her head and eyes, though she still seemed to have trouble righting herself if I put her on her back and had trouble holding her head up. By the time I left to go home, though, most of those issues seemed to have resolved. She has good muscle tone all over and is alert and can now hold her head up and parallel to the floor. I am hoping she will make a full recovery, as snakes are remarkable animals in their abilities to bounce back from even serious injuries. She will still vibrate her tail when I pick her up but has made absolutely no attempt to strike or bite, which is what I've come to expect from Eastern Chains. I'm guessing one of the cafeteria employees or custodians had just grazed the snake's head, probably not even knowing there was a snake there due to the darkness and the color of the snake, since they were pretty much the only employees to get there before I did. I can't find any sign of injury anywhere else to the snake's body. She is not moving around much in her enclosure, and I'd guess she is still in quite a bit of pain, so I'm limiting any handling of her. She is a really nice, clean King with crisp white banding, something we don't often see in the locale where I live, where most of the Kings have more of a muddy beige banding.
Close up:
pitbulllady
I almost ran her over, thinking that she was a piece of black-and-white cloth, like a bandana or something, because she was coiled up in a square, and it was only at the last second, before it would have been too late, that my "snake radar" went off and I stopped, backed up and moved to the right of her so I could get a good look out the driver's side window to confirm that the object was indeed a King Snake. Unfortunately, as I picked her up, it became apparent that she had already been hit. Her movements were "spastic" and uncoordinated and she was unable to tongue-flick and there was some blood around her mouth. Since it was cloudy, I put her in a snake bag and left her in my truck, hoping for the best. She hopefully had only gotten "dinged" on the head, and when I went out to check on her during my planning period, she had made a lot of progress. She was better able to control her movements, was actively tongue-flicking and following my movements with her head and eyes, though she still seemed to have trouble righting herself if I put her on her back and had trouble holding her head up. By the time I left to go home, though, most of those issues seemed to have resolved. She has good muscle tone all over and is alert and can now hold her head up and parallel to the floor. I am hoping she will make a full recovery, as snakes are remarkable animals in their abilities to bounce back from even serious injuries. She will still vibrate her tail when I pick her up but has made absolutely no attempt to strike or bite, which is what I've come to expect from Eastern Chains. I'm guessing one of the cafeteria employees or custodians had just grazed the snake's head, probably not even knowing there was a snake there due to the darkness and the color of the snake, since they were pretty much the only employees to get there before I did. I can't find any sign of injury anywhere else to the snake's body. She is not moving around much in her enclosure, and I'd guess she is still in quite a bit of pain, so I'm limiting any handling of her. She is a really nice, clean King with crisp white banding, something we don't often see in the locale where I live, where most of the Kings have more of a muddy beige banding.
Close up:
pitbulllady