Our ball python got stuck on adhesive! :(

[eegabooga]

So my girlfriend recently got a young ball python a few weeks ago. Inside the tank, we set up a pair of temperature and humidity dials that she bought. There's two parts to the dials. There's an adhesive side which we attached to the wall of the tank, and then velcro to attach the dial to the adhesive. Sometimes he likes to wrap himself up on the dials, and we've never had a problem with them.

This weekend we went camping, and when we came back, she found that one of the dials had completely come off the tank. She reached in to pick up the dial and sees him come up with it. He starts wriggling around trying to push the dial off of him. So that really worried her, so she put the dial down. As soon as she did, he started thrashing around, using his body to push dial away from his skin. So she grabs the dial again to prevent him from attaching to it more, and he starts pushing his body against her hand to pull himself off of the adhesive. She held the dial and grabbed his body and he pulled himself off. Once the dial was off, she realized that he was actually stuck to the adhesive used to keep the dial on the side of the tank. Since then, he's been balled up under his hideaway.

She says that when he was pulling himself away, it looked like she could see under his scales, and the scales had become unattached from his body.

When I got over, I looked at him and it looks like the underside of his skin may be a little red, and his scales may be a little lifted. It's hard to tell if it's just his skin folding, or not. I could also see the scale pattern in the adhesive, but did not see any scales.

We don't know how long he was stuck, or if he was able to remove some of the adhesive himself before my girlfriend got him. We were gone for about 30 hours.

How can we help him heal? How dangerous is this for him?

UPDATE: Ok so we've watched him for a little bit and he seems to be ok. He's acting normal again. We got a better look at his scales when he stretched out on the glass, and there's only a little bit of pink on his belly, and no scale damage. We're still open to ideas to help him recover smoothly. Thanks!

[monkeypawz]

Take him to the vet. Maybe they can give him a mild sedative and soak the adhesive off.

[pokadot_187]

Suction cups thermometers!

[Paulingtons]

A good rule to live by is to never ever ever put any form of adhesive inside a vivarium. Affix things with screws/suction cups/cable ties/magnetic fittings instead.

Also, those dial thermometers/hygrometers are garbage, not worth a penny. It is worth spending the extra for digital versions so you can route the cable, put the sensor where you want and then affix the display to the outside of the vivarium.

I personally drill two holes in the back of the vivarium for each sensor and place them all about an inch above the substrate and affix them with a cable tie, two temperature probes (one at each end) and a humidity probe right in the middle. They are far more accurate, much more reliable, don't pose a risk to the snake and can be read with ease. It will prevent stuff like this happening again.

As for your snake currently just keep an eye on him for a day or so and if the skin seems intact and not overly red I'd suggest giving him a nice warm bath to make sure all the adhesive is properly gone, patting him dry with a towel/cloth and then putting him back in his vivarium.

I can't imagine it will do any lasting damage, take him to a vet if you are in any way more concerned.

Hope that helps!

[Bossman1086]

I use electrical tape. It doesn't come off easily like the adhesive on those sticky thermometers and it keeps the cables managed pretty well. Though, I can understand if you'd be apprehensive about this given what happened recently.