Sorry in advance--super long.
Starting at the beginning, because I wonder if this may have contributed: Came home late last night from a weekend out of town to find one of my heating elements in my cage setup (pretty standard: paper substrate, bowl of calcium, under cage and light bulb-based heaters) had gone out. Temp was mid 60s in the cage, installed a new light bulb and it was back up to ~85 by the morning.
My 2 female leos have been together for many years. Fifteen is in the range of 12-14 years old at least (I was a kid, so I'm not sure how old she was when we got her) Steve McQueen has been in with her since I got her as a yearling; she's about 4.5 years old.
They were definitely hungry. My regular food supplier closed down, so I had to wait until after the weekend to get stocked back up. Fed them a handful of mealworms and waxworms each this afternoon.
I imagine they were still in eating mode, because I came back in about 30 minutes later and found Steve with a firm bite-grip on Fifteen's cheek. I broke it up, took 15 out, and found Steve had already managed to rip a dime sized chunk of skin off of her head, what looks like skull-deep. (She'd managed to abrase the top of Steve's head a bit, but it's pencil-lead sized; nothing like what happened to 15.)
I have the feeling she's not going to survive this, but hoping she does, What caused this? I imagine it has to be the temperature + hunger; has anyone seen this kind of sudden violence happen before? Am I safe to ever put them back together again? I'd like to chalk this up to them being very hungry (and not yet full when I put them back together) and maybe the temperature change, but once it happens once, is it inevitable that they'll keep bullying each other?
In regard to the injury itself, my roommate works at the zoo and she asked the herp vet there for me and was told there's nothing taking her in would accomplish; it's just a wait and see kind of thing. I've had luck with small head wounds healing before, but I can't really imagine such a large stretch of skin regenerating, much less doing so without infection. Some of it seems to have just scrunched up, so I wonder if I can stretch it back out and cover some of the exposed area, but it's obviously very painful, so I'm reluctant to try for fear she'll thrash so hard she hurts something else. I've been using a Neosporin type ointment to both keep it covered and prevent infection (it's only been maybe 6 hours since the incident), but I wonder if a too-thick layer of that won't just mechanically impede healing. Recommendations? I've used a superglue type method of "stitches" on mammals before; would that work for lizard skin if I can somehow manage to get the wound partially closed?
Starting at the beginning, because I wonder if this may have contributed: Came home late last night from a weekend out of town to find one of my heating elements in my cage setup (pretty standard: paper substrate, bowl of calcium, under cage and light bulb-based heaters) had gone out. Temp was mid 60s in the cage, installed a new light bulb and it was back up to ~85 by the morning.
My 2 female leos have been together for many years. Fifteen is in the range of 12-14 years old at least (I was a kid, so I'm not sure how old she was when we got her) Steve McQueen has been in with her since I got her as a yearling; she's about 4.5 years old.
They were definitely hungry. My regular food supplier closed down, so I had to wait until after the weekend to get stocked back up. Fed them a handful of mealworms and waxworms each this afternoon.
I imagine they were still in eating mode, because I came back in about 30 minutes later and found Steve with a firm bite-grip on Fifteen's cheek. I broke it up, took 15 out, and found Steve had already managed to rip a dime sized chunk of skin off of her head, what looks like skull-deep. (She'd managed to abrase the top of Steve's head a bit, but it's pencil-lead sized; nothing like what happened to 15.)
I have the feeling she's not going to survive this, but hoping she does, What caused this? I imagine it has to be the temperature + hunger; has anyone seen this kind of sudden violence happen before? Am I safe to ever put them back together again? I'd like to chalk this up to them being very hungry (and not yet full when I put them back together) and maybe the temperature change, but once it happens once, is it inevitable that they'll keep bullying each other?
In regard to the injury itself, my roommate works at the zoo and she asked the herp vet there for me and was told there's nothing taking her in would accomplish; it's just a wait and see kind of thing. I've had luck with small head wounds healing before, but I can't really imagine such a large stretch of skin regenerating, much less doing so without infection. Some of it seems to have just scrunched up, so I wonder if I can stretch it back out and cover some of the exposed area, but it's obviously very painful, so I'm reluctant to try for fear she'll thrash so hard she hurts something else. I've been using a Neosporin type ointment to both keep it covered and prevent infection (it's only been maybe 6 hours since the incident), but I wonder if a too-thick layer of that won't just mechanically impede healing. Recommendations? I've used a superglue type method of "stitches" on mammals before; would that work for lizard skin if I can somehow manage to get the wound partially closed?
maybe putting 15 to sleep is the most humane thing to do....i don't know...awww Im sooo sorry for your little one and for your heart!! ***HUGS***
