Stuck Fast

It was the craziest set of circumstances.

Like, it shouldn't have happened, but it did sort of circumstances.

So there I was,
Cleaning out one of our snake cages.

When the hygrometer in it....fell off.
I tried sticking it back to the side of the cage.
But the stickiness wasn't sticking any more.

So I propped it up inside the cage to fix later when I was done with all the cages.

Unsurprisingly.
Things got a bit more....complicated.
Which is what usually happens when I'm confident things will get done quickly.
Other problems arise.
Customers come in.
Need to go fix something else real quick...

So it took longer to get to putting everything back than I wanted it to take.

I got back to the cages after like an hour or so.
Opened up that particular snake's cage.
And saw to my dismay....

That the little ball python in the cage....
Had gotten stuck to that hygrometer!!

Apparently the stickiness had become sticky again.
The snake had knocked over the meter as he explored the clean cage.
And had become stuck on the stickiness. :S

Thankfully....he hadn't been stuck for longer than an hour.....
But that was an hour too long.

As I could see his neck was distorted from him trying to pull himself free.

Unfortunately...when snakes get stuck to sticky things....it's really difficult to unstick them.
As they're soo...expandable in ways.

But from past experiences....
-Where escaped snakes have become stuck to the sticky traps we have out for mice/insects/etc.
I knew that the Vets in the store had a product to help take away the stickiness.
Mineral Oil.
Rub it against the skin and the stickiness and the sticky becomes non sticky and the snake can be pulled free.

-Ha, it's always humorous....(not for the snake) because the main Vet there....hates snakes. And avoids them at all cost.
lol. Thankfully, he has a heart, and a strong desire to help any animal in trouble.
So as long as I keep the head away from him, the Vet is happy to help an animal in need.

Which he did now.
It was slightly difficult to keep the head away from him as the snake had become stuck pretty close to the head. basically the lower throat area.

But because it was such a small area that was stuck.
We quickly got him free.

Only....he didn't look the best when we got him free.
His throat was distorted, it looked like scales were peeling up.
Plus....he was bleeding slightly.

It definitely was a situation where we needed to take him to our vet that sees our Reptiles, like ASAP.
Just to make sure he was okay and that he wouldn't bleed to death.

The problem....
Is that our Reptile Vet....is like 15 mins away.
And technically only the managers are supposed to take the animals to the vet.
The other problem....is that we only had one manager in the store.
And wouldn't get another one in for a few more hours.
We didn't want to wait.

So the manager gave the approval for me to take the snake to the vet.
-I've done it before on similar circumstances. So I knew where to go.-

I dropped off the snake....
But still don't know what the verdict is because my shift ended before the Vet called for us to pick him up.

So I hope he's fine.....that he'll recover quickly.

-Sarnic Dirchi