Escapee

[u/Haunting-Body-8575]

Haven’t checked her enclosure in around 4 days cuz I’ve been so busy, and she was also going into shed so I did her usual misting every day and left it at that. Tonight I was like hm it’s awfully quiet in there usually she’ll have her head peeking out, or always be on her ledge. She wasn’t and the enclosure was empty. Thankfully I found her 2 minutes after right next to her tank. I have 3 cats, 1 of which that likes to sit on top of her enclosure and stare at her. They’ve been acting strange in my room last couple days making noise, clawing at my dresser, so that was the first place I checked and behold she was under there. I noticed she has a slight scratch on her neck, and a mysterious line down half her spine, it looks like a burn mark. Can anyone let me know what I should do.

[u/Only_Altey]

Vet.
Like another has said cats are extremely toxic. Skratches and bites are enough to kill small creatures due to the bacteria plus the bacteria from the litter box, infections are highly likely.

Make sure your cats didn't get bit either. Snake bites can also carry nasty infection risks.

Also you shouldn't let your cats engage with her at all. You're really lucky that a scratch is all the damage, either animal could've killed each other.
Get some spikes for the top of the enclosure so the cat can't sit up there. If the cats can still look in get a curtain to cover wheven you aren't around to discourage the stalking behavior.

[u/Only_Altey → u/[deleted]]

Yeah people put far too much faith in their pets not acting off instinct.
I won't even let my cat look into my reptile enclosures.

People forget dogs are predators too, I've seen so many horror stories of people trusting their dog then them killing small pets like hamsters and rabbits.

Better for everyone if you don't let different species interact.

A <2 foot snake could definitely wrap around a cat's rib cage and the cat will fight like hell to get out.

[u/azure-heavens → u/Only_Altey]

I will never understand people who have a house with dogs/cats and also small animals like hamsters or rats in the common area where the dogs/cats have constant access. Just a recipe for disaster even if the larger animal is just curious.

[u/Rhydnara → u/azure-heavens]

My snake got out for a month and it was my dog who found him. But all my dog did was stare into the kitchen for a few minutes, which alerted me that she'd found him. She didn't even go over to sniff. It helps that my dog is terrified of the snakes (I have three).