injuries to ball python

Question
QUESTION: I have a three year old ball python that I have fed live food for the past two years because she wasn't excepting frozen any more.  Recently she got bit by a rat that I was feeding her.  The injury is on her head(which she is very picky about touching, she won't even take the shed off her head) It has been a couple of days and seems to be healing without cleaning.  My concern is now, how do I know if it is infected or not? And is this going to make her scared of her food or should I step back down to adult mice until she is better.  Also I was curious why she didn't eat it or kill it when it attacked her?

ANSWER: Telling if an injury is infected on a snake is much the same as telling if one is infected on a human watch for puss redness and pretty much basic things you would think to on yourself.  I would recommend probably atleast attempting to put some neosporin on it.  It may make her a little nervous around live food but probably not.  I would make another attempt to feed frozen again or at the very least pre killed or stunned rats.  She didn't eat the rat because it bit her plain and simple people often ask me that same question but if something of equivalent size bit you like a larger dog you probably wouldn't stick around to fight it you'd try to back off.  Same thing with the snake snakes are ambush predators they don't fight other animals they surprise them if they're getting the short end of the stick on an exchange they'll almost always back off.

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QUESTION: Thank you very much for your response but i have one more question I hope you can help me with.  That same rat that bit my snake was fed to my nile monitor afterwards and there was no problems he ate it and acted the same as usual.  Last night he was found dead in his water.  I think he was dead for at least 12 hrs when I found him but my boyfriend said he was just relaxing.  We are wondering if his death may have had something to do with the rat (because he was otherwise healthy)?  Also if it did have to do with the rat should I be more concerned about the bite my snake encountered? I will try to put neo sporin but it will be difficult she is a stickler.  Thank you.

Answer
Only issue I could see would be asphyxiation or impaction caused by the rat if you normally fed the nile similar sized food then I see no reason that rat would be different unless it happened to be a wild caught rat in which case it may have ingested poison.  I would not worry anymore about the bite due to the fact the nile died though.  For a trick on getting neosporin on the head without totally stressing the snake get a paper towel roll and tube the snake inside it and use a long cotton swab to apply the neosporin depending ont he size of the snake obviously if its bigger use a bigger paper towel roll if smaller even rolled up newspaper can work in a pinch.