treating belly/scale rot

what do you do to treat belly rot? i have read conflicting information on the subject

Honestly? I'd pm Becky as I consider her the go-to woman for meds for problems with snakes. She'll have no problems letting you know what to do and if a vet visit is called for :)

I had a snake that had scale rot. I would take it to the vet ASAP for some antibiotics...

Depends on the severity. If it's just brown tinges on the scale tips, the soaking the snake in chlorhexidine gluc. or betadine(chlorhex doesn't need rinsed off), and then lubing the snake with polysporin or sulfadene will work fine.

If it's to where the scales are flaking/falling off/have an odor, then the snake will need some injectable meds along with the above treatment.

I've had one snake come in(none in my collection in these 4, almost 5 years of keeping them) that was burned severely on the back 3rd of her belly. The scales were edematous(collecting fluid). So I poked open every scale with a sterile needle, scrubbed her belly gently but firmly with chlorhexidine, then lubed her up with polysporin. She got put on newspaper and had a very small water bowl(3" ceramic souffle dish) for a few weeks. I washed her in soap and water every few days just to keep her clean and to reapply the polysporin. She healed up wonderfully and went to a good owner here on the forum(prototypePythons).

I've never had a case of belly rot here, even if the snake has tipped its water bowl and peed in the water and sat in it for a day and a half. Get 'em wiped off and popped in a clean tub and they are fine. Takes a long time in an extremely dirty enclosure for belly rot to form, unless the snake has a lowered immune system and is just prone to infection.

wow!i tend to think of things in leymens terms so i will try to clear this up.if you have a snake with a few irregular scales(discolored)i recomend neosporin with no pain killer twice a day and if it doesnt clear up with the next shed seek a reptile vet.also clean your tank/tub and change substrate to newspaper or paper towels so you can tell wat areas get soaked with urine or feces.also check your humidity to make sure it isnt too high.hope this helps the peeps that dont recognise the technical jargin

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Originally Posted by SatanicIntention

Depends on the severity. If it's just brown tinges on the scale tips, the soaking the snake in chlorhexidine gluc. or betadine(chlorhex doesn't need rinsed off), and then lubing the snake with polysporin or sulfadene will work fine.

If it's to where the scales are flaking/falling off/have an odor, then the snake will need some injectable meds along with the above treatment.

I've had one snake come in(none in my collection in these 4, almost 5 years of keeping them) that was burned severely on the back 3rd of her belly. The scales were edematous(collecting fluid). So I poked open every scale with a sterile needle, scrubbed her belly gently but firmly with chlorhexidine, then lubed her up with polysporin. She got put on newspaper and had a very small water bowl(3" ceramic souffle dish) for a few weeks. I washed her in soap and water every few days just to keep her clean and to reapply the polysporin. She healed up wonderfully and went to a good owner here on the forum(prototypePythons).

I've never had a case of belly rot here, even if the snake has tipped its water bowl and peed in the water and sat in it for a day and a half. Get 'em wiped off and popped in a clean tub and they are fine. Takes a long time in an extremely dirty enclosure for belly rot to form, unless the snake has a lowered immune system and is just prone to infection.

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never mind im not going to bother with this last time i got flamed

Thank you Becky and Butters.

this belly rot was affecting the spider male we just picked up, its near the vent as you can see in the photo.. the snake popped fine, its not inside his body yet as we can see, his hemipenes are intact, had sperm plugs that came out and was not showing any swelling, exc internally. We treated him last night after washing him up really well with chlor. and made sure to really cover the area with neosporin (no pain killer) making sure to go against the grain of the scales to get the med under the scales, not just on top it looked 100xs better just after washing him off, when i retreat the area today with neosporin i will take photos so you can see it now. He is OF COURSE in qt, away from the rest of our collection. If we cannot get the area to clear up in a few days-week we will absolutely take him to a herp vet. The man we got him from is a rack builder and says his staff takes care of his snakes which was his excuse for its condition, i didnt even ask to see his smaller animals so im not sure if all the babies had the same thing or not. We picked him up for $250.00, hes an 05' proven breeder. Basically the guy is replacing his "older" breeders with younger animals. We also picked up two 05' cinnamons who had a few small places with the same looking "rot" but not to the extent of this male which is why im picturing him for more people to see whats going on with him... does it also look like hes been over bred to anyone, that was one thing i thought of when i saw it... Is that why his vent area is the way it is? Either way obviously hes in QT, will not be bred or even think about being put with a female of ours until hes 100% better.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3063/...9b83c23ba1.jpg
the scales although red are not flaking, falling off nor do they have an odor which i guess is a good thing.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3219/...04086b054e.jpg

full body shot, hes 1158grams
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3102/...003b14419f.jpg
ok nixer?? if you have something helpful to say i encourage you to post it, obviously all people do different things and what works for some doesnt for others and visa versa, i would much rather get different info then none at all.

Im no expert here, but there is crust type stuff around the vent. The complete ball python shows a pic that looks very similar to that and it says its from over breeding... just an observation...

my wonderful brother in law borrowed our book my kevin from nerd (complete ball python) so i cant reference it. I too thought it looked like he was being over bred which is what i posted in my last response.. i just cleaned him up again today and took a few more photos of how it looks now. I personally think it looks alot better, pics in a few.... but what about the red/pink doesnt that look like scale/belly rot? In addition to being over bred? Again, I just got this animal yesterday, this is the first time we have ever done business with a breeder besides the guy that is local to us... the animal was nice looking, right price and it looked like something we could treat so we snagged him.

Yes the red scales do look like it might be the early signs, it could also be thermal burn... Either way similar treatments are needed. I would continue doing what your doing and see if it gets better by the next shed... If not I would go to the vet...