I've made a pretty big mistake as a snake owner, and i feel like all my research and experience caring for various reptiles has come to nothing because of it.

About a month ago, I came home from college to find my 7 year old Ball Python, Camo severely burned under her hot rock (which, yes, I now know is a definite NO-NO for ball pythons). She smelled like rot and most of her back along the spine was covered in a centimeter-thick area of burned flesh and missing scales. I freaked out, and even thought she was dead at first, but picked her up, gently, and found her to be basically ok. I washed her off and tried to find some help.

I was dismayed to find that there is no herp hospital where I live, so I began to do the best I could to clean her up and prevent infection. I gave her baths and read a lot of internet articles. I read Neosporin is good for situations like this, so I applied it liberally to the burn. Then went to the next person I could think of. The reptile guy at Petco told me what I was doing was good, so I kept on doing it. Then I tried to figure out why this happened.

Turns out, I had neglected a pretty big part of snake husbandry - the humidity in my enclosure was pretty low, about what a normal room is in the eastern US - maybe 40-50%. I just bought a hygrometer and did that nifty put-the-heating pad-under-the-water-bowl and cover-the-top-with-plastic-wrap trick. Humidity is now at a healthy 70%.

She's gone through two shed cycles now, and like always, hasn't done them well. (i guess that's because humidity is something I never got right, until today) but the burns just scabbed up nicely because of the ointment treatments and frequent baths I've been giving her.

the big question I have now is- will she ever grow those scales back? I can see through the cracks in the scabs that there is new flesh under the scabs, but there are no scales. the flesh is white, and looks a lot like fish skin, or people skin. from now on, when she sheds, will there be just skin to shed - and no scales on her back?