Scale rot or something else?

[Brent857]

Not sure what if its scale rot or something else, any tips on treatment would be really appreciated. I left my albino ball python in the care of my older brother while I've been out of town with dad my snakes enclosure was pretty dry he eats fine still and is active at night still! Help please!!

[carlson]

I'd say go ask a vet for help. They can do hell of alot more for you than we can over the Internet.

[cinnamonpython]

it looks like a burn vet ASAP!!

[Brent857]

Anything I can do til I get it to the vet?? the closest exotic vet is hour and a half away and he isn't in til Wednesday Does anyone have any advice on what I can do til then? I have put him in a clear tub with paper towels for now and his water bowl.
I have some triple antibiotic ointment is it safe to use? The brand is smart sense I think.

Active ingredients are
Bacitracin
Neoymycin
polymyxin

Inactive
Light mineral oil
White petroleum

[kitedemon]

If you have silver sulfadiazine I might try this. I don't think I would use a polysporin cream as it tends to soften scales and could do more damage. Clean and correct temps and such until you can get to the vet.

[Willie76]

I say burn and agree with using silver sulfadiazine until you can get to the vet. Now to correct the issue at hand...how did he get burned?

Did he burn himself while outside his enclosure?
How is he housed? In a tub, aquarium style glass enclosure, or PVC enclosure?
How are you heating the warm side? Under the tank heat mat? Flexwatt? Is it regulated by a thermostat to 90 degrees and monitored with a temp gun or thermometer?
Are there any direct heat sources such as a heat rock or is the heat mat placed inside the enclosure instead of outside and underneath?

[Brent857]

He is in a aquarium with a screen lid. Its been a pain keeping heat in and the humidity. I was using an under the tank heat pad and a heating lamp to help with heat during the winter. I have removed the the heat lamp. I have ordered a Herpstat Intro Proportional Thermostat. It will be here sometime today. I just have a thermometer, looking for getting a temp gun could you suggest any good/affordable ones? The heat pad is on the bottom of the glass, I touched it doesn't seem all that hot but I just read they can spike sometimes :/

Thanks il go grab some of that stuff. Would Betadine be a good idea as well?

[Willie76]

Great job on investing in a good t-stat! Reptile Basics has a number of good thermometers, and use the following myself ($49) to check surface temps and have never had a problem:

http://www.reptilebasics.com/412l-thermometer

I use Acurite thermometers to monitor general ambient temps and humidity and they're only $12 at WalMart. The Acurites have a probe I use to measure the warm side and I use the unit to monitor the cool side and humidity. I use a hot glue gun to secure the probe wire (never use tape anywhere). These can usually be found by the light bulbs or ordered directly off their website:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Acu-Rite-I...mometer/896347

I would suggest that you also look at changing the type of enclosure. If you can, look at the enclosures Reptile Basics has or go on over to Animal Plastics and look at their T-8 enclosures. I don't have a ton of snakes now, but use to own/foster many in the past. I buy the T8s from Animal Plastics. Actual lead time is about 2 weeks.

If you have to stay with glass for now, warm, wet towels covering 2/3 of the screen top (changed daily) has worked well for me in the past along with occasional misting.

[Brent857]

Thanks for the help guys! Just hooked up my herpstat pro, tested the thermostat in the empty snake cage it was reading 102.5 directly touching the pad, poor guy . Could someone let me know the best place to put the probe? I'm using an aquarium right now with a screen top but I will have a small melamine snake rack in a few days. Will be investing in a temp gun tomorrow.

[Willie76]

Best practice is to sandwich the t-stat probe between the UTH mat and the bottom of the enclosure. In my own humble experience though, I have only found this to work well if there is a recessed channel for the probe like in my T8 enclosures...

I do use glass enclosures for QT tanks and have found this to not work very well as this creates a pocket-effect with the UTH and doesn't read/heat very well in this setup. So, I place my t-stat probes inside the tank; directly over the heat mat. I then secure the probe wire with hot glue (again, zero tape in the enclosure anywhere) but keep the probe completely free and resting over the UTH (looking inside one of my QT tanks from the top):



BTW: You won't need the foil tape, just used it to show my point in the above pic.