I just got a female ball python a few months ago, she's been healthy and eating weekly. I had her in a small 20 gallon tank at first, and then moved her to a 70 gallon. We used to have fish in there but I cleaned it out. There was a small leak but we figured it would be fine for a reptile. Anyways, she has this heating pad inside her tank, which I know it should be underneath but it isn't the sticky kind. I figured it would be fine if I put substrate over it, and it was. But she started burrowing under it and I let her, so I think she burned herself because after she shed there were large patches of dry skin on the crest of her back. I have since put the pad at the very bottom underneath the substrate so she can't get underneath. Ive been doing research, but I still wanted to know if I should take her to the vet. For the past two days I've been giving her warm soaks in water with some drops of povodone iodine in it. We've been trying to regulate the temp and humidity, but the humidity won't get past 50 and usually stays around 40-45. We have a small humidifier and it fogs up the tank, but the digital thermometer says it's at like 40. I've been trying to keep my temp up, we have a small heater that I put on top of the tank and the temperature fluxuates between 26-35 celcius. I have to have it set up weird because we don't have a screen top - just a big peice of wood but it covers the top. So, anyway, her skin looks like it does when she's about to shed, but she just did, and pieces of her scales are coming off in a few places. We can't really afford to take her to the vet so I'd rather treat this at home if possible 😞