Scale rot....HELP PLEASE!

I sold a female normal from one of my clutches this past summer to a friend of mine. A few weeks ago I was visiting him to see how she was doing/growing and I noticed a lower portion of her belly was a bit pink. To prevent what I thought might be oncoming scale rot, I advised him to keep her dry.

Tonight he sends me this......

http://i837.photobucket.com/albums/z...psdec25db6.jpg

It's definitely getting worse.

She lives in a 10 gallon terrarium with a heating pad set to 88 degrees F. Her substrate is bark mulch/woodchips and she appears to be taken good care of. She eats like a machine and has just recently missed her first meal.

What do you think is going on and what should I advise him to do?

Thanks for your help!

My guess is that it's a burn from the heating pad. I told him to clean out the substrate and keep her on paper towels and not in direct contact with the glass until it begins to heal.

Sound advice?

I've never dealt with scale rot but my first instinct would be to get her off wood chips and on to paper towels. I'm sure others will chime in with better/more advice.

EDIT: Just saw your second post.

If it is a burn (I dunno) Paper towels are thin and won't really save her from a hot heating pad.. Maybe turn the temp down a few degrees. You might be getting a reading that's off.