Help! Something's not right with my BP!

Hello,

So my BP has just one scale that's weird. It's one of the larger scales next to his belly, but not on his belly. It's a light brown color and it has a chip in it; it's a little flimsier than the others next to it. It doesn't smell and I don't think it's scale rot. He's had it since his last shed, which came off in three pieces. I know the humidity wasn't high enough, but PA winters are pretty arid and I did my best. His last shed was about 3.5 weeks ago but I thought the scale would have healed by now. :(

I know people ask a lot of questions regarding the snake and the habitat so here's all of the additional (perhaps superfluous) information of which I can think.

BP Stats: He's currently about 26 inches and we've had him for 10 months. Up until now, he's been perfectly healthy and in most cases happily active. We handle him nearly every day except feeding day and the day after. He eats one frozen/thawed adult mouse on Sundays. He doesn't seem bothered by this strange scale as far as I can tell.

Terrarium Stats: 40 gallon terrarium heated by day bulb and red night bulb, both UV basking 100 watts using ceramic lamps. At that point he was on Aspen on the cool side and Cypress mulch on the wet side. The heat is usually 85-90 degrees F on the warm and 75-80 on the cool. His humidity at the time of his last shed was about 25-35%. Since then, we've switched over to coconut fiber substrate for the entire terrarium. The heat's been the same and the humidity on the cool side is around 40% and 50% on the warm. We have his water dish on the warm side and the under the tank heater is partially under the water dish to help put off a little extra humidity. He has two hides, one on each side, and a basking tree branch under the day bulb on the warm side. He also has a small water dish on the cool side and a basking rock (not heated) on the cool side. Some hanging plastic plants, four gauges, clean water. He doesn't use the dish as a bathroom but also doesn't soak in it very much. Since we handle him so much, we pretty much see as soon as he goes to the bathroom and the waste and surrounding substrate are removed ASAP.

Does anyone know why just this one scale is messed up? I don't want to make a mountain out of a mole hill, but I don't want this escalating into something worse. Could it have been from the bad shed or is something else going on? If anyone has any ideas, I would be super grateful.

Thanks!

A picture would definitely help in this case. If there's someone who's seen it before, they'll know what it is by looking at it.

Your conditions look good. Chances are it'll come off with his next shed, but if you don't see an improvement you may want a vet visit to be safe.

So I'm new to this site and having a hard time getting photos uploaded. Any chance you could explain how? I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. :mad:

Upload to a place like photobucket and then copy the IMG code and paste it here.

It probably just got bent. Large snakes like thick body bloods will have sections of scales that are folded in half and almost feel soft from the way they coil and their body folds. It sounds like that is what you have but a pic would help to make sure. I don't think you have much to worry about.

Like this?
http://i1151.photobucket.com/albums/...psff834bf9.jpg

I finally managed to get a good pic. A few more scales are starting to look like this one, but not as bad. If anyone has any ideas, please share.[IMG]http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/...ps07a9a709.jpg[/IMG]

It is hard to see but every now and again snakes (in general) get bits of substrate under the scales. It causes irritation from the image it looks similar. Take a close look and see if it could be that.

I have had this every now and again I found a squirt of water directed at the lip of the scale (Sryinge) dislodges it.

It is just a guess on my part. You will need to take a close look for your self.


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It does look irritated, but it doesn't look like anything too major. I would probably clean it with some betadine solution (you could just dilute the betadine until it is tea colored and soak him if you want). As for why it hasn't gone away yet, snakes heal differently than we do. We shed skin cells all the time, and they shed their entire skin all at once. So you likely won't see an improvement until his next shed.

Cleaning the scales and soaking are definitely things I'll have to try. It's been about 6 weeks since his last shed, so he's probably due soon.

We switched to coconut fiber substrate around the time this started, which is by far finer than the cypress mulch and aspen we were using before. As of now, we really need the coconut fiber to hold in humidity until summer starts because it's still very arid. Could this cause the irritation? Should I just soak him more often? As mentioned, he rarely ever soaks on his own as far as I can tell; I've only ever seen him go for an occasional quick dip.

I'll keep an eye on things until his next shed. Hopefully this clears itself up. Until then, any ideas on possible causes of irritation and would extra baths help out?

Thanks all.