Loose Dorsal Scales on Yellow Belly.

So Recently I had Quarantined My Yellow Belly from the rest of my snakes for what seemed to be a very minimal amount of mites. After about 1 month and 4 or 5 baths w/ Betadine. Now when I check him its seems as though is dorsal scales are very flimsy and bend backwards easily. some even seem to flake of or have an upper layer flake off . The funny thing is is theres no visible since of infection or rot other than that. Anybody have any real ideas on what might be going on here?

Did you use any other treatment apart from betadine soaks?

Is the snake coming up for a shed?

No other soaks but beta-dine and was put in cleaned quarantine tank by himself. None of the scales seems to be yellowing or dying off. For now im just keeping the substrate extra dry and watching the heat. But a thin but tough and flaky almost thin film like layer of skin is coming of some of the scales almost like a bad shed given he shed three days ago this makes since but it seemed like a full shed and his belly look good.

Maybe omit the extra skin. What could cause the flimsy scales?

At my job, usually when a snake comes into the vet with raised scales it is a sign of localised infection or sepsis. I'm just a tech, but this is what I have seen.

Betadine isn't a mite killer, it's a disinfectant. Are the mites gone? Mites can cause loose scales.

My guess is mites too. You need to get Provent a Mite or Reptile Spray. As was said Betadine does not kill mites.

Haven't seen any mites on him since the night we first noticed them. I only saw a few crawling on him, Which was about 2 weeks before his shed. (Could this be from live prey from a local breeder?) Giving as how that was a recent change in sequence with these events.

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Originally Posted by DreamingofDragons

Haven't seen any mites on him since the night we first noticed them. I only saw a few crawling on him, Which was about 2 weeks before his shed. (Could this be from live prey from a local breeder?) Giving as how that was a recent change in sequence with these events.

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Reptile mite and rodent mites are to different things. However reptile mites can live for a short time and even feed for a time on mammals. For your snake to catch reptile mites from a feeder is possiable but that prey item would have had to come in contact or be in close distance to reptiles with mites.

Here is a good read for anyone interested. http://vpi.com/publications/the_life...of_snake_mites