Loose scales in entire tank

No,

she's not shedding - it more looks like fishscales - they're all singles and thinner than shed.

I had a parasite problem, so I bathed her for about 30min in luke warm water, removed all parasites I could find manually and "dried" her with a papertowel that was slightly dipped in babyoil.
All my other snakes used to go through this procedure when I get em in as a quarantine inspection and now this.
The snake is perfectly healthy and you can't tell she is losing the scales, only the fact that they are in the tank all over tells me somewthing is wrong...


Robb

Likely the baby oil. We tried a product once long ago on a rescue with horrible stuck shed, sort of like baby oil. It did get the shed off but it literally came off scale by scale and looked exactly like fish scales....what a mess!

yep. same EXACT thing happened to me when I used a product called "snake oil"...the snake shed,but in scales!!! ....lesson learned....."snake oil" ...not really good for snakes. shhheeeesh! no wonder the stuff was on clearance!! :P

Same thing happened to me too with Neosporin when I once thought I had the beginnings of a belly burn (I didn't). But putting neosporin on the entire length of a belly invariabley ends up on the entire snake as it's wriggling through your hand.

Thanks for the relief!

Just my baby wasn't about to shed, so the scales come from nowhere...


Robb

I'd make sure your snake is on a plain papertowel substrate and just let things settle down. With the plain paper towel you can really see what's coming off and keep the enclosure as tidy as possible.

I never thought anything of it but the same thing happened to me too. I used neosporin on my female bp and for a week or two after putting it on her scales were shedding one by one. I never linked it with the neosporin 'till now but it makes sense.

An old school remedy for mites used to be covering the snake with mineral oil or olive oil. worked good for killing all the mites, but the poor snake would shed scales for weeks. :P


I do not recommend trying this on your snake! :eek:

Neosporin, OR the baby oil.


When Snoopy was sick, she was treated w/the neosporin for a few days, and yeppers! She shed scales aaaaaaaaaaaaaall over the place!!!!!:eek: :eek: :eek:

Spray, wipe, scrub; spray, wipe, scrub, bleach, rinse (it was b4 I got the chlorahexidine) Uuuuuuuuuuuuugh!!!!!:rolleye2: :mad: :rolleye2:


Papertowls will help start getting the cleaning under control, but since it was baby oil, you might want to find a good degreaser, too....just be VERY sure to RINSE really, really well in order to get any residue cleansers off the tub/tank.

I was given some of that snake oil when I got Baby. Now I know and will turn it into "drain cleaner" rather than keep the bottle for later use.


RuLyn

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ECLARK

An old school remedy for mites used to be covering the snake with mineral oil or olive oil. worked good for killing all the mites, but the poor snake would shed scales for weeks. :P


I do not recommend trying this on your snake! :eek:

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I too found this out the hard way. A vet told me that mineral oil worked as a skin moisturizer for the snake. Poor thing lost scales for weeks and it took at least 2 shed cycles before she looked normal again!