One of my cribos damaged some of his scales right behind his head while striking for a rat.
He was in his hide box and got good scrape drawing blood - I disinfected it and have been applying neosporin for a couple of days. Due to him being a squirrelly bugger the ointment has been applied liberally to the surrounding area.
Lo and behold I check on my big boy this morning and discovered that a very thin layer of his scales are sloughing off where the ointment was applied.
Again, just a thin pigmented layer - the scale is still there - a shed's worth of scale has come of in the area. He's about week out from a shed (he's pretty regular).
Being a worrywart, I e-mailed the vet who responded:
" I have seen sloughing from neosporin before - it's due to the petroleum jelly type base it's in. No serious harm to worry about.... but wouldn't use it anymore ;) Do you have any silvadene cream at home? It is an antibacterial and fungistatic agent in a water based cream - great for sunburn, too! If not - give me a call at the office tomorrow and I'll send some home with you. You are more than welcome to bring him in also! Definitely keep up the dilute chlorhexidene baths also. Key is to prevent infection in this area while the scales repair."
Interesting - I've seen Neosporin recommended countless times before and have never heard of this side effect.
Thought I'd post, just in case someone has this issue in the future. Had me pretty worried.