help!!! something on his mouth

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Originally Posted by tttaylorrr

i do not have a lamp. where am i supposed to move the probe to while still knowing my temps?

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Hold on just a second. The thermometer probe can stay inside your tank, affixed to the bottom under the substrate. (Hopefully you have two sensors, one for hot and one for cold side) . The thermostat probe, needs to go on the outside where Viol8r specified.

Do you have both a thermometer and a thermostat?

i'll definitely be moving the probe out of the tank. thanks, guys.

as for the dots, they're not mites; i tried to scratch them off (gently) with my nail and they didn't move or anything. i looked him all over and those dots were the only two. i have no other animals and he was gotten from Reptiles by Mack less than a week ago, so i doubt he has mites.

do you think he needs a vet visit? or should i just monitor him until it goes away? i hope you guys don't think of me as some monster. ):

i have the thermoSTAT, which my UTH is plugged into, and that is where the probe comes from. that is what is buried under my substrate. my thermometer is a dial combo hygrometer (which i try not to rely on) and i have a digital thermo/hygrometer as well.

Sweet, glad to hear you have a thermostat! Yeah, I'd second what everyone has already said. Thermostat goes on the outside so it measures the UTH only. I don't think biting or touching the probe could be the source of your mouth problem. I'd keep and eye on it and if it gets worse, take it to a vet.

that's what i wanted to hear: i just need to watch him and monitor it; no vet just yet. thanks everyone. i've never had a reptile or a snake and i'm trying the best i can and this has scared the crap out of me!

the probe will be removed tomorrow, since i have to get another thermometer with a probe in there (i hope that's okay with y'all). i will be keeping a close eye on him, and i'll try feeding tomorrow and see how it goes.

again, THANKS everyone!

I would move the tstat probe now. As in tonight. Its a good chance that your snake could have been exploring and rubbed his face a bit raw. If that is the case your snake has a higher than average chance of moving the tstat probe and letting your uth run away and put your snake at true risk. I would just leave the tstat set how it is and leave it that way until you get another thermometer. If it were me I would invest in a IR temp gun as pretty much every thermometer I have tried has given up on life. I hardly have any thermometers in my cages now because they just keep failing. I stick to the IR gun.

I do not believe a vet visit is in order yet and would just keep a close eye on it and see if you cant catch it doing something that may have caused the scab. I would make sure that there is not any items inside the cage that could be sharp and done the damage.

Mites like to get under the scales so you would not be able to simply wipe them away. Hopefully it's just discolored scales and nothing to worry about. You should move the probe asap. He could pee on it, cool it down, in turn increasing the heat, then burn himself.

I don't know why no one else considered this or said anything, it looks like maybe a small feeder bite? Or scrag or something? Doesn't reptiles by Mack feed live?