What's wrong with this boa?

Is the UTH on the inside or the outside of the tank?

I know it sounds like a dumb question, but I gotta ask...some people actually put heat pads INSIDE the enclosure and are dumbfounded when their snake gets burned.

Regardless, your UTH needs to be controlled by a thermostat, rheostat, or dimmer at the very least. They can get extremely hot when they are run on full power.

FWIW, that looks more like a burn than scale rot.

That's too localized to be scale rot, it's most likely a burn, which will shed out eventually.

All heating devices for snakes should be controlled by thermostat in my opinion. A good one, not a $30 Alife 1000 or anything like those... they are crap, known for their ability to malfunction and not switch off the heat!

Nothing beats a few DIY dimmers!! I use them and never had a problem yet.

:) Thanks! She was sold to me as a BCC Guyana.... She is very purple at times. Right after she sheds, she's one of the most beautyful things I've EVER seen! lol.... proud mom. LTC, So she's still kinda a shy eater. But once you have her out, she's awsome! She is soaking this morning....... You asked earlier, is that a sighn of scale rot!?!?!

Hello! Yes, to the UTH being Under the tank! lol I've seen them inside as well.... What was the brand mentioned above? Thoughts on ESU brand therm.?!? At any rate..... Should I still alow her to free-soak? Or remove her tub for now?

I'm not sure what the current theory on soaking is with a belly burn but when we treated a 6 ft BCI with 3.5 foot long burn (his was from a big heat rock) we did the cleaning/triple antibiotic thing and put him on layers of soft, plain white paper towels with a small water dish. We changed the top paper towel layer daily so he was always on a clean reasonably soft surface. We didn't let him soak at all and just kept up the daily treatments. It was amazing how quickly it healed and after a good shed left no marks at all. Of course he saw our herp vet as well.

That's a lovely snake and I hope you can figure out what caused the belly damage and get it all sorted out.

that is exactly what needs to be done. put him on newspaper or paper towls and remove the big water dish and replace it with one that is just bigenaugh for the snake to drink out of. main reason is the burn if that is what it is needs to breath.
matt fisher

ESU, ZooMed, whatever brand on-off thermostats are absolute crap. One day I noticed every one of my snakes in a rack sitting towards the front of the tubs. The zoo-med tstat had malfuntioned and wasn't turning off the heat anymore, just letting it run full blast.

Been using a Herpstat and JC controller every since. Helix will be my next buy, just to see what all the hype is about...:sweeet:

ok i pulled out the boa medical books and started doing some research. from what i have read and seen i am convienced that you boa has scale rot. they had a pic of a boa with scale rot and it looked identical. you need to get the boa to a vet ASAP!

here is a quote right out of the mannual

the dark, reddish, fluid-filled vesicles on a boas abdomen are an early sign of necrotic dermatitis (scale rot).the apperaence of these vesicles also called blister disease, in the early stage of a skin- based infection. if not properly and aggressively treated, the problem will destroy the surface scales and cause severe ulceration.

matt fisher

Well whatever it is, a trip to the vet is in order to properly diagnose and get a course of treatment going. Please let us know how it's going with this lovely snake.