Scale rot and possible other problems.

Bought a spider 2 weeks ago at an expo, didn't notice it when i was looking it over but it has what i believe to be scale rot in a small place. I treated it with triple antibiotic, just got him out today to do the same thing and it has spread to other parts, at least 5 spots that i seen if not 6 or 7. another thing is that as he was crawling through my hand it seems that his belly scales [im assuming] were coming off in my hand, it wasn't a part of a shed or anything of that sort, they're small and clear...I'm at a lose of words with what to do.

Post a picture of it we can't help you without seeing it.

Pictures were not coming out great so i had to make a video, and im hoping that is better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyTOy...ature=youtu.be

Heres a video.

That doesn't look like anything i've ever seen, but I'm no expert in ball python illnesses/injuries.

What are you using as a heat source?

I would take him to a good reptile vet to get him checked out, double check your husbandry and also contact the breeder you got him from after the vet tells you what is wrong.

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Originally Posted by babyknees

I would take him to a good reptile vet to get him checked out, double check your husbandry and also contact the breeder you got him from after the vet tells you what is wrong.

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X2 get that bad boy to a vet.

im using flexwatt as a heat source on a herpstat, paper towel substrate. I have no clue what im going to do about a vet. There is one about 50 minutes away but i dont even have money to take him there.

Not to be a downer or anything but that poor snake really needs to see a vet. This does not look like anything that can be treated at home. When you acquire an animal like this you really need to make sure you have the money to care for them, especially in cases like this.

That does look like scale rot. He should be seen by a vet. That's one of the very unfortunate parts about having exotics. You should always always be prepared to have to spend the money to take them in whenever necessary.
You also unfortunately made a very common mistake. You used neosproin regularly on a reptile. Neo is not made for anything with scales. Especially to treat a fungus or skin infection. I never recommend putting anything oil based on any animals with scales. It softens the scales only promoting infection and as you see it causes the scales to flake off. I would stop that immediately.
My second peice of advice is to immediately bleach his enclosure out to disinfect it. Use paper towels and you will need to keep his cage compleatly disinfected for as long as this takes to heal. It will need to be hospital clean. Many people use 2 different enclosures that they can switch into daily and bleach out the used one.
Thirdly, get betadyne and wash him in this daily. You can either put it right on the sores. Or create a beta bath. Water temp 88.f and put the beta in the bath until the water is tea colored. For him though I would recommend daily treating the sores with the straight betadyne daily and every other day give him a soak in the bath. Doesn't need to be for long maybe 5 min and then after the bath put the straight beta on the sores.
The most important part is to never put the neo on him again. And to keep that enclosure sterile.

Neosproin doesn't work for them like it does for us. You never ever want to keep applying it to an animal with scales. It does nothing good. I never use neo at all with any of mine for anything. For minor bite wounds or scratches I just apply betadyne and watch it. You should always keep a supply of betadyne handy.

I'll add again that he should be seen by a vet. These things can escalate to be more serious than it already is. In the meantime you can follow those earlier steps and it should help prevent it from getting worse.


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Hi,

That looks like raw flesh. :(

I'd triple check the flexwat for hot spots and make sure to keep the paper towel dry until you get him to the vets.

Ask the vet about payment plans - he might be willing to do somehting to help you out.

What else do you normally have in the tub with him?


dr del

I'm working right now to get a way to get to the vet, my gf's mom is a nurse so she can get me the beta...so now the only problem im going to have is getting to the vet, normally it wouldn't be a problem, ive took snakes to the vet before but im a little down on my luck recently.

that's really sad! i hope everything works out for you! keep us updated?

Do i need to keep him away from my other snakes? They're all in a rack right now...

I to would ask the vet about a payment plan. Hope you find a ride soon.

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Originally Posted by ShelbyCraig

Do i need to keep him away from my other snakes? They're all in a rack right now...

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i would you should quarantine all new snakes

It looks like raw skin, which I'm not sure if scale rot would cause or not. I don't think if it was that localized of scale rot that it would cause the skin to peel off anyway...
Looks like a burn or some other kind of trauma. Anything sharp or any tape in his enclosure?
Get him to a vet if/when you can. :gj:

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Originally Posted by Homegrownscales

That does look like scale rot. He should be seen by a vet. That's one of the very unfortunate parts about having exotics. You should always always be prepared to have to spend the money to take them in whenever necessary.
You also unfortunately made a very common mistake. You used neosproin regularly on a reptile. Neo is not made for anything with scales. Especially to treat a fungus or skin infection. I never recommend putting anything oil based on any animals with scales. It softens the scales only promoting infection and as you see it causes the scales to flake off. I would stop that immediately.
My second peice of advice is to immediately bleach his enclosure out to disinfect it. Use paper towels and you will need to keep his cage compleatly disinfected for as long as this takes to heal. It will need to be hospital clean. Many people use 2 different enclosures that they can switch into daily and bleach out the used one.
Thirdly, get betadyne and wash him in this daily. You can either put it right on the sores. Or create a beta bath. Water temp 88.f and put the beta in the bath until the water is tea colored. For him though I would recommend daily treating the sores with the straight betadyne daily and every other day give him a soak in the bath. Doesn't need to be for long maybe 5 min and then after the bath put the straight beta on the sores.
The most important part is to never put the neo on him again. And to keep that enclosure sterile.

Neosproin doesn't work for them like it does for us. You never ever want to keep applying it to an animal with scales. It does nothing good. I never use neo at all with any of mine for anything. For minor bite wounds or scratches I just apply betadyne and watch it. You should always keep a supply of betadyne handy.

I'll add again that he should be seen by a vet. These things can escalate to be more serious than it already is. In the meantime you can follow those earlier steps and it should help prevent it from getting worse.


Check out what's new on my website... www.Homegrownscales.com

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Bolded, italicized and repeated for TRUTH. The rest of the info is also spot on.

Silver Sulfdiazine is the silver bullet. You can only get it from your vet. That is your cue to make an appointment today.

When i first noticed it, everywhere i looked on the internet said to use neo...

Oh yes I understand how you came about that info and it is a VERY common misconception. Neo is in essence fine for the minor bite wound or teeny scratch. Dabbed on once and not repeated. (Although I'll reiterate that I don't use anything oil based on my reptiles) I'm guessing that this was repeated a few times and sloughed on. Which is not what to do even once for scale rot. You pretty much trapped the nasty fungus or bacteria on him and then oiled up his scales so they were nice and soft and more prone to more infection. (Think of oiling leather boots to keeps them from cracking) The flaking is what happens when oil is introduce to their scales it again softens them and they fall off.
There are two main causes for scales rot. One is a fungus and the other is a bacterial infection. This is why he should be seen by a vet. But your worst enemy is wetness, and bacteria. So keep him dry. Toss the neo in the trash. Even for a minor bite betadyne not only will do the trick but you won't have this problem.
Keep his enclosure dry and hospital clean and clean those sores with the beta until you get him to the vet. The vet will determine whether he may need abos and Give you the silver sulfadizine cream and tell you to keep on keeping on.




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Will wiping his tub down with Clorox wipes be equivalent to using bleach to clean it out with?

No you should fill up his tank with hot hot water and bleach 1:10 (10 parts being water) and let it sit for 10 min Then dump and rinse well well well. That's why In these cases folks have 2 enclosures so the snake doesn't have to wait around while it's being disinfected. You should think about using a temporary tub set up. Just have 2 of those and going back and forth between those and after this is all done go back to the tank. Thats would be 1000% easier than trying to that with tanks.


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I don't use tanks, He's in a 12 qt tub right now.

Oh good sorry if I missed that earlier. Yep. Just grab another and switch them out and disinfect at least every other day. Me personally I'd do it daily. You need hospital clean.


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Just got back from the vet, she said it looks like a burn to her...although i dont get how it can be if i have a themostat...ill post a really good picture when i get to my house and give more details...

Did you take your snake to a vet who has reptile experiance? Most vets have very little knowledge when it comes to reptiles. Unfortunately it can take some searching and trial and error to find a good one.

Regardless get some good pictures up and maybe someone on here can confirm (or not) the vets diagnosis.

I agree. Get a second opinion. The video you posted looks nothing like a burn. Especially since It was one spot and them turned into 5 or 6. That's total scale rot behavior. Burns are usually one area along the belly, and they can look like a blister almost for us. Or crispy nastiness. Have you seen any changes with the betadyne treatment?


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betadyne

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Can someone explain more about what this is?

Was it typo for betadine?

According to wikipedia is a brand name for a range povidone-iodine (PVPI) topical antiseptics?

Could you just use straight up iodine?

I'm just currious. Knowledge is power!

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Originally Posted by captainjack0000

Can someone explain more about what this is?

Was it typo for betadine?

According to wikipedia is a brand name for a range povidone-iodine (PVPI) topical antiseptics?

Could you just use straight up iodine?

I'm just currious. Knowledge is power!

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Yes that was just a typo. As far as straight up iodine goes I don't know but when it comes to things that come in direct contact with my snakes I tend to stick with well tested methods. Maybe someone else knows the actual answer you your question.

I know she sees reptiles but as of her knowing alot about them i can't confirm or deny that. I honestly don't believe that it is a burn but im hoping after he sheds, which should be in 3 or 4 days that he clears up alot. As for the beta treatment I can't really tell if it's doing anything. I'm hoping after i post pictures someone can confirm or deny it because the nearest reptile vet other than her is over a hundred miles away.

Lets say there is a hot spot in the tank. One round burn shows up, and you think scale rot. Snake goes back into the tank for another night. More similar sized round burns show up because as the snake moves around, its body touches that one tiny hot spot more and more.

The scales coming off could be from the Neo. So we have two unrelated symptoms from two different sources.

I'm not an expert, vet, or even an experienced enthusiast. Just an idea to throw out there.
Evidence to support it would be if the spots are all about the same size, and if you can find a hot spot in the tank.

Burns don't happen fast. Or just from the snake touching a hot spot. They generally cover a large portion of the belly because the animal will Lay on it for an extended amount of time and well burn themselves. If there was a hot spot that was that hot that it was instantly burning the snake with whatever portion was touching it. Well that's a huge problem in itself but as well since the snake is in a tub you would see melted plastic in that case. Hence why I hesitate to call them burns.

I've only used beta. I guess I've never thought of using straight iodine. I wouldn't see it being detrimental though.


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Also uth on a tstat. You would notice if that uth was malfunctioning. Preventing burns is the sole purpose of the tstat.


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I havn't been able to get any pictures that are clear to where you can notice what's going on with his belly but i figured i would give another update and explain some other things. When i was at the vet she gave me Nolvason and told me to mix it and let him soak in it daily like i did with the beta. She also wanted to see him in 2-3 weeks to see how he is doing and wanted a stool sample asap because for some reason she thought he had parasites which i do not understand why she would come to that conclusion. I have him in a glass aquarium right now like she wanted but she wanted him on news paper and i did that for a day and took him out and he had gotten the ink on the wound or whatever you want to call it so i put him back on his paper towels...which are actualy soft and not the rough kind that most are...anyway after his shed im going to try my hardest to actually get a good clear picture of what's going on down there for everyone to have a go at if they want. I believe that this is actually all my fault for using the neo on him and I've learned that doing this has made me not to believe everything i read on the internet about what i should do with my snakes and that i should get people that have been doing this for years to give me advice. Well, theres my small turned big update, hope everybody had a good weekend and I'll post again after shed.

He shed today, not all in one piece, but i did get it all off. His belly is starting to look better although it still doesn't look good. Shouldn't be long for it all to clear up now.

Unfortunately scale rot can take awhile to clear up. But it sounds like he's doing better!


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