Slight Wrinkled PINK BELLY on bottom portion of my Ball Python snake

Hello,
My beautiful ball python snake has been having slight wrinkled pink belly on the bottom 1/3 portion of his body.
He's about 1-2 years old, Butters just moved from LA to San Diego last Winter. He has shed twice already; I am aware that that pinkish belly happens when ball pythons shed however, even after shedding and eating his food I notice the pinkish colored bottom portion of his belly has not gone away since he has moved down to San Diego! (Meaning prior to that he hasn't had this problem before) So I am wondering Butter's having an Respiratory Infection or any other kind of disease. Addition to this happening Butters has been not able to attack his small/medium rat himself, so attempts but fails, then he gives up and I put his food away. I tried smaller rat today and he still couldn't attack it. He shed last week so there's no way he's not hungry/ about to shed.

I'm worried about his belly :rage::( There's a slight brownish line (about 1 inch) on the start of the pink belly area... I'm wondering if that's... :confusd:
I decided to take some photos of his bottom portion of his belly, please check them out and suggest what I should do! Thank you!

Photo 1:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-j...3+14.07.25.jpg

Photo 2:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-3...3+14.07.34.jpg

Photo 3:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-N...3+14.07.47.jpg

That's not pink belly, that's a burn. Check your heat source/thermostat ASAP, as well as taking care of that burn.

My cage temp is on the low side though. He's heating pad only reaches up to 70 degrees. It's usually on the low 70s to mid 70s.
Would it be still possible that it's temperature burn from 70s?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TheButters

My cage temp is on the low side though. He's heating pad only reaches up to 70 degrees. It's usually on the low 70s to mid 70s.
Would it be still possible that it's temperature burn from 70s?

---

Well then the heating source is too low, it should be approx 90 degrees. So I am a little wary of what is going on. If you're telling the truth, then maybe scale rot? I'm not sure...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TheButters

My cage temp is on the low side though. He's heating pad only reaches up to 70 degrees. It's usually on the low 70s to mid 70s.
Would it be still possible that it's temperature burn from 70s?

---

No that temp wouldn't burn the animal. But something did, are you using a thermostat?

Yes I'm worried that it's a scale rot. Hmmm unless my thermeter is incorrect... my heating pad & cage measures in the 70s degrees.
Thanks for possible lead MorphMaster! What do other people think? :please:

What I am getting from this is you are reading your ambient air temp as your heat pad,
all pads get HOT. I have burned myself on one. Place your probe on the glass where the heat pad is. I'm guessing it will read around 98.

But that's definitely a burn.

Edit. Or feel check it with your hand if you believe your thermometer is broken.

I have two thermostats:

1st one is a sticker thermometer that is stuck on the surface of the plastic cage where the heating pad is stuck from the outside.

2nd one is Analog Dual Thermometer and Humidity Gauge
http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-Econom...le+temperature

Unless both of them are wrong... the temperature reads between low 70s to low 80s at the most.

No I was wrong! The sticker thermometer is reading the heating pad as high 80s! :bow:

*Edit: oops, I meant to say thermometer instead of thermostat

Those are thermometers not thermostats!
A thermostat controls the temperature of your heat source. A thermometer only tells you the temp. What I'm gathering is your running your heat mat unregulated. That will burn your snake, and it did.

It's odd that your heat pad would only get to temps 70-80s I know mine used to get HOT.

That looks pretty sore and needs treated, If you don't sort your temperature immediately it's only going to get worse and you're going to have a pretty hefty Vet bill.
I'd turn the mat off and raise the temp of the room it's kept in till you get a thermostat sorted.

edit: I'd also get a digital thermometer with a probe so you can measure the temperature on the floor of the enclosure.

And buy some digital thermometers, they come in handy much better than those plastic/metal stick on ones!!!

Ball Pythons
0.3 Normals (Coilette, Athena and Mary Jane)
1.0 Spider Morph (Zeus)
1.0 Mojave (Prometheus)
1.0 Pastel (De Sol)

Boas
0.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boa (Stella)
0.1 Hog Island BCI (Kiyoko)
0.1 Dumerils Boa (Gloria)
0.1 Yellow Anaconda (Serenity)

Yes I think my heating pad was unregulated b/c I relied on the thermometer.
I will get a dimmer switch and a new thermometer!
Poor Butters... I feel terrible! Now with his burn what should I do to treat it?

Walmart, indoor outdoor car thermometer- 6 bucks. Can tell you both surface (probe) and ambient (unit) temperature down to the 10th of a degree.

I've used lamp dimmers in a pinch for heat pads...they run about $10 at Home Depot or Lowes. It's definitely not the ideal solution but it's better than letting the UTH go unregulated. Mine got well into the 100's on the bottom of aquarium glass (though now everyone except one hognose is in a rack or tubs). http://www.lowes.com/pd_70717-539-TT...tt=lamp+dimmer

I have a few of these - http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MTPR...arm+thermostat Nice simple on/off thermostat. I'm gonna keep one as a backup for the rack thermostat.

Indoor/outdoor thermometer with a probe from Walmart - http://www.walmart.com/ip/Acu-Rite-I...mometer/896347

Best of luck with your snake! I haven't treated any burns yet so I'll let someone more experienced answer that.

what i do is put cardboard down over the heat pad, so even if it does get too hot, the snake wont absorb all the heat. if that makes any sense. i still have a thermostat. you could try doing that

First of all. Throw your thermometers away. All of them.

Then, go to Walmart/Lowe's/any store like that, and get digital thermoMETERS with probes. Place the probe inside of the cage, directly above the heat mat.

Next. Go to www.spyderrobotics.com and order a Herpstat. A Herpstat is a thermoSTAT which will regulate the heat pad. All heat pads need a thermostat, NOOOOO Ifs, Ands, Or Butts! The cost of the thermostat will be high, but it will likely be nothing in comparison to the vet bills if you don't regulate your heat source. A dimmer will do for a couple of days, but seriously. Get a thermostat and preferably a proportional one.

Take the thermostat probe and place it on the OUTSIDE of the enclosure, right on the heat source. Tape the probe wire, but not the actual probe. Adjust your thermoSTAT until your thermoMETER says 90.

Also, that burn will get much, much worse before it gets better. I am not entirely sure how to treat a burn without seeing a vet. I believe you need a prescription for silver sulfadine. DO NOT USE NEOSPORIN OR POLYSPORIN.

Also, put your snake on paper towel as substrate, if it isn't already.

Good luck with it, I really hope you can get him feeling better!

Poor Butters! But good on you for coming here and getting advice. Listen to these people!

I used a dimmer for a few weeks with my first snake. It was seriously annoying and frustrating. You MUST check direct heating pad temps multiple times daily, if your house temps fluctuate whatsoever.

I use nothing but Hydrofarm thermostats now, the first thermostat that was recommended to you. They aren't a huge investment, and they get the job done. :gj:

You need to get butters to a vet. Thermostats are very important, but if you cant afford one get a small reaptile heating pad. For my snakes I have a small heating pad and a small lamp so they have two friendly sources of heat versus one dangerous one.

Any heating pad, large or small needs a thermostat, I don't care what anyone says. Even ones that are super low-wattage have been known to burn.

Regardless of anything else, snake does need the vet. If you need a cheaper thermostat, you can get a hydrofarm on Amazon for around $25.

And I have had the zoo med heating pads hit upwards of 130 degrees when unregulated, so yeah.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MorbidWolfess

You need to get butters to a vet. Thermostats are very important, but if you cant afford one get a small reaptile heating pad. For my snakes I have a small heating pad and a small lamp so they have two friendly sources of heat versus one dangerous one.

---

Even the small reptile heating pads can reach dangerous temperatures. Any heat source should have a thermostat. The hydrofarm I mentioned earlier should be affordable for anyone, really.

http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MTPR...ords=hydrofarm

As far as treating the burn goes. A vet would be your best bet. They will give you some silver sulfadiazine cream to put on the burn. If you don't want to pay for the whole visit, perhaps you can ask them to just give you the script for the cream and instructions on how to use it.

In the meantime, unplug your heat pad, put down some paper towels and keep everything clean.

Do as others suggested and invest in some real thermometers and a good thermostat.

Try not to worry, the snake will be fine after a couple good sheds. This is a very common mistake that new keepers make. Even I made the same mistake starting out. I had analog thermometers and an unregulated heat source.

Ball pythons are very tough creatures :)

Its sad but it does happen a lot. I used to not have regulation, thank god I had some thick bedding, otherwise I may have been on the same boat. Now I have 13 regulated tubs/tanks lol.

Ball Pythons
0.3 Normals (Coilette, Athena and Mary Jane)
1.0 Spider Morph (Zeus)
1.0 Mojave (Prometheus)
1.0 Pastel (De Sol)

Boas
0.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boa (Stella)
0.1 Hog Island BCI (Kiyoko)
0.1 Dumerils Boa (Gloria)
0.1 Yellow Anaconda (Serenity)

Big thanks to everybody!
I'm very happy that I seek advices here you guys are super helpful & friendly!

So last night I hurried myself to a pet store and got Zilla temperature controller along with Zoo Med digital thermometer.
My tank is now regulated and to cool the tank I lowered my temperature to high 70s to low 80s. Butters seem to be happier now that the tank wasn't too hot. As a immediate attention I googled about Aloe solution to see if I can put it on Butters, so I purchased an 99% certified organic pure aloe gel. I have been lathering them on the burned area at night and gave him a med-temperature water bath to get them off so he won't have scale rot or some sort of infection. You guys can tell me if this is a good idea or not.

In conclusion, I have read what others have post about silver sulfadiazine cream. I shall get them soon so Butters will get better soon.

Thanks!

Sounds like your on the right track bud!!

So looks like Butter's belly is looking better!
With the right amount of temperature controlled with a brand new thermometer...
Butters is doing better! And I ordered the silver sulfadiazine cream and it's supposed to be arriving in UPS today.

HOWEVER... I have another NEW dilemma.
Butters have been rejecting mouses in the past weeks.
Strangely (I don't know if his personality of being very shy and scared all the time also matters to this reason), he attacks the medium mouse... he fails then looses interest and won't eat.

So this has been happening in the last 3 weeks. NOW it's been 5 weeks total since he hasn't eaten anything.

I know he's not normal right now because he's still healing... Perhaps the mouse is too big? So today I got him a small feeder... THEN HE STILL WON'T EAT IT! He goes very close to it to smell with "looking" like he'll attack his food.

And I don't think he's gonna shed either. I'm so confused any idea?

Just called a vet and said the check up is $55... what should I do?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TheButters

So looks like Butter's belly is looking better!
With the right amount of temperature controlled with a brand new thermometer...
Butters is doing better! And I ordered the silver sulfadiazine cream and it's supposed to be arriving in UPS today.

HOWEVER... I have another NEW dilemma.
Butters have been rejecting mouses in the past weeks.
Strangely (I don't know if his personality of being very shy and scared all the time also matters to this reason), he attacks the medium mouse... he fails then looses interest and won't eat.

So this has been happening in the last 3 weeks. NOW it's been 5 weeks total since he hasn't eaten anything.

I know he's not normal right now because he's still healing... Perhaps the mouse is too big? So today I got him a small feeder... THEN HE STILL WON'T EAT IT! He goes very close to it to smell with "looking" like he'll attack his food.

And I don't think he's gonna shed either. I'm so confused any idea?

Just called a vet and said the check up is $55... what should I do?

---

That looks like a pretty bad burn. It's not surprising he isn't eating. If he's striking then letting go, it's probably because it hurts.

And 55 is not bad at all. Take him in. He's your animal and this wasn't caused by his doing. It's better to take him to the vet and be safe rather than sorry ya know?

Yes I just made an appointment for next week. $55 is not bad at all, thanks!
I made the right choice because I don't want any further damage. But his belly is looking a lot better though!
Aloe has helped surprisingly and the silver cream is on its way today!

Butters will be examined next week and hopefully he's gonna be better!

So you have a thermoSTAT now? Just wondering because it says your heat source is being controlled by a brand new thermoMETER.

And yeah, I would cease feeding for a little while, until probably at least a shed or two. Where were you able to order the silver cream? Is it not prescription only?

And yeah a vet is definitely the best thing to do at this point so I'm glad he's going in!