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  • 04-15-2013, 05:16 AM
    Brent857
    Scale rot or something else?
    Not sure what if its scale rot or something else, any tips on treatment would be really appreciated. I left my albino ball python in the care of my older brother while I've been out of town with dad my snakes enclosure was pretty dry he eats fine still and is active at night still! Help please!!

    http://i.imgur.com/HyxMYPA.jpg

    http://i.imgur.com/IMKmD7P.jpg

    http://i.imgur.com/bSvYesB.jpg
  • 04-15-2013, 06:35 AM
    carlson
    Scale rot or something else?
    I'd say go ask a vet for help. They can do hell of alot more for you than we can over the Internet.
  • 04-15-2013, 07:07 AM
    cinnamonpython
    it looks like a burn vet ASAP!!
  • 04-15-2013, 02:16 PM
    Brent857
    Anything I can do til I get it to the vet?? the closest exotic vet is hour and a half away and he isn't in til Wednesday Does anyone have any advice on what I can do til then? I have put him in a clear tub with paper towels for now and his water bowl.
    I have some triple antibiotic ointment is it safe to use? The brand is smart sense I think.

    Active ingredients are
    Bacitracin
    Neoymycin
    polymyxin

    Inactive
    Light mineral oil
    White petroleum
  • 04-15-2013, 02:30 PM
    kitedemon
    If you have silver sulfadiazine I might try this. I don't think I would use a polysporin cream as it tends to soften scales and could do more damage. Clean and correct temps and such until you can get to the vet.
  • 04-15-2013, 02:43 PM
    Willie76
    Re: Scale rot or something else?
    I say burn and agree with using silver sulfadiazine until you can get to the vet. Now to correct the issue at hand...how did he get burned?

    Did he burn himself while outside his enclosure?
    How is he housed? In a tub, aquarium style glass enclosure, or PVC enclosure?
    How are you heating the warm side? Under the tank heat mat? Flexwatt? Is it regulated by a thermostat to 90 degrees and monitored with a temp gun or thermometer?
    Are there any direct heat sources such as a heat rock or is the heat mat placed inside the enclosure instead of outside and underneath?
  • 04-15-2013, 02:55 PM
    Brent857
    He is in a aquarium with a screen lid. Its been a pain keeping heat in and the humidity. I was using an under the tank heat pad and a heating lamp to help with heat during the winter. I have removed the the heat lamp. I have ordered a Herpstat Intro Proportional Thermostat. It will be here sometime today. I just have a thermometer, looking for getting a temp gun could you suggest any good/affordable ones? The heat pad is on the bottom of the glass, I touched it doesn't seem all that hot but I just read they can spike sometimes :/

    Thanks il go grab some of that stuff. Would Betadine be a good idea as well?
  • 04-15-2013, 03:19 PM
    Willie76
    Re: Scale rot or something else?
    Great job on investing in a good t-stat! Reptile Basics has a number of good thermometers, and use the following myself ($49) to check surface temps and have never had a problem:

    http://www.reptilebasics.com/412l-thermometer

    I use Acurite thermometers to monitor general ambient temps and humidity and they're only $12 at WalMart. The Acurites have a probe I use to measure the warm side and I use the unit to monitor the cool side and humidity. I use a hot glue gun to secure the probe wire (never use tape anywhere). These can usually be found by the light bulbs or ordered directly off their website:

    http://www.walmart.com/ip/Acu-Rite-I...mometer/896347

    I would suggest that you also look at changing the type of enclosure. If you can, look at the enclosures Reptile Basics has or go on over to Animal Plastics and look at their T-8 enclosures. I don't have a ton of snakes now, but use to own/foster many in the past. I buy the T8s from Animal Plastics. Actual lead time is about 2 weeks.

    If you have to stay with glass for now, warm, wet towels covering 2/3 of the screen top (changed daily) has worked well for me in the past along with occasional misting.
  • 04-15-2013, 07:43 PM
    Brent857
    Thanks for the help guys! Just hooked up my herpstat pro, tested the thermostat in the empty snake cage it was reading 102.5 directly touching the pad, poor guy :(. Could someone let me know the best place to put the probe? I'm using an aquarium right now with a screen top but I will have a small melamine snake rack in a few days. Will be investing in a temp gun tomorrow.
  • 04-15-2013, 11:53 PM
    Willie76
    Re: Scale rot or something else?
    Best practice is to sandwich the t-stat probe between the UTH mat and the bottom of the enclosure. In my own humble experience though, I have only found this to work well if there is a recessed channel for the probe like in my T8 enclosures...

    I do use glass enclosures for QT tanks and have found this to not work very well as this creates a pocket-effect with the UTH and doesn't read/heat very well in this setup. So, I place my t-stat probes inside the tank; directly over the heat mat. I then secure the probe wire with hot glue (again, zero tape in the enclosure anywhere) but keep the probe completely free and resting over the UTH (looking inside one of my QT tanks from the top):

    http://www.ballophile.com/public/probe1.jpg

    BTW: You won't need the foil tape, just used it to show my point in the above pic.
  • 04-16-2013, 07:34 AM
    kitedemon
    Now I am at a computer I don't think it is a burn they rarely are on both ventral and dorsal surfaces and no where else. Has this snake been probed at any point in the recent past? It almost looks like an abscess or infection of some sort. There is marking around the cloaca and the tail tip it is IMO unlikely to be a burn.
  • 04-16-2013, 11:53 AM
    Brent857
    The reptile vet is back in today I got an appointment for 3:00 Hopefully its not too bad. Do you think something like that could require tail amputation?
  • 04-16-2013, 12:39 PM
    sissysnakes
    Re: Scale rot or something else?
    It looks like an infection to me, though I had a lizard with something similar, it was caused by minute burns getting infected in his feet (this was before I got him). Its possible, however antibiotics make a big difference. I'm curious to know what's going on with that tail, keep us posted!

    Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk 2
  • 04-16-2013, 01:10 PM
    MrLang
    I am glad others see infection there. I agree this looks like an infection running down from the vent. GL.
  • 04-16-2013, 06:04 PM
    Brent857
    Just got back from the vet he told me it was a burn, he said it should heal fine but its gonna take some time. He gave(sold) me some triple antibiotic ointment I'm guessing there is a few extra ingredients then the normal store stuff. I am relieved looks worse then it is I guess? But still poor snake! Glad I got the thermostat so it won't happen again.

    He also had some bedding stuck in his eye that the vet was able to remove it was a very small piece of coco fiber, I don't think I wanna continue to use it I tried to get it out the night before but didn't wanna risk hurting his eye. Do you guys recommend any other types of bedding? I've been thinking of unprinted newspaper, aspen and the vet recommended something like astro turf but its not I forgot the name

    Also thanks for all the input, new to this forum but already loving the community.
  • 05-24-2013, 02:38 PM
    Brent857
    Scale rot or something else?
    Just an update, he shed about 2 weeks ago and his tail looks much better. Seems like just the very tip of the tail is a little red still. http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/05/25/qu9e9ane.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/05/25/ygu5ymer.jpg
  • 05-24-2013, 02:41 PM
    Annarose15
    Glad to hear he's doing well. :) As to the reptile carpet (Astro turf) you asked about, my opinion is that that stuff is a cesspool breeding ground for bacteria, since you can't spot clean it. I use cypress (or newspaper for breeding females). Any loose bedding is occasionally going to stick somewhere, so I wouldn't use that as an immediate reason to switch if the coco is working for you otherwise.
  • 05-24-2013, 03:11 PM
    Brent857
    Scale rot or something else?
    Thanks :D one of my snakes got some coco fiber stuck in his eye so I'm using newspaper now seems to do pretty good!
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