Belly Burn or Scale Rot or both? Please assist

I've had my Ball Python since August and she's always been perfectly healthy. I got her from a friend who was moving and couldn't keep her. He had her in a very basic set up. When I received her I put her in a new 20 Gallon tank, used the Astro Turf stuff instead of paper towels, and added a Zoomed Hydrotherm with a Reptifogger. Being in the military I recently took a trip home for the holidays and brought her along because I had nobody to take care of her for me. While away I wasn't able to replace the Astro turf that was soiled and irresponsibly didn't clean it out. I returned last Wednesday and put a layer of Exoterra Snake Bedding down. All this past week I let her stay in her hide because I knew she was due to shed, I didn't notice any problems. So I didn't see her out of her hide for the majority of the week. When she finally did shed on Friday I came home to her being active and moving about the tank normally. I took her out for some quality time after letting her be for a week and I noticed that about a third of her belly from the tail up was very red, dry, and flakey almost. Further inspection of the tank revealed that her hide was filled with urine and poo and I'm assuming she had been sitting in it for awhile. I immediately removed all bedding from the tank and wiped it all down with a wet rag, then put down some dry paper towels down in multiple layers. I changed the paper towels again today and I went out and bought some Betadine and let her soak in a diluted solution for about 10 minutes. I do have an unregulated UTH underneath the hide but I put down extra layers of bedding in the hide to keep direct contact from happening and in case of a heat spike keep the damages to a minimum until I get a thermostat but I honestly have no idea how to arrange that. After doing quite a it of research on the internet I came up with its either scale rot or a belly burn and I was hoping for some insight.

Photos:

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http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps8b73ad64.jpg

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Looks like a slight burn to me. Scale rot tends to look a little more flakey. But in those types of conditions, best to treat it as both. In any case, it's mild, so you can use the same premise.

You'll want to get on a thermostat right away, in a pinch Hydrofarm puts our pretty decent ones for about 35 bucks.

Next, put her on dry paper towels until it clears up. This will make it east to keep things nice and clean for her healing process. With that type of damage, it shouldn't take long, probably only a shed or two.

You can supplement the cleanliness of the paper towels with an occasional betadine soak, 1 part betadine to 10 parts water. This will keep the area disinfected while it heals, preventing infection.

I really appreciate the help. This is my first snake and my first pet that is actually mine haha and I love her quite dearly. I've been trying to do my best to get her the best and get as much experience as possible right now as I plan on definitely getting more eventually. Glad to hear it looks minor, I was getting pretty worried. I'll have to get a thermostat now to prevent the UTH from doing this again and making things worse. Thanks again

Are you measuring temps with a digital thermometer? You could also pick up an infrared temp gun at the pet store to carefully monitor the hotspot until your thermostat arrives. Another thing I would recommend would be to unplug your UTH until you get your thermostat, and use a heat lamp to provide warmth if necessary. They can go a few days without a hotspot as long as they don't have a meal in their tummies, so keep your ambients up and follow the advice above. We all make mistakes, so don't worry too much, your baby has already forgiven you :)

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Yes the Hydrotherm has a LCD display for temp and humidity but I have analog ones in the tank anyways just so I can spot any difference that might pop up. I have a heatlamp that I use mainly to keep the temperature in the tank hovering around 85 degrees during the day, at night it drops to about 72-75. I'll be ordering that thermostat shortly with next day air. I appreciate the advice as a beginner reptile owner many thanks

I would not let the temp go below 75 and that's pushing it. Should be 78-80, 75 being bare minimum.

Yes, night drops are unnecessary. Keep that heat lamp on her, she'll need it while you're waiting for the thermostat. Or if running the light doesnt keep things toasty enough, find a space heater on craigslist or borrow it from a friend.

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I've been changing the paper towels daily and whenever I find urine or poop in the tank I soak her in the Betadine solution but the condition appears to be getting worse. The redness is spreading up her belly and also up onto her back. It doesn't seem to be affecting her much she doesn't flinch or recoil when the area is touched and she's been moving around the tank normally. Could I be doing something wrong or is this going to get worse before it gets better?

I would like to see more current pictures.
The burn is usually worse that you first notice, just not sure about moving up the sides??

[IMG]http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...pscb739df1.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/y...psff9984e1.jpg[/IMG]

Okay I just took these now. Sorry for the poor quality I'm just one guy trying to hold the animal in one hand and take a picture with the other. You can see though it appears to be getting darker red and moving up unto the pattern. That or I'm just getting incredibly paranoid. I'd really like to figure this out or take her to the vet because I'll be leaving for about three weeks at the end of this month and a friend will be taking care of her and I'd like to have her healthy when he takes over or at least have a set list of the things he will need to do

If it looks like it's getting worse, I would definitely say get her to a reptile vet. I'd be worried about infection.

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Exotic vets in VA Beach: http://www.vaherps.com/t853-find-an-herp-vet

And you did unplug that UTH until you got the t-stat hooked up, yes?

Also, there are quite a few folks from down your way on the VA Herps site. It wouldn't hurt to ask if someone could stop by and look over your setup.

Yes I did, I actually just got the thermostat and got it all plugged into the system. Any recommendations on setting a temperature? I have three layers of paper towels on top of the heat mat itself to keep her from getting any direct contact with it. Thanks for the link I'm fairly new to online forums in general

For now, I'd say set it to 88/87 degrees. That will keep it from getting way too warm on that sore belly. You may want to grab a temp gun so you can measure exact temps on the surface of the paper towels, and adjust from there.

Any progress on her condition?

It seems to be mellowing out. The redness has gone down and it looks more like a scab now. Think its a good idea to use Neosporin on it every once in awhile? She ate yesterday just fine and is still moving about normally. Really appreciate the input everyone much love

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Originally Posted by ringmybell

It seems to be mellowing out. The redness has gone down and it looks more like a scab now. Think its a good idea to use Neosporin on it every once in awhile? She ate yesterday just fine and is still moving about normally. Really appreciate the input everyone much love

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No Neosporin, it's petroleum based so it'll soften up her scales and it'll be a messy situation. If you want to treat it,a light coating of silver burn cream will do it some good.

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Good evening :)

Having dealt with scale rot first hand on too many corn snakes and ball pythons, Unfortunately, from what I have read and seen, you have scale rot but it is not past the point where it is too late.

Betadine is a great option. However, let us skip the technical stuff. Iodine. straight on paper tower, wipe her down in the morning and the evening. Keep her on paper towel, keep the heat up, offer food if she will eat, but do not force it. Offer a fresh water supply daily. Allow her to soak if necessary. Also, I used polysporin (Herptologist even told me to use it) to cover the infected area to help keep it clean. You also need to change the paper towel daily. No UTH, just a heat lamp, daylight and offer a UVB light source (Exoterra 2.0 or less) to help her out.

I speak from experience, and having lost 1 to scale rot, I do not wish it on anyone.

Hope this helps.