Help

Can anyone tell me what's wrong with my bp? His belly looks irritated. I haven't changed anything in his enclosure.
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15...eaa3b1ba26.jpg

Now I'm not a vet, so don't take my word on this. I would probably guess scale rot. I've seen scale rot pictures before and this looks very similar.

Picture is a bit blurry, but looks scale-rot-ish to me. Are the scales kind of pinched up and almost 'crisp' looking at the discolored parts?

Regardless, there's definitely some irritation, so you may want to replace the bedding with paper towels temporarily. I've never personally treated scale-rot, so I'll let someone who has tell you the best way to deal with it.

Looks like a burn. Are you using an unregulated uth? If so unplug it now! Your snake will continue to burn itself. :tears:

I agree, looks like a burn to me too from a too hot of UTH.

Uth is on a regulater set on low.

Possibly scale rot, or sometimes right before they shed their bellies can turn a reddish color. But the pic is a little blurry, did or have you noticed any blisters? Scale Rot is usually accompanied by ulcers or blisters where shedding isn't..

What initially made me think scale-rot rather than burn is the placement of the irritation. Burns usually seem most severe either in the middle of the belly scales, or they cover the whole scale. Here it looks like the irritation is mainly located in the crevices between scales which is where bacteria are more prone to hang out. Unless there is blistering in between how would a burn damage only the bits furthest away from the heat source (the cracks between scales)?

That being said, I have plenty experience spotting and walking someone through scale-rot but very little experience spotting burns unless they're really obvious, so I could easily be mistaken that this is a burn.

Woah, just clicked back to this thread and realized I initially said I hadn't dealt with scale-rot then said I had. Meant that I haven't personally dealt with it but have experience helping ppl out with it. Didn't want anyone reading this to think I was just randomly making up stuff! Sorry for any confusion.

lol. Burns discolor the skin/scales and dry out/crisp the scales. I imagine heat can get in between the scales faster than through them. This doesn't look severe but needs to be attended to asap.

"Uth is on a regulater set on low. "

Sorry Sheyer, but we don't know what temp "low" is, but by the looks of it low is too hot for a bp. Not knowing the temps one allows their snake to lay on is most likely the #1 reason for burns. My advice would be to unplug the heat source asap and purchase a t-stat that tells temps, and an IR gun to varify the t-stat is working properly.

Regardless of burn or scale rot, I would treat it with betadine. Get a platic tub and do a water/betadine bath, watch his head so it doesnt get wet, replace his substrate with clean paper towel. You can use NON PAIN RELEIF neosporin as well but I never did. Do the bath and change the paper towels daily amd if you do not see an improvement within a few days get it to a vet. I treated my BP for scale rot this way and it cleared right up. The scales were kind of messed up until he shed but it cleared up. If you suspect a burn check your uth and make sure you have a probe thermometer on it, if you do check the thermometer as well because it may be giving a wrong temp reading. Best of luck and hope he gets better.