Need help!

Hello everyone.

long story short. Yesterday my BP regurgatated a half digested rat. Now i am not to worried about that as i know why it happend. The rat was just a bit to big. Stupid i know.

But now i saw she hes little wounds on her belly i think from crawling over the regurgatated rat ( Sharp nails/bones?). The wounds are not deep cuts more like scratches. But i did see some loose scales floating in the water after i gave her a bath as she made herself dirty.

Now the question.

do i need to keep her on dry paper towels in order to let the little wounds heal? Or should i keep her on moist paper towels?

Please help me out, i can't post pictures as i am at work and will be stick here for another 10 hours orso.

Dry paper towels, Do not feed for at least 2 weeks. Try avoiding bathing your BP this is just going to bring on further stress, if they are dirty wipe them down with a warm damp towel.

I hope someone else can help you with the scratches etc.. Pictures would be more helpful so post them when you have the chance.

Post photos when you get home.
I don't think the size of the rat would be your problem, if it fit down the hatch it would make it out the other end.

Ok thx, i will try to make a pic of her belly when i get home though it will be dark so i hope it is still visible enough.

ok I made some pic's i hope you guys can see what i was talking about.

some belly shots

http://i1276.photobucket.com/albums/...psje4dcyjc.jpg

http://i1276.photobucket.com/albums/...psbcdr9boh.jpg

http://i1276.photobucket.com/albums/...psnh10ok3y.jpg

and i also found some scales/ skin flakes? they are somewhat rigid/stiff (nothing like how a shed feels like)

http://i1276.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9ehgqgm5.jpg

http://i1276.photobucket.com/albums/...psxtu961t6.jpg

I am sure it is not scale rot as her substrate (normally newspaper, now she is on paper towels) always is dry, it only is moist when she is entering her shed cycle.

yesterday i left my home at 9.30 in the morning and before that i checked on her, i came back at around 11 in the evening so somewhere between that she defecated and regurgitated. and ye that made everything wet in her tub and dirty but that cant have been longer then 13.5 hours i dont think she gets scale rot from that, right?

How do you heat your tank? Could your snake have been looking for belly heat and gotten burned leading to regurge?

David

I have heard of people using neosporin or betadine for wounds like those, but I have never had a snake get injured so I don't know which is best from first hand experience.

David

Seconding the question on how you heat your tank. Those look like burns; definitely not scratches from crawling over a regurged rat. I'd keep her on paper towels for a while.

If you use neosporin make sure you use the kind withOUT painkiller.

Sorry for the late reply.

She is in a rack with heat tape controlled with a thermostat.

I check on the temps regularly and they are never to high/to low. and the heat tape on every shelf in the rack is controlled by the same thermostat and the other snakes in the same rack are all without any problem.

That being said I have to stay that I really don't think it are burns.

Where can I buy that Neosporin?

ok nvm the question about neosporin, i just read on the internet i can't get it here in holland but i can get Betadine. so i will buy that tomorrow

Is your snake in shed? I noticed the pink belly. Could it be with a feeder to large and shrinking skin she bruised inside?

but I would still recommend a vet. I notice the marks are very regular, and equally spaced. If your heating tape loops back and forth across the shelf you got hot spots under the snake. The thermostat wouldn't pick that up and cut the power because the effect is too localized. I suspect that if you look, you will find the marks on the snake correspond to the placement of the tape. The width of the heating element will probably correspond to the width of the marks. Other people have had pythons burned by UTH. Check out this thread, and look how similar your problem is. http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...n-death-s-door This snake is more badly burned than yours, but notice the burned scales are brown, and scale loss is evident.

To check for hotspots, move the snake to a new container. Cover the bottom of the old container with a thick bath towel for 60 minutes while the tape is on. Remove the towel and quickly scan the bottom of the enclosure with an infrared thermometer. I will bet you find hot spots.

David

sorry for the late reply,

thanks for the help, i have been keeping her on dry paper towels till about 4 days ago when i noticed she was going into her shed...

so yeah i had to bumb the humidity.

hoping the shed will go ok and that she will look better after the shed.

Since you can't get Neosporin in Holland, try Bactroban, or any Antibiotic ointment without the pain reliever.

Betadine is great for cleaning, and disinfecting, the A/B ointment keeps on working.