How important are proper temp readings? (and resulting projects)

I usually only post in the Blood python forum, but wanted to post about a little project I took on over this past month. This is a reminder that if you use a glass tank, temps directly on the glass can get unbelievably hot, even if you have a thermostat (unless it's touching the heat source).

A couple ball pythons were given up by someone who had kept both together in a glass tank with undertank heater and wood shavings as substrate.This girl had burrowed under the substrate and coiled on top of the heat source. I'm guessing the cage wasn't the cleanest, either, judging by the resulting infection. I agreed to take her on and give her a shot. Here she is on her first foster day on March 7th, 2015:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-d...715a_small.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-_...715e_small.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-O...715f_small.jpg

The smell was horrible and the wounds were oozing a lot. I began dilute Betadine soaks twice daily for the first couple days to get some of the rotten tissue off and applied topical triple antibiotic ointment. She was started on ceftazidime injections every 3 days. I was concerned with her hydration using the antibiotics; she was quite thin, but she needed them. She was kept on clean paper substrate.

Here she was 4 days into treatment (3/11/15). I managed to remove most of the dead skin and the infection was rapidly clearing. I decreased the soaks, but continued antibiotics.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-K...cue031115a.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-4...cue031115b.jpg

I offered small meals (F/T mice) a couple times last week, but she wasn't interested. She went into shed last week. On Sunday, 3/22/15 she started shedding, but it was really stuck to her scabby belly. I soaked her and helped remove it. It came off in one piece, which I really wasn't expecting. Here is her shed and her - you can see some dead scale areas that came off also. This was 3/22 - only 2 weeks into treatment. She is looking great!

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-2...2215aSmall.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-d...shed1Small.jpg

She still has a ways to go to heal, but is recovering nicely. Parts of the belly scales are still quite hollow and the scarring is changing her shape a bit. I am no longer doing injections, but still doing some soaks and applying topical meds. She took her first meal last night. I had to get a live mouse, but she took it. I didn't want to shock her system because she's so thin and was so stressed.

Anyway, this is my reminder that heat elements in glass tanks need to be set up right. I would much rather not have to deal with this in the first place, but I'm happy I was able to help her and she responded so quickly. She'll be going up for adoption locally once she's better.

Good for you for helping the burned snake. Respect.

Been there.
You are in for a long road.
Good luck to you and her.

Mad props man. I can say I would have a hard time doing what you did......thanks

Holy cow man. Just looking at those pics hurt me. Good job on the recovery. And this is why I don't even use UTHs, I use strictly CHEs or RHPs. Not having belly heat wont hurt a snake and isn't needed but having belly heat can definitely hurt them. Again, good job bud, that snakes looks 1000 times better now.

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h1...ps323f13c8.jpg
This is what will come of that burn. Mine is still healing.

Yeah, it looks like this one is doing the same and scarring down to where the belly scales end up mostly gone. I am surprised how quickly it's healing so far, though. I'll probably keep this one for another month before giving her back for adoption. I just want to make sure she doesn't need meds anymore and is eating. There have been issues getting even healthy ball pythons adopted out, so I'm really hoping someone is willing to give her a permanent home. If not, I think I'm going to end up with another snake... it happens.

Oh, and I'm a girl (FYI). :D

Amazing work :) seriously you did an incredible job and gave that snake a second chance at a good life :) you should be very proud of yourself, your work, and the Lil gals determination :) she's looking incredible

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aahmn

Yeah, it looks like this one is doing the same and scarring down to where the belly scales end up mostly gone. I am surprised how quickly it's healing so far, though. I'll probably keep this one for another month before giving her back for adoption. I just want to make sure she doesn't need meds anymore and is eating. There have been issues getting even healthy ball pythons adopted out, so I'm really hoping someone is willing to give her a permanent home. If not, I think I'm going to end up with another snake... it happens.

Oh, and I'm a girl (FYI). :D

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Wow, I have had a similar situation with one of my animals but thanks it wasn't as severe of a burn as this one! I applaud you for committing to a bp that wasn't even yours to begin with. Those burns look like they could be classified as third degree! I thought my bp's case was severe but this one is "jaw dropping". Thanks for the shared experience and I am sure it will have a impact on everyone! Keep every reciept too bc rescue and rehabilitation of animals is a tax deduction! Stay in peace and not pieces. :gj:

I work at a vet and have access to discounted care, so it's really not costing me a whole lot - mostly it's the time that I didn't have a lot of but needed to commit to. This one was most likely going to be euthanized otherwise. I did want to document the treatment for educational purposes - both for avoiding burns like this and treating them. I'll continue to post as it heals.

Very happy to have people like you out there. :) that snake is probably more than grateful for your time.

I so hate treating burns. Looks quite mad now but they heal so very fast. If you don't have any flamazine (silver sulfadiazine) try to get some it helps tons! It is a rewarding job doing rescues but by times it gives you nightmares! I hope she (why I feel that all unsexed snakes are female. I can't say but any unsexed snake is she in my mind anyway) heals well!

It is supposed to be a female. She was healing fine with regular triple antibiotic ointment, so I just kept up with that.

For an update, she had her perfect shed #2 today, and it's healing/scarring great!
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-B...1915bsmall.jpg

How's she looking?

Here's one last update after another perfect shed overnight. Scales have grown back over the scarred areas, she's taking F/T small rats and doing great!

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-E...cue051615b.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-9...cue051615a.jpg

You've done a great job! Thanks for documenting her recovery, i hope someone gives her a permanent home :)

I'm so glad she's doing so well :gj: Happy for her and you. Good job.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AlexisFitzy

You've done a great job! Thanks for documenting her recovery, i hope someone gives her a permanent home :)

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Yup. That would be me.

I brought her back for adoption at the beginning of this month and even did a presentation on it. No luck. There were seven ball pythons up for adoption. None went. That's why I stopped breeding these guys several years ago. It seems, at least with our area, that we're very over saturated with ball pythons. Morphs even come up for adoption. I got a female super pastel as an adoption - she was skinny with stuck shed. She's a big snake now, but will never be bred. There are more than enough others floating around. I wish more people would realize that these are usually long-lived animals and shouldn't be gotten on a whim. They require a commitment. I have some normal males that I produced a time ago trying to prove out a female. They re permanently in my collection - they take up space and I have to feed them, but they are my responsibility because I produced them. Oh well...

Thanks for your dedication!

Best of luck on adoption.

Wow. Saddens me that someone would let their pet get like this. I personally freak out about my snake but that might be because I'm new. Definite props to what you are doing that's really cool glad there are people out there that are willing to help our scaled abused friend.


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Seeing this I'm kinda scared now about not setting up the UTH when I get my snake =/. How important is the UTH compared to just overhead heating source?