Healing Burns or Scale Rot?

A couple weeks ago my ball python, Engrid, burned herself on her heat pad by (I'm assuming,) burrowing her nose under her green reptile carpet and laying directly on the heat pad. She had swollen, fluid-filled scales. After reading a few forum posts about what vets did about the swollen scales, (they sterilized a needle and drained them) I decided to do the same (yes, I sterilized) by taking a small tiped sewing needle and draining the fluid. After baths of Betadine and Hibaclens, she was so close to being completely healed, until she slipped underneath the carpet and burned herself a second time, resulting in some bloody-looking blisters. I've recently turned off her heat pad and replaced the cool side with an overhead lamp, containing a ceramic heat coil so we don't have this issue again.

Images of her first burn and second burn are included and will be labeled.

Common questions:
The betadine and hibaclens soaks were DILUTED. Soaked for about 30 minutes every other day.
Her warm side of the tank hovers around 89-91 degrees
Her cool side is around 79-81
**I've recently kept the humidity in her tank very low, in case this is scale rot**
She has hides on both sides of the tank
She has a water basin in the middle of her tank, large enough for her to lay in
She shows no signs of stress or aggression when the area of interest is stimulated
She is eating regularly (she eats small rats bi-weekly)
She is 17 years old.

First burn:
http://imgur.com/elUuRGs
http://imgur.com/UXaXuzS

First week of healing & baths:
http://imgur.com/78e6OBK
http://imgur.com/KnywxqP

Second week of healing & baths:
http://imgur.com/NiAd1rI

***Current:
http://imgur.com/77HAG8w

The "current" image is what I'm trying to define. This area is where the bloody blisters were at, but have since dried out and left this behind, which to me, looks like scale rot.

Her heat pad should have never been hot enough to burn her like that. Why dont you have it on a thermostat??

As for the burn, I'm not experienced enough to answer that, hope someone comes along who can.

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Read this and then read all the sticky threads for proper cage in the husbandry section. Everyone makes mistakes, but making the same mistake three times is not good. You cage setup is still not right and you are going to have another problem.

Take your snake to a vet. Maybe the hit to your wallet will convince you to correct your husbandry.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dezoruba

Her heat pad should have never been hot enough to burn her like that. Why dont you have it on a thermostat??

As for the burn, I'm not experienced enough to answer that, hope someone comes along who can.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk

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The heat pad needed to be hot enough to warm her through the thick reptile carpet, I do have the heat pad on a thermostat, but I had to temp the actual carpet to make sure it was warm enough. Having a heat pad on the correct temperature would not be warm enough through the carpet.

She was burned twice, not 3 times. Corrections have been made already, and her setup is fine. She will no longer be burned by the heat pad, as it is no longer set up. It has been replaced with an overhead heat lamp. All of thisnwas stated in the original post.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KaijuWaifu

The heat pad needed to be hot enough to warm her through the thick reptile carpet, I do have the heat pad on a thermostat, but I had to temp the actual carpet to make sure it was warm enough. Having a heat pad on the correct temperature would not be warm enough through the carpet.

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You did not read what I suggested yet I am guessing. Seriously, please read it. Your setup was not right before and it is not correct now because you do not understand the behavior of the animal.

To be clear, the heat pad was not inside the cage itself. It is attached underneath the GLASS cage, which means it needs to be at a higher temp to be at the correct temperature for substrate/paper towels/anything.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KaijuWaifu

She was burned twice, not 3 times. Corrections have been made already, and her setup is fine. She will no longer be burned by the heat pad, as it is no longer set up. It has been replaced with an overhead heat lamp. All of thisnwas stated in the original post.

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I give up. You are the expert. I have 50 and none have ever been burned. How many do you have?

The third is for the next accident that will happen.

I'm not trying to make a competition or argument out of this. Her cage setup follows the guidelines of this thread that you recommended, and the problem will not happen again, as the heat pad as been removed (I'm pretty sure I said this 3 times now.) There is absolutely no way for further injury to occur.
Her substrate has been changed to 100% aspen bedding to keep moisure low. The only problem I see in relation to your suggested post is the humidity, which I have lowered to ensure if this is scale rot, that her wounds do not become irritated with more fluid or moisure. Once I can confirm this injury, I'll adjust the humidity accordingly.

If I am blatantly missing something, by all means, call me out on it. I'm not here to have a pissing match, I'm here to help my snake. I'll take her to the vet when funds allow.

Where is the thermostat? No matter what you are heating with you need a thermostat. These snakes are stupid when it comes to heat. They will allow themselves to be burned rather than be cold. Know the correct way to take temps in the enclosure either by proper probe placement or shooting the enclosure with a heat gun. There are many threads that explain how to do this. If it is a glass enclosure pay very close attention to temps on the glass. It gets real hot. There should not be any place in the enclosure with a surface temp above 90. This includes anything the snake can reach as well as above and below the substrate.

The animal should be on paper towel as substrate until it heals. It must be changed out any time it gets dirty.

I use a heat gun but also keep stick-on thermostats in the enclosure. I'll keep that in mind if I do set up another heat pad, but don't think I'll chance it. I much prefer to use newspaper to aspen, as I worry about mold and other spores or moisure I can't see.

Quote:

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stick-on thermostats

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Those are THERMOMETERS not THERMOSTATS. Also the stick on ones are bunk, they're inaccurate and break easily. A THERMOSTAT is a device that you plug the heating element into so it can regulate the heat output. ALL HEATING DEVICES NEED TO BE REGULATED, INCLUDING CHEs. An unregulated heating device can easily reach and exceed temps of 115f.

You DO NOT need the heating element to get hot through the carpet. As you have discovered, you animal will move the substrate out of the way. Temperature readings for the hotspot should be taken at the surface of the glass with an infrared heat gun. It should not exceed 92f.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KaijuWaifu

I use a heat gun but also keep stick-on thermostats in the enclosure.

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Those are thermometers not thermostats.
A thermostat regulates a heat source, a thermostat measures temperature. You need both and they should be good quality.