Concerned owner

Hi all.

Am somewhat concerned as my BP hasn't been eating much lately. I thought it might be excessive handling so I left him alone for a week and just got him out again today only to find he had developed red spots on his belly.

I have been able to maintain temperatures of 30 degree Celsius hotspot and 27 degree cool side. Up to late November / early December he was eating fine, since which he has barely eaten. He is approximately 3 years old and hovering at between 1kg and 1.1kg weight at approximately 3ft long. I had him sexed by a specialist vet about a year ago as a male despite being sold him as a her. I have kept his vivarium with plenty of clutter all over the floor and have three hides that he can just about still squeeze under in three areas of his vivarium. He has been on reptichip and has cork hides two of which are flattish panels on each end of the vivarium and the third is a cork bark tunnel that stretches from the hot to the cold side. He has been mostly hovering within 50grams of 1.1Kg for over two months now. I last cleaned his viarium about a month or two ago and have been adding water for humidity maybe a little too much lately since I just scraped the chips off the bottom to find a puddle of water at the bottom of the chips. Ive now cleared the chips out and put paper towel in just in case. He also seems to be shedding as his eyes are cloudy and has an almost perfect replication of his normal shedding process.

Here are some photos snapped with my iPhone of the worst section of the spots which appear to be around and under the scales this is roughly in his middle. Any advice would be appreciated

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...x/spot%201.jpg

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...x/spot%202.jpg

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...x/spot%203.jpg

Are you sure that isn't some substrate that got under his scales?

The brown bits look like scale coloration to me when I zoom in. Pink tummy can mean going into shed soon.

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Cant be sure about the coloring but 2 months not cleaning a enclosure is breeding bacteria when you have humidity & wood and possible piss... Looks kinda like its between scales on some. Im no vet and can only see so much. Hopefully it isn't a bacteria under the scales (scale rot) since you found water under the Chips.
Its good you put the paper towel down so keep a eye on it and maybe shedding being close is the cause for not eating. Mine go off for 3 weeks until process is finished.


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I've been keeping an eye on him and so far every patch has vanished after 24 hours although it seems to be stabilising somewhat. Taking him to an exotic vet in about 8 hours just in case though as I haven't been able to get a day off till then.

Keep us posted!

It seems that my royal has a slight infection of some sort. The vet prescribed a two week course of antibiotics so with any luck it will be sorted by then.

It looks like he's going into shed, and the ReptiChip may have stained his belly (where the brownish spots are), I hear ReptiChip (or Grow!t, or both) stain easily in damp conditions. Doesn't look like an infection to me, though. As far as the dark black spots, it's possible it's just substrate, I see that occasionally in my snakes on EcoEarth, but it usually gets cleaned out on its own. Considering they went away on their own, I'm willing to bet that's what happened here.

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Originally Posted by Vipera Berus

Hi all.

I last cleaned his viarium about a month or two ago and have been adding water for humidity maybe a little too much lately since I just scraped the chips off the bottom to find a puddle of water at the bottom of the chips.

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It's hard to tell by the single picture but if you have a puddle of water under your substrate this COULD be the start of some minor scale rot....I'd be willing to be that's what you're dealing with considering the standing water. You should be actively monitoring your humidity. If you have standing water in your enclosure that probably means your humidity levels are off the charts, which is not a good thing. As CALM says....it's also a recipe for bacteria. Warm conditions + standing, stagnant water = every bacteria known to man

It helps us greatly to post temps in Fahrenheit however as most of us are from the US and would prefer not to have to go back to Google for a conversion.

Threads updated.. Its a infection and he's is on Antibiotics. Its a couple replies above.


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by CALM Pythons

Threads updated.. Its a infection and he's is on Antibiotics. Its a couple replies above.


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I just hope the vet knows what he/she is talking about....saying a snake has an infection seems to be a catch-all sometimes. I guess we'll see. I would still monitor humidity though.

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Originally Posted by KevinK

I just hope the vet knows what he/she is talking about....saying a snake has an infection seems to be a catch-all sometimes. I guess we'll see. I would still monitor humidity though.

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I thought the same.. Also OP might not of understood any of the terminology..who knows... Hhhaha


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by CloudtheBoa

It looks like he's going into shed, and the ReptiChip may have stained his belly (where the brownish spots are), I hear ReptiChip (or Grow!t, or both) stain easily in damp conditions. Doesn't look like an infection to me, though. As far as the dark black spots, it's possible it's just substrate, I see that occasionally in my snakes on EcoEarth, but it usually gets cleaned out on its own. Considering they went away on their own, I'm willing to bet that's what happened here.

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He shed the night before I took him to the vet and the shed was not normal, much thicker and rougher than normal. He also started making a whistley type noise when I checked him over after his shed.

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Originally Posted by CALM Pythons

I thought the same.. Also OP might not of understood any of the terminology..who knows... Hhhaha

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I can quite well understand medical terminology also I had a sibling who is just waiting for the final exam results for her final year in becoming a doctor with me so I can dismiss this problem.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KevinK

I just hope the vet knows what he/she is talking about....saying a snake has an infection seems to be a catch-all sometimes. I guess we'll see. I would still monitor humidity though.

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I was referred to the exotic vet by my tortoise vet since they didn’t know how to treat royals.

[QUOTE=Vipera Berus;2596039


I can quite well understand medical terminology also I had a sibling who is just waiting for the final exam results for her final year in becoming a doctor with me so I can dismiss this problem.

L.[/QUOTE]

The Whistling is Respiratory infection and the skin is probably scale Rot where the markings where. The vet should of given you those common terms.


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by CALM Pythons

The Whistling is Respiratory infection and the skin is probably scale Rot where the markings where. The vet should of given you those common terms.

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The scale issue cleared up with the shed and the whistling was a single solitary incident straight after the shed.

The vet said that a respitatory infection would have come later and it was merely an infection at the moment. I caught the problem soon enough that it had not progressed to a RI. I am well aware of both terms.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Vipera Berus

The scale issue cleared up with the shed and the whistling was a single solitary incident straight after the shed.

The vet said that a respitatory infection would have come later and it was merely an infection at the moment. I caught the problem soon enough that it had not progressed to a RI. I am well aware of both terms.

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OK well Vets don't tell you it's an infection without telling you where the infection is so I don't know what's going on...you said it was a bad shed in the previous comment so we dont know what marks cleared up and what hasn't. You then mentioned a whistle. Your updates haven't told us anything after telling ua the symptoms so where guessing to figure out what happened.. But Im done now hahahha


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by CALM Pythons

OK well Vets don't tell you it's an infection without telling you where the infection is so I don't know what's going on...you said it was a bad shed in the previous comment so we dont know what marks cleared up and what hasn't. You then mentioned a whistle. Your updates haven't told us anything after telling ua the symptoms so where guessing to figure out what happened.. But Im done now hahahha

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All the reddish marks cleared up and no signs of issue after the shed. The infection is a general one and thus cannot be limited to a single area such as the head and a cold in humans.