WTH is this?

[shelliebear]

At the expense of possibly getting bashed again, I'd like to post a health-related question in regards to my corn snake out of concern for her, not myself.
Cheesecake is an ultramel motley so usually she has a nice red and yellow color. I thought motleys were supposed to have clear bellies, and her upper 1/3 IS clear--but for months the bottom third has been steadily turning yellow.
Now this month about a day after she shed, something odd is happening. Nobody, not the vet OR the breeder we bought her from, has ANY clue what the heck this is.
Her scales in some spots are turning gray and white and black and disappearing. They look red and inflamed and painful, and when you touch them she just about jumps out of your hand--which she usually doesn't do, so I strongly suspect the areas are painful. :/
As per the vet she is on .06 mg of an antibiotic every other day for 10 doses (20 days). She doesn't appear to be getting worse (maybe a tiny bit, but today is only dose two) but certainly isn't getting any better at all.
How long until the antibiotics work? I have some pictures but they're blurry and out of focus. I don't want to touch her and risk hurting her for the sake of the clarity of a photo.
Her belly is fine. The odd spots are only in patches on the lower 1/3 of her tail, a little bit above her cloaca and then downward, on her sides.
When should the antibiotics start working?
Thanks...
Shellie

[dr del]

Hi,

Without the pics we are guessing to be honest.

It could be a burn or scale rot or some kind of fungal infection.

Did the vet take any swabs of the area to try and find out what is causing it?

Can you tell us what substrate etc you are using and how moist it is and what kind of heat you use and how it is controlled?

Did the vet give you any information as to what he thought was causing it?

He may have put her on anti-biotics simply to prevent infection while the area heals. Did he suggest a non-particulate substrate like paper towels and any cream or ointments to apply to the area?


dr del

[06gt]

with out pics hard to say but it sounds like scale rot. good luck

[Akira]

Sounds like scale rot. Which is caused from excess soaking or maybe water spilled in the tank... I had the same thing happen a long time ago to a lesser degree... To heal a corn snake will shed quicker, give her the meds and as long as she's eating okay she should be fine.

[shelliebear]

She was on Aspen which I had been spot cleaning. What I have since learned from the vet is that bacteria still remains. Here I was thinking I was doing ok by taking out hunks of Aspen where her droppings and urates had been and I actually wasn't doing good enough.
She had a heat mat that was not supposed to reach over 100 degrees or so ever but I just noticed she keeps burrowing under her aspen. She burrows under her newspaper. She won't stop, so I had to unplug her heat mat a few days ago because she is probably going to get burned, even with a thermostat I am concerned (and one is on the way!) because she is right up against it.
We put her on newspaper as substrate.
I have some new pictures and I will repost the old ones here. The vet had no clue what it could be and said it wasn't scale rot. No culture was taken.
I also took EVERYTHING out of her tank and disinfected it twice. I could not ever find chlorhexadine or whatever it is called so before we bought the Zoo Med "Wipe Out" solution I had been using water (a month ago and before that, we got it this month) to clean tanks. What the heck is that chlorhexadine stuff and do I still need it if I have wipe out?
I replaced her hide with a home-made one that is easier to clean and replaced her water bowl with a new one. I change her newspaper daily.
:/
Pictures coming in a minute.
(and I checked her--the places that are gray look like scabs. there are no scales left. This happened overnight, I kid you not, the day after she shed...)

[shelliebear]

Photos: It's all on her tail.

[shelliebear]

Also, she won't eat right now, not surprising....but usually she's a little piggy when it comes to food.

[mainbutter]

It looks like a burn to me, i understand it's not always easy to take good photos.

[shelliebear]

Oh, and she kept going under her water bowl (burrowing under her Aspen), where she would pee and spill water. I tried to clean it up as fast as I can notice it but she still sometimes laid in it for a few minutes or more before I was able to find her urates or urine. She won't stop burrowing even under newspaper. Urgh!

[Byrdie]

I'm new here but my suggestion is instead of having your mat under the tank put it on the side and make her a hide out of cardboard like a 12 pack soda box something thin and have the back up against the Heat mat i read that from some forum when doing a little research on snakes but make sure the hide is attached to the glass somehow so he cant move it and hit the glass directly hope it helps