A single brown scale, early sign of scale rot ?

[speedycat222]

There's a single brown dry looking scale on my pastel pin champagne, about 2 or 3 inches up from his anal spurs on the side of his belly. I don't have a camera to take a picture of it unfortunately. It doesn't look to bad, but I'm a bit worried none the less, could it be the start of scale rot ? I'm going to be treating him with polysporin in a couple hours, he doesn't ever spill his water dish and I'm very attentive to cleaning his tub. I'll include the stickied question lists, but he's in a 28qt tub with two hides a shallow water dish, is on paper towel with a 93 hotspot 77ish ambient. Sorry if this is another redundant is my snake sick post, but I'm a bit worried about the little fella. Thanks in advance. In addition, he's yet to shed with me and should be due in a couple weeks. I'm also more then likely very wrong on the gram weight that I provided.

1. How long have you had your ball python?
A month and a half.


2. How old (or how big) is your snake?
November hatchling, no exact gram weight but around 300-400.


3. Does it eat on a regular schedule?
He's a fantastic eater, takes a rat pup every 5 days and has never denied.


4. How long since its last meal?
Roughly 65 hours, late in the evening two days ago.


5. What type/size prey is being offered?
Rat pups.


6. How often do you offer food?
Every 5 days.


7. What type and size of enclosure does it live in?
A 28qt sterilite tub in a rack.


8. What are you using as substrate? If it has depth, how deep is it?
Paper towel, I generally take 4 pieces and fold them back, and use two of those to cover the bottom of the tub.


9. What type of heating do you use?
THG heat tape, under belly.


10. Do you use a thermostat to control temperatures?
Yes, I have my rack on a ve-100.


11. What do you use to measure/monitor temperatures?

Every tub has a probed thermometer/hygrometer combo.

12. What are the surface and ambient temperatures in the enclosure?
The probe (right on the bottom of the tub under the paper towel) reads 93, the surface of the paper towel will read around 88-89. The ambient is around 75-80 in my room, I keep it above 73 and below 82.


13. What is the average humidity level?
He never spills his waterdish, so it stays around 55-60, if it's around 55 I'll usually mist the side that he isn't on a little bit, so this could be the reason for the discolored scale.


14. How many and what type of hides does the snake have?
I'm not sure what the type is called, the brown cave ones, he has two, one on each side.

15. Is water readily available at all times?
Yes, I check daily.


16. Does the snake live alone or does it share the enclosure with anything else?
He lives alone.


17. How often and for how long is the snake typically handled?
About once a week I check on him and touch him a bit, sometimes picking him up and letting him crawl around, I don't want to bug him to much as he's fairly new, and is a bit of a jumpy youngster.


18. Does the snake have any medical history (old injuries or illnesses)?
Not that I am aware of, I bought him as a hatchling from a reputable and well known breeder, so I'm certain he would have let me know about anything.


19. Do you have any other reptiles? Have you brought in any new reptiles recently?
I have two other ball pythons, this male and another female who I bought from the same breeder are my most recent.


20. Is there anything specific or unique about your situation that we should be aware of?
It is fairly humid in my room as my grandmother refuses to use the A/C, so when I noticed the scale I brought a dehumidifier into my bedroom to more closely monitor the rooms ambient humidity.

[KMG]

Without a pic its hard to say. From what you described I doubt it is scale rot. I would work on getting a camera so we can actually see it though.

I would also drop your hotspot down to 90.

[speedycat222]

I've been meaning to for some time. I'll drop the temps a few degrees, should I apply some polysporin to the scale in question and see if it goes away when he sheds ?

Also, any guess as to what it might be ?

[KMG]

I would leave it be for now and monitor it.

Without a pic I would be taking a shot in the dark.

[speedycat222]

Pictures.

This one is okay: http://imgur.com/7j53CqZ

And this one is pretty horrible. : http://imgur.com/EjxHidB


These where the best of the lot, he's quite squirmy.

He also just started his shed cycle, so I'm hoping it comes off with his shed. Should I mist him, or hold back on it because of the scale ?


Thanks for your time, I really appreciate it.

[KMG]

Bump the humidity as usual.

Does your camera have macro? If so use that setting for close up pics.

[speedycat222]

It doesn't, I played around with all the settings and these where the best two unfortunately. It does seem to look a bit better then it did before, so I'm crossing my fingers it will go away.