Mazikeen progression thread

[Starscream]

Hey, so sorry for the "perfect storm" you're dealing with lately, with too much going on.

On July 14th, I had to say good-bye & 'rest in peace' to my dog of 16 years ("Casey") so I know how bad you feel having just lost yours too. Dogs are more than wonderful companions, they're family, they make our lives interesting & fun, & it's always hard to lose them. Yet as painful as the loss is, our lives were immensely better for having them be part of it, and our dogs wouldn't want us to be forever sad either. Sounds like you have another dog too, & right now, I'm very glad that I do. We both miss our buddy, & together we won't forget her, but we're adjusting.

Back to Maze, don't beat yourself up too much- it sounds like you're getting this scale infection under control. You do want to prevent "hard falls" in a snake's enclosure though- they can do internal damage & you won't necessarily know. Snakes & dogs are both very stoic- it's part of their survival instincts.

Antibiotic injections are no fun- & once you're done with that & she's eating again, it might help to add Bene-Bac (for reptiles) to her food to help replenish what the Fortaz has removed from her gut microbiome.

Thank you for the Bene-Bac recommendation -- it hadn't occurred to me about her gut fauna getting messed with. She hasn't actually technically gone off food yet -- she last ate about two weeks ago, and I only offer once a month, so she'll only be a little overdue by the time I get back from my next trip. Will order some immediately so that when I do offer, she'll have the best chance of getting back on track.

Yeah, I knew if she fell too hard it could potentially hurt something internally, I just didn't think she could fall that far with how I had things set up. Before this all started I'd ordered branches to help her keep her grip, but with all my trips lately and losing our dog and all of the other madness it got put on the back-burner.

So sorry to hear about your buddy! It never gets easier, no matter how many times you go through losing a pet. Part of life and pet ownership, but doesn't mean it's easy.

[Starscream]

Maze shed today. She still has a few spots left, but overall her belly is looking loads better. I plan on keeping her in the sterile tub until at least her antibiotics are done, and I plan to keep soaking her until all the spots I've noticed are completely gone. Nearly all the brown is gone, and it looks like she'll need to regrow the edges on some of her belly scales from the infection. Overall, making progress, and she only has 3 antibiotic shots left.

[Bogertophis]

Looking pretty good!

[Starscream]

Thanks, Bogertophis!

She finished with her antibiotics last week. I had to leave on another trip the day of the last shot, so my roommate kept up her soaks while I was gone. She was starting to get antsy a few days ago (probably hungry, as it's been about a month and a half, and she's used to 3 week minimum intervals), and her belly is clean, so yesterday I put her back in her enclosure. Both roommate and I will be keeping a close eye on her, since I'll be leaving on another trip very soon. If she's still fine when I get back, she will be fed at long last lol.

[Starscream]

Hey all, it's been a hot minute since I last replied to this thread. Maze is doing okay, though she is back in her quarantine tub for now. I'm pretty sure I found the source of the problem -- when I first made the soil mix for her bioactive, I used a different soil base than I was used to, and I'm pretty now that sure it had manure in it. At the time I was just desperate for dirt, since the brand I usually went with had stopped producing the kind I like. Since then, I've found another brand that's worked pretty well for my Japanese rat snake, and switched over Maze's bioactive to that as well.

Unfortunately, when I got back from the trip mentioned in my last post, Maze had a few new spots on her, so she had to go back into quarantine and resume her soaks. She's been eating fine, and her belly's been clear the past couple sheds, but I want all her scales to finish regrowing before I put her back into her enclosure. I would rather not repeat the last 6 months of struggle.

She did 1 last shed last month and it looked clear, and then a couple weeks ago two scales developed a brown line along the edge, and they don't really look like the scale rot so I'm not entirely sure what they are. It's possible she bent the scales while roaming around at night, so I'm hoping it'll go away after another shed. I'm not going to lie, after 6 months of this, I'm starting to wonder if it'll ever go away completely. Her quarantine cage is cleaned often, and there isn't anything in there beyond her hides, her water bowl, and paper towels, so I'm not sure how it could've come back.

Some pics since August, and two pics of the spots on her belly I mentioned above.

[Bogertophis]

I see what you mean but I can't tell what that is either. She sure is a robust, good-lookin' snake anyway, though.

[Starscream]

Whatever it was, it went away with her next shed. I couldn't find anything wrong with her belly scales, and her enclosure was growing back together nicely, so I reintroduced her last month.

Thus far there has been no signs of another flare-up, so I'm hopeful that her infection is now behind us. I still feel I'm going to be on guard and watchful about it for some time, but optimistically, if it hasn't returned after a month of sitting on the dirt of her enclosure, I don't see a reason why it would. Last time I put her back before she was ready, the flare-up was immediate.

Here she is from the past few months:

[Bogertophis]

Just a little grunge on her scales- dirt "happens".

[Snagrio]

Just a little grunge on her scales- dirt "happens".

I had a similar scare the other day. Had my boy out and saw what looked like "rust" on one side. I feared it was scale rot but just to be sure I wiped it with a damp paper towel and it came right off and was clearly just a smudge from his substrate.

[Starscream]

Whatever that was in my previous post was not dirt -- it didn't rub off with water, so still uncertain what it was. I could see it on her shed as well, so it was something inside her scales.

After this very long fight with scale rot, I had simply had it up to here with the entire situation lmao.