Im terrified, can t believe I m making this post. Insight/advice needed for possible

[chickenooget]

All of this is background information, skip to the very end for a tldr.
_

1. How long have you had your ball python?
99 days

2. How old (or how big) is your snake?
9 months 28 days, 380 grams

3. Does it eat on a regular schedule?
Yep

4. How long since its last meal?
6 days ago

5. What type/size prey is being offered?
Rat pups - moving up to weaned rats after finishing off the rest of the pups.

6. How often do you offer food?
5-6 days since he's eating smaller food items. He's fine with the schedule.

7. What type and size of enclosure does it live in?
28 quart Sterilite tub with large binder clips for security

8. What are you using as substrate? If it has depth, how deep is it?
2-3 layers of paper towels

9. What type of heating do you use?
A ReptileBasics undertank heater

10. Do you use a thermostat to control temperatures?
Yes, a JumpStart that's been working well.

11. What do you use to measure/monitor temperatures?
Two AcuRite monitors, one without a probe on the hot side, one with a probe on the cold side. The probe is placed under paper towels under hot hide. Also a temperature gun.

12. What are the surface and ambient temperatures in the enclosure?
Ambient stays at an 77-80 range. Hot side surface is 89-91. Cold side surface is generally the same as ambient.

13. What is the average humidity level?
60-65% on hot side, approx 70% on cold side.

14. How many and what type of hides does the snake have?
There are identical ReptileBasics hides on each side. Small hides are placed inside medium hides for tighter security, plus he likes trying to fit into small hides even though they've turned into hats.

15. Is water readily available at all times?
Yep, and changed every other day.

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

17. How often and for how long is the snake typically handled?
I used to get him out every other day (except for feeding/after feeding) to hang out with him for 20-30 minutes after he was consistently eating for a month. That was when my anxiety and depression was doing really bad. Now I only get him out about once a week, sometimes twice. But I have him out for longer (about 45 minutes) since we just chill on my bed while I watch something; it calms me down when I'm having a bad day.

18. Does the snake have any medical history (old injuries or illnesses)?
Nope

19. Do you have any other reptiles? Have you brought in any new reptiles recently?
Nope, just him

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20. Is there anything specific or unique about your situation that we should be aware of?
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WARNING: This is long. I'm sort of calming myself down by writing all this out, so go ahead and skip to the end.
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Alright, so I went out for 2 days and I assumed it would be perfectly okay to leave him since people have been gone for much longer with no problems.

He had just finished digesting his food the day before I left, as well as urinating and passing a urate. He also had a bowel movement on the 13th, so I felt he wasn't going to soil the enclosure while I was gone. Husbandry was great, I checked everything to make sure it was secured and left. I had a lot of anxiety about leaving him, and I guess for good reason.

After 2 days, I came back and I checked on him to see that he's poking his head out of his hot hide, probably about to switch over to his cold side. Then I look over to the AcuRite and see that his hot side temperature spiked to 101 degrees. O n e. H u n d r e d. O n e. I immediately unplugged the UTH and took him out. He didn't seem to mind me touching his belly, so maybe that's a good sign? By now I was already freaked out, but then I felt his hot hide and it was warm to the touch, as well as the snake himself.

So at this point I was running on 7 hours of sleep for the past 2 days, and I was on my feet for 11 hours for the first day and 6 more hours the second. Thus I had a pretty bad panic attack. I mean I already had anxiety about something going wrong, then something went wrong, and at the moment it was all too much. I took the snake and put him in his old tub with nothing else but a hide and just sat there shaking.

When I eventually calmed down, I got my brother to come take pictures of his belly for me. On inspection, it does seem pink to me but I also freaked out a little while ago when I thought it was pink but you guys said it was fine, so I don't know. I also noticed a small discolored spot on his belly. I'll attach pictures at the end or in another post in this thread.

I put him back in his old tub. He's acting normal and as chill as usual. I looked at his current enclosure, and apparently his thermostat probe somehow fell out towards the edge of the UTH. I had it taped with electrical tape and checked it before leaving, I honestly am so confused how it could've done that. :/

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tldr; I was gone for two days and his temperature spiked up to ~100 degrees for God knows how long. Snake is acting normal but I'm worried about some pinkness I see. I'm helicopter-mom-ing the crap out of him while I'm letting the temps in his enclosure settle.

My sister's husband is getting some betadine at the moment. I should be able to take him to the vet this week, and if not, the next.

I'd just really appreciate it if someone experienced could give me some insight on the photos and what to do from here. I've been trying my best at providing proper care for him and I was always anxious about something like this happened, and now that it has I feel terrible. I don't want to end up as another bad and reckless snake owner.

[chickenooget]

Here's an Imgur album of his belly: https://m.imgur.com/a/9F8Y6

Highlights of the album:

^ this is where I see a small discolored spot


2nd + 3rd images are with flash, the rest are normal lighting in my bedroom

[John1982]

I wouldn't bother with the added stress of a vet visit if it were mine. He looks perfectly fine.

[chickenooget]

Small update: I now have him on my cleared off desk in a hide, since the temp is 78 and humidity is 59% there. He keeps poking his head out at me? And then retreating back. He's just staring at me now o.o

[Sauzo]

Might be getting ready to shed. 100F isnt going to burn your snake. Our body is 98ish and they can sit on us all day long. It's when the heat spikes to 120 or 130F like some heat tapes can. Thats when you get the burns.

[chickenooget]

Might be getting ready to shed. 100F isnt going to burn your snake. Our body is 98ish and they can sit on us all day long. It's when the heat spikes to 120 or 130F like some heat tapes can. Thats when you get the burns.

Sorry forgot to mention that he shed on July 20th. Time before that was May 28th. Would he really be shedding again so soon?

And yeah I guess that makes sense haha. It's just worrisome because I was gone for a couple days, he might've been sitting on that kind of heat for a while, y'know?

[OneEyedFox]

I would say he's okay. I know what it's like to have a tank get way hotter than it should be. I live in West Texas and it's been in the nineties recently. My poor AC can barely keep up some days, typically between 12 PM and 2 PM since those are the hottest parts of the days and it just craps out. This causes the hot side of Calliope's tank to spike up to 100-103. Of course I instantly turn off her heat sources and take her out but it hasn't caused any long term damage to her so far. It doesn't look like he has any burns on his belly so he should be okay.


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[hector.4191]

Agree with everyone above, something similar happened with my corn snake when she was a baby and I was crazy worry, but she was perfectly fine, she just pit me once and I thought it was karma but other than that everything was perfect


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[tttaylorrr]

i had a heat spike with Yellow a looong time ago due to trusting my mother with running my space heater. ambient got up to almost 110°. he pulled through just fine, and i'll never trust anyone with the care of my animals ever again.

live and learn, girly. thankfully your bby came out of this okay. just keep an eye out on that belly.

if this EVER happens again, DON'T immediately take the snake somewhere much colder as they can go into shock. gradually move them away from the space.

[chickenooget]

Thanks for the replies guys (: It's really helping out my anxiety

I'm still probably going to end up checking on his temps constantly like I did the first 2 months again haha


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