Thermal burn?

[Jojo4593]

I recently rescued a ball python off Craigslist. The post stated that the snake was a Mojave ball python but unsure of age and that the snake had mild scale rot. I was mostly wanting to rescue to poor thing at this point (I have two others) so I made the drive and picked her (I’m taking their word on that) up. I was told on arrival that she was too sore to touch so that I could not pick her up. The cage she came in was awful. I got her hone and discovered that her belly is much worse looking than “mild scale rot” I’m thinking it’s a thermal burn but would like outside opinions. I removed her from the horrible dusty bedding she was in and have her in a quarantine tank with paper towels on the bottom. I am soaking her each day in a betadine bath as well as putting triple antibiotic ointment on her belly. My question is does anyone know if this is really a burn and am i currently taking the correct course of action? Thank you in advance for your help and reading through this long post!

[Stewart_Reptiles]

First a picture is worth a thousand words.

Second you need to stop this

triple antibiotic ointment on her belly.

short therm is ok but daily you are gonna cause a all new set of issues, triple anti-biotic ointment are oil based and loosen up scale.

Depending on what you are dealing with you may go the wrong way about what you are doing and depending on the extent a vet visit and anti-biotics maybe required.

[Jojo4593]

sorry I have been trying to figure out how to upload a picture hopefully this will help.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

It's honestly hard to tell, any chance you can take pictures of the animal in natural light and outside it's enclosure.

[Jojo4593]

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery//sh...mageuser=77144

Hopefully these are better I just retook them!

[bcr229]

I'll go with burn over scale rot.

That snake needs a vet ASAP for silvadene cream and antibiotics.

ETA: if you can't get a vet appointment quickly then you can get silvadene (silver sulfadiazine) online at http://www.mountainside-medical.com/ If you keep reptiles it's good to have some on-hand anyway.

[Jojo4593]

Thats what I was thinking too. Which makes sense why the woman I bought her from did not want me to pick her up when I went to get her. I will see if the vet in my area sees snakes and hopefully will be able to get an appointment. Thank you for your time!

Oh and I will get some of the silvadene cream!

[Bogertophis]

Good luck...at least she's out of their hands. I agree w/ above suggestions (probable burn, needs Silvadene cream, vet visit & probably antibiotics, etc.).

And it goes without saying: quarantine* this snake away from your others! Just because you see one problem (probable burn) doesn't mean there isn't
another problem, or two... Check for mites too. *Take care of this new snake AFTER your others, and be sure you thoroughly shower & change clothes
before you again go near your other snakes.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I'll go with burn over scale rot.

That snake needs a vet ASAP for silvadene cream and antibiotics.

ETA: if you can't get a vet appointment quickly then you can get silvadene (silver sulfadiazine) online at http://www.mountainside-medical.com/ If you keep reptiles it's good to have some on-hand anyway.

^This^ I will go with burn as well.