Very frustrated

[8Ball]

I have had my snake for just about a month and despite the best of intentions I can't seem to do anything right for him. So far he's had a respiratory infection; which he is cured of now; he shed, then he went into hiding and because of all the stress he has shed again. I left him alone for ten days and only changed his water. Finally tonight I took him out to look him over and he still has a lot of his shed left and a long stretch of his belly seems red and irritated. Even parts of his belly that have already shed look raw and irritated. I don't know what to do. It seems that no matter what I do or don't do I end up harming him. Please give me some advice.

[butters!]

if it just shed you are looking at a burnt belly or scale rot.you should post pics of everything you have for further advice

[8Ball]

As soon as I put him back in the tank he hid right away. I'll take him out again tomorrow and take some pictures to post. I don't want to traumatize him tonight. Thanks for the info.

[dr del]

Hi,

If it is either scale rot or a burn you are almost certainly looking at something wrong with the environment.

Putting him back in that to de-stress isn't the best of ideas.

When you have him out to check and take the pics double check the temps in the hides, directly on top of the heat source etc to se if any of it is dangerously high and check the humidity and look for wet spots in the substrate.

What are you using for substrate again?


dr del

[bigballs]

why dont you also take pics of your setup and describe it for us. if there are ways that you can improve in your husbandry then im sure lots of stress can be relieved and your animal will do much better.

[Muze]

I know you probably already told us what your setup is, but you probably need to refresh our memories . Also, post pics of his belly if you can. I know you will be stressing him again, but with reptiles if you don't take care of whatever is ailing them immediately, they will go downhill pretty fast.

[8Ball]

My apologies for making a thread asking for help and then waiting so long to respond to your suggestions. We have been asked to put in a lot of over time recently making for very long work days. I did take time off work to get kashmir to the vet though. He said that kashmir does not have scale rot and does not have an infection. The redness may be due to his shed combined with him possibly laying for too long in a wet spot from water or urine. He is having a poor shed many scales on his belly have remained and collected substrate some of which is damp which does not help the problem. I bathed him in chlorhexidine; (surgical scrub); greatly diluted with water and applied fuciderm cream to his belly to help prevent infection. He is in a clear plastic tub with many holes drilled in for air. He has paper towel for substrate. Temperatures are 80F cool, 95F warm, 80F ambient. Humidity is 70% which I understand is good for problem sheds. All of these temps. are now consistent as opposed to the glass tank that he was in. He has not eaten since the 5th of December so the vet gave him a vitamin shot. I basically leave kashmir to himself except to apply the cream ever three days. My only concern is his health and well being. I am learning; unfortunately at Kashmir's expense. I hope his new environment will solve many problems and that soon things will level out for him. Again I am sorry for creating a thread and abandoning it but my life got a little hectic there for a while. Thank you everyone for your help and concern. Chris

[nixer]

My apologies for making a thread asking for help and then waiting so long to respond to your suggestions. We have been asked to put in a lot of over time recently making for very long work days. I did take time off work to get kashmir to the vet though. He said that kashmir does not have scale rot and does not have an infection. The redness may be due to his shed combined with him possibly laying for too long in a wet spot from water or urine. He is having a poor shed many scales on his belly have remained and collected substrate some of which is damp which does not help the problem. I bathed him in chlorhexidine; (surgical scrub); greatly diluted with water and applied fuciderm cream to his belly to help prevent infection. He is in a clear plastic tub with many holes drilled in for air. He has paper towel for substrate. Temperatures are 80F cool, 95F warm, 80F ambient. Humidity is 70% which I understand is good for problem sheds. All of these temps. are now consistent as opposed to the glass tank that he was in. He has not eaten since the 5th of December so the vet gave him a vitamin shot. I basically leave kashmir to himself except to apply the cream ever three days. My only concern is his health and well being. I am learning; unfortunately at Kashmir's expense. I hope his new environment will solve many problems and that soon things will level out for him. Again I am sorry for creating a thread and abandoning it but my life got a little hectic there for a while. Thank you everyone for your help and concern. Chris

70% humidity is kinda high try lowering it some more i wouldnt go over 60% at all.
even from this discription it sounds like scale rot i hope you want to a herp vet but something just doesnt sound right

[blackcrystal22]

My apologies for making a thread asking for help and then waiting so long to respond to your suggestions. We have been asked to put in a lot of over time recently making for very long work days. I did take time off work to get kashmir to the vet though. He said that kashmir does not have scale rot and does not have an infection. The redness may be due to his shed combined with him possibly laying for too long in a wet spot from water or urine. He is having a poor shed many scales on his belly have remained and collected substrate some of which is damp which does not help the problem. I bathed him in chlorhexidine; (surgical scrub); greatly diluted with water and applied fuciderm cream to his belly to help prevent infection. He is in a clear plastic tub with many holes drilled in for air. He has paper towel for substrate. Temperatures are 80F cool, 95F warm, 80F ambient. Humidity is 70% which I understand is good for problem sheds. All of these temps. are now consistent as opposed to the glass tank that he was in. He has not eaten since the 5th of December so the vet gave him a vitamin shot. I basically leave kashmir to himself except to apply the cream ever three days. My only concern is his health and well being. I am learning; unfortunately at Kashmir's expense. I hope his new environment will solve many problems and that soon things will level out for him. Again I am sorry for creating a thread and abandoning it but my life got a little hectic there for a while. Thank you everyone for your help and concern. Chris

So I understand he is in a tub now, this is good. What size is the tub?
What are you using for a heat source?
If he still has stuck shed, soak him in luke-warm/room temp. water for about 40-60 minutes and rub it off with a damp towel.
Your snake will likely hide often. Ball pythons are very shy and it is a much better sign for them to be hiding then to be roaming around.
You have one or two hides?

For the eating thing, we want to solve that early as well. What have you been trying to feed him, and how are you attempting to go about that? Explain all of your procedures in the feeding process.
:]

[blackcrystal22]

70% humidity is kinda high try lowering it some more i wouldnt go over 60% at all

During a shed and in the process of healing, having the humidity a little higher can help. It is not dangerous to have high humidity until it goes over 80-85% or when condensation starts to build up.