A couple of weeks ago I noticed scratches on my ball pythons belly, they were brown in color, and seemed to be abrasions from his substrate of cypress mulch. However at the time I didn't believe them to be anything of major concern, and just checked over his cage for anything sharp. Today as I was taking him out I noticed the scratches were in much more abundance than they had been previously, and accompanied by pink patches on his scales that were different textures. I became worried and found several small spots of reddish brown and realized that many of his belly scales were chipped, and now I'm worried he may have scale rot.

Originally I thought it was burns, but after checking all the heating elements in his tank and looking over the spots that doesn't seem to be the case. From what I can gather they look like scratches from something, and then scale rot has begun setting in.

As we speak I have treated his substrate with anti-mite spray and removed all the things from his enclosure. Nothing seems to be capable of scratching or hurting him, and his substrate has not been overly humid or wet at all. A small urate patch was found hidden behind a stick but other than that there's absolutely no feces or urine for bacteria to cause it either.

I will be taking him to be checked over tomorrow, and hopefully get a diagnosis or cause so I can fix the problem, but does anyone have a clue what this might be caused by? Or what it is? I'm extremely worried about him as it spans the length of his belly.

Thank You!






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