I use newspaper, it might not look the best but it works for me & my snakes, its free and easy clean up and ditto to what someone else said, you SEE it right away when its wet.
Also I am in no way saying you dont care about your snake, but this is the second time the poor things had scale rot. If you were as diligent as you say, you would have noticed how wet/damp his enclosure was before the scale rot developed. Scale rot doesn't just happen over night..
Just saying...
Kudos tho for taking the right action and getting the meds!![]()
I wish your BP a speedy recovery.