Some help? Blood Python scales

[Hockenhaus]

Hello! Im new to this forum but figured I would get a leg in because my other half is an avid snake lover/owner! We do however need some advice. We just aquired a Blood Python yesterday. This snake is just a juvenile, about a foot long. My boyfriend went and picked him up and before I even got home from work he called and said that he wasnt very happy because it looked like it may have been bitten a few places my a mouse. Upon further inspection after we got it out and handled it a bit in the daylight, it has some pretty funky things going on!
Alot of his scales are "raised" up along his sides, and 2 or 3 of them actually peeled off. At first we thought it might be Skin Rot. We looked online at various websites about that condition, but from what I gather Skin Rot more often occurs on the belly region, and actually appears to be rotting scales (brown tinged areas on the scales). On this snake the belly isnt affected, just the sides of the snake. With the skin rot, it informs you to lower the humidity and take as much moisture out of the enclosure as possible. So, we went in and put paper towels for bedding, took out the large water bowl and turned up and raised the temps a bit.
I did some more reading to try and figure out what this condition is and now Im not so sure its skin rot. Maybe its possibly just dry/flaky skin?? Which if that is the case, then we need to be doing the opposite!! I just dont know whether to dry him out or get him more moisture! I did take two pictures of him, which arent the greatest. The only camera I have is on my cell phone, but I got the best I could with it.
I was wondering if anyone has ever had this type of condition with their snakes, and if so, what is it and how should it be treated? Right now the main question is do we dry him out or soak him?? Any information would be greatly appreciated, thank you!


http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y91...haus/skin1.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y91...haus/skin2.jpg

[kristan]

I can't tell much from the pics because they're out of focus, but from your description...
Could it be a stuck shed? This will sometimes cause individual scales to come off...you could try soaking for a few hours and see if it starts to come off or loosens up.
It could also be mites...you might want to look it over and see if you can find any on it.
From the pics I will say that it's not scale rot, which discolors the scales...bump that humidity back up and put the water bowl back in!
Good luck

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

You will get much better advice once our long time blood owners see this but it sounds like low humidity is the problem. Bloods need high humidity or the scales fold back or dimple. They also prefer lower temps. I bet your blood will not go anywhere near the hot side. Too high temps tend to make them crabby too. Try to get some better pics with a digital camera so we can see it better.

[twan]

welcome to the site and if anybody can tell what's wrong it's here. You came to the right place hope all goes well.

[Hockenhaus]

*sigh*...... Well, no good news here. I just got a call from b/f. The blood just passed away. Its pretty upsetting. Idk what to think. B/f is REALLY upset. I told him to give me the guys phone number and I called him. I told him about the skin condition and he told me "yah, it was shedding". Pffffft! Im fairly new to snakes, but Ive seen my boyfriends snakes shed numerous times and Im not totally "snake illiterate". I was like "Umm NO, that was not a shed". And i explained to him the condition of the scales and how they were all puffed out in places and literally falling off. I proceeded to ask him how he was going to make this right. (being that b/f is literally falling to peices at this point and Im ticked!) He rattled off a few snakes that he would give him in exchange, but all of them were adults and we would rather not deal with all that is involved in taking in an adult with not knowing how it was raised and so forth. I asked him if he would be getting any babies in and we came to the agreement that he would give us a female baby blood in place of the one we had lost. So Geeeez! Now we have to wait on a baby and hopefully it will be in good health. Being we are both new to Bloods, I will definately be back here when she arrives. Just wanted to thank all of you for your responses to my previous post!

[CoolioTiffany]

Bloods do best with humidity levels of about 70%, and from the pictures it looks like stuck shed caused by low humidity. With Bloods, most people don't know they need higher humidity so that will happen. When my Ball python had low humidity, the scales on her neck to some of her belly were flaking off.

Keep the Blood's temps around 83F, nothing more than 90F. Raise the humidity to 70%, and give it a nice soak to see if the (from what I saw in the photos) stuck shed will come off. Do not try taking it off yourself, let the snake do so.

EDIT: Saw your last post, I'm so sorry for your loss.

[Tim Mead]

IMO, Kristan,Foshci and Tiff got it right..Looks as though it was a stuck shed and the snake was likely severely dehydrated..All good inputs..
Sorry to hear of your loss..

[twan]

Sorry for your loss cant wait to see your next pick up.

[2kdime]

Might look at where you got the animal

That could be why the animal died.....

Might not do you any good getting another animal from the person

Just a thought

Sorry for the loss of the animal.

FWIW I keep my animals at 80-82 with a hot spot NO higher than 86, and humidity right at 60%