Chronic shedding problem

[Sarae]

I was directed here from cornsnakes.com and this is a re-post of a thread from there...

I'm still struggling with this little ball python at work. I posted awhile back about her scale rot/vent injury...

finally got that cleared up, finally taught her to eat mice from one end or the other - not the middle... now it's something else!

The last two sheds have gone horribly. She'll go opaque, then turn "crispy"... and that's all. The first time I waited 3 weeks with daily soaks and she never shed on her own. I finally had to remove it all myself over the course of a week.

After that shed, she was moved from paper towel to aspen and her tank was misted twice a day to raise humidity. We also began soaking her three times a week.

This time, as soon as she went opaque, we started daily soaks. A week later she was fully crispy and uncomfortable. Her skin still won't shed on its own. She has a rough half-log she can (and does) rub on to no avail. When I hold her, she starts rubbing her head back and forth on the edge of my palm, but that gets her nowhere either.

She's going to be adopted into a special, knowledgeable home, owner full aware of her past and present problems, but I'm wondering if there's something else we can do other than manually helping her out of her old skin each shed.

**Additional info**

Snake was received with scale rot that progressed. She was housed in a 20l on paper towel and soaked daily in chlorhexadine solution with antibiotic ointment applied to the worst rot areas.
Once that was healed, she was upgraded to aspen bedding and received soaks only three times a week with daily soaks starting the week of going opaque the second time around.

Current setup:
20L, aspen, waterbowl, half-log hide and tall climbing branch.
UTH on rheostat running around 90-92
Ambient temperature is usually around 75-78
Tank is misted twice daily
Snake generally eats once a week, has just upgraded from single F/T fuzzies to single F/T small mouse.

[shelliebear]

Soaking her could do more harm than good. It can also cause scale rot to grow if she is TOO humid.
I would wait until 24 hours after the shed has failed to come off before soaking her. Otherwise, it may not go well.
I hope she gets well

[Sarae]

So far, the scale rot has not returned (thankfully! it got really bad there for awhile).

I'm wondering if it's not still a humidity issue causing the failure-to-shed. We don't really have an accurate way of gauging the humidity level at the store.
There's another snake housed with her ( I know... don't get me started... I have no control over that) and he has no problems shedding.

I'm kind of limited to what we have in-store for resources... the best I can do is one of those stick-on dial humidity gauges. I guess it'll be better than nothing. (The thermometer is a digital one with a probe)

[Vypyrz]

Hello, and to BP.net...

I suspect the bad sheds are the result of stress caused by:
1) being housed with another snake and the competition between them for the best spots.
2) Lack of security provided by the half log hides, and a fairly open and empty tank.
3) excessive soaking.

I do understand that since this snake is in a pet shop, you are somewhat limited to what you can use so the best I can suggest is try to replace the half log with some of the darker cave type hides, and maybe see about setting up a separate enclosure in the back to house the snake in once she goes opaque. Maybe being alone in a low traffic area for the shed will help. Good Luck...

[Sarae]

Hello, and to BP.net...

I do understand that since this snake is in a pet shop, you are somewhat limited to what you can use so the best I can suggest is try to replace the half log with some of the darker cave type hides, and maybe see about setting up a separate enclosure in the back to house the snake in once she goes opaque. Maybe being alone in a low traffic area for the shed will help. Good Luck...

Thanks for the welcome

She (and the other) had a number of hides of varying darkness, but the half-logs were the only ones they used. They're pretty well burrowed down into the aspen so they're not quite as open as usual. She's also already off the floor, in the back isolation room where we generally only go at 6am and 8pm. It's usually pretty quiet back there (when there aren't finches, anyway).

She wasn't with the other snake for her first bad shed (he was at the vet for other issues for about a month) so she had the whole tank to herself. It just seems like she can't break the shed to begin with.

The tank also isn't really empty. The "branch" takes up half the tank and is one of those resin faux-driftwood decorations that's about 14" long and 12" tall with multiple legs and faux vines wrapped around it. If she's not under one of the log hides (there are two, each covering half of the UTH so the two snakes can get away from each other but still get proper heat) she's usually crawling around on the branch.

Would switching the substrate provide a better chance for a good shed? I'm wary of the bark chips because i've heard too many horror stories about mites coming from them... I also have bed-a-beast/coco fiber, "jungle bedding" and cypress bedding.

I'm not sure if she'll still be in the store for her next shed. I've got a home lined up for her with a very experienced keeper where I can get updates... I've really grown attached to her. If I didn't already have 3 snakes and if i already had a big enough extra tank, she'd be here instead of at the store

I'm torn between keeping her at the store where I can keep an eye on her... but the other associates may not be monitoring her conditions and despite popular belief, i don't actually live at the store...
and getting the adoption process pushed through and getting her to my friend who can make sure she gets everything she needs... but then it's completely out of my hands and I can't check on her daily like i do now.

such a conundrum!