Progress report! I took him to the vet who prescribed silvadene and baytril. He says it is scale rot AND a burn. I had a feeling it was, because before i got him a heavier duty dish, I had a plastic tub for him to soak in that he had managed to overturn and he was basically swimming in water when I had got home from work which is probably why he had the scale rot. I feel so bad that he's in pain. But hopefully with antibiotics and changing the papertowel daily, it will get better.

The vet said I should ditch the heating pad until he heals and use a bulb instead but I use a tub enclosure so I'm wondering what I should do. Thoughts? For now I've turned off the heating pad entirely as it's 80 degrees in the room right now. The heating pad is getting really hot even with the thermostat at the lowest setting(It's the Repti Temp 500). Any ideas? Maybe just a malfunctioning heating pad?