Scale rot or burn?

[Josh Emmons]

Listen.. I don't want flaming... the next picture is a photo of the underbelly of Apollo my spider after he died... this is what happened... Apollo a few months ago had a spot on his underside that appeared to be a burn. I treated it with a little triple antibiotic ointment (make sure no infection would occur.) A month later all seemed fine, the "burn" had shrunk. I went off on a trip about 3 weeks ago, and got a care taker for my snakes. I got back 2 days ago, and checked back on my snakes, and I was totally stunned what I found on my spider. On his stomach I saw giant slightly blackish red spots, and they covered 1/3rd of his underside. I suspected scale rot, so I put some betadyne on his stomach, and again applied my antibiotic ointment, and left him in his cage for the night. The next morning I checked up on him, I knew something wasn't right when I saw him laying belly up. I opened the cage and picked him up, and he was limp... Apollo died in the night, I never said good bye.... I suspect he died of scale rot, but it was a fast onset. My cage conditions are clean, and I inspect my pythons regularly. I want to know how he died... These are the photos:



But I think things are not over. I see some strange spots on my normal ball python Artemis. On the bottom of her stomach its slightly pinkish in spots and I did not see this last week. Also, She seems a bit sluggish, And her heat pad recently failed. what killed Apollo, and what does artemis have? These are photos of artemis... Also. Artemis is 4 years old and she seems oddly small. is this the proper size for a 4 year old female normal? Again no trolling me for this post. I am going through a hard time already... p.s. I am not bending her body on the next photo. =)

[Josh Emmons]

.Bump.

[zeion97]

I'm not a expert... but it looks more like scale rot then a burn. You should a vet ASAP.

Also, you mentioned a heat pad? Was it hooked up into a thermostat? If not you could have cooked your spider from the outside......... saying he had the same pad she did which I AM ASSuming.

I'm sorry about your loss... all I Can give you though is my opinion and say to see a vet

[snakesonaplane]

From what I've seen online, definitely looks like scale rot. Main causes of it tend to be wet or dirty bedding. If they spend too much time crawling over uncleaned excrement, it can get inbetween their scales and cause rot. Also, I've read of cases that highly scented or improper substrate may act as an irritant for the snake. No cedar or pine bark are the only ones I remember off hand. What Zeion said may also be true: improper temps and the snake's inability to regulate its body temperature often cause death. When I bought my python, the lady that sold her to me told me to use bulbs instead of UTH because she's lost one of her own due to belly burn

I am sorry for your loss, the only advice I can give you is to double and triple check your husbandry and take your python to the vet immediately. Don't risk another death.

[heathers*bps]

They look like burns to me. I've noticed you posted about this earlier, and another previous post about scale rot or a burn. There have been numerous people asking you about your heat source, which you've stated a heat pad, and people asking if you are using a thermostat, but you have yet to answer that question. I don't want to ASSume anything, but I'm going to guess that you aren't using a thermostat and for how long now your snakes have these "scale rot/burns" on their bellies. Again, I am not trying to ASSume anything, but I can't help but to think that this is what's going on.