Tip of tail turning black

[zuzubp]

Hi everyone, I need your opinion on problem with my BP. She is about 2 years old. About three months ago problems started, first by my ignorance BP had gotten belly burns from heat pad. I started dealing with that, using dermazin and betadine. Her next shed was bad, she had skin all over her. But the biggest problem was tip of tail that did not shed properly. A piece of skin covering about 1 cm of tail tip remained. I tryed to remove it with wet towel, soaking tail in warm water. But by the time we managed to remove that part couple of scales had lifted exposing skin on tip of tail. Here is how it looked, then. Until that time she had never had shedding problems.



Next shed came very quick after that, about two weeks later. This time she had shed properly but scales from the tip of tail fell of with her skin. That was one month ago. Three days ago here belly started turning pink, and yesterday we noticed tip of her tail is starting to turn black. Here is how it looks.

Without flash:



With flash:



Couple of things I would like to point out. She is acting normally, she is active. She is eating, she has gained on weight and size since the burned bell problem. I read somewhere that if snake has necroses, that part of body smell bad, but here tail does not smell different from the rest of her body. Any ideas how to deal with this.

Thank you.

[L.West]

Oh my - if that was my snake I would get her to the vet. That black tail looks dead and her poor belly looks awful.

I wouldn't take any chances with that.

[SRMD]

ye like the person above said you need to go to a vet asap the tail doesnt look healthy at all
and oh my that belly looks bad!

[Royal Hijinx]

Agree vet ASAP.

[Brent]

Vet, like yesterday.

Have a thermostat with a probe to control that heat pad you mention?

[MrLang]

Man, that is awful. Get to a vet. The stuck shed choked the life out of the tip of the tail and when it fell off it looks like the necrosis is spreading and the infection is getting very bad inside the snake.

What is the purpose of this post exactly? You saw your pet like that or even remotely near to that and thought 'maybe I can remedy this at home?' You should have been paying your pet enough attention to notice that the tip of the tail hadn't shed and aided it. You would have saved yourself the trouble, vet bills, and heartache.


EDIT: The burn in the first pic is very upsetting

[Mike41793]

Vet visit is in order, imo

[RestlessRobie]

Vet Visit is needed that tissue looks like it is dead or dieing and need medical help before is spreads further

[WarriorPrincess90]

I agree. Vet visit ASAP. You probably should have taken her weeks ago after the burn happened, rather than trying to remedy it at home. Now it is imperative she see a vet before that tail gets any worse.

[zuzubp]

Hi, thanks for your comments. I am in touch with vet for past three months. Actually, as soon as I got her I took her to vet to do make a complete health check. There is one thing I would like to ask you. English is not my first language but please, read my fist post with understanding, don't just fasfforward trough it. I have taken time to write it so that those of you that have experence in this situation can have clear view on matter.

Fist picture is two months old, it's when she got heat pad burns. That has been taken cared by now. Here belly normal and there is no discoloration. But the belly burn caused bad shed. That lead to tail tip problem. We had a problem with removing skin from the tip of tail, cos we didn't want to harm her further.

Main problem is that her vet is currently away from country but we are in constant touch over email. So she contacted another vet to see us. Reptile vet are extremely scares where I live. And today is holiday in my country. So we are going to vet tomorrow morning.

Vet is suspecting necroses caused by bad tail shed that happen month and half ago. And suspects antibiotic tretment and maybe surgical removal of tail. But on the other hand she is puzzled by the fact that animal is very active, eats every week two rats. She is visible getting bigger and stronger. Her behavior so not in correlation of animal that has necroses. Other thing that is puzzling black tail happened literally over night. When her shedding process started black tail appeared.

Bottom line is I don't want her tail to be removed surgically unless that is must of course. So I am seeking to know is someone had this or similar situation with there ball python. And is able to shed some light on this matter.