Scale Rot? Rescued Axanthic

[Adroit]

Hey all,

A tiny Axanthic male just came into my possession from a friend who didn't have the best husbandry practices. I plan on taking him to the vet ASAP but I am quite worried about him. She got him about a year ago, and at that time he was a hatchling so I assume he is about a year and a half old now. However, he is not even the width of my girlfriends thumb as you can see in the pictures. I don't have his weight since I don't want to stress him any more. She said that she was feeding him almost every week but I'm at a loss how he could still be so small. He has "dry" patches of scales that look deflated. He also has a few scales that are brown around the edges on his belly. I just wanted some opinions on what to do/what this might be.

Thanks all

[dr del]

Hi,

The only ones of any concern are the slightly brown edged ones - and even that should clear with his next shed assuming your husbandry is ok.

The others are caused by the top layer of new skin sticking to the old skin during a shed and is nothing to worry about.

In the second to last pic there seems to be a tiny bit of stuck shed as well.

Just make sure the humidity is ok for his next shed and he should be back to looking good.

[NH93]

This snake needs some lovin'!
And food.
He's perhaps also dehydrated. I'd make sure the husbandry is tip-top; even above and beyond (if you have the time to put that kind of effort in, anyway). Plenty of hides, a mixture of substrates maybe? (I'm thinking some aspen and some Cyprus mulch - it's odd, that he's got both dried skin and scale rot.) A nice, big water bowl. And when he's all settled in... a good lunch not too big, but an appropriate size for his body. I'd even do a soak in a week or two. Maybe after a meal or two and he's not stressed.

All the best!