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  1. #1
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    Possible scale rot?

    Hello, I'm new to this site and it's a shame that this is my first post here..

    I have a female ball python that is roughly 1.5 years old. I have her in a 50 gallon tank with 2 hides, a large water dish, temperature gradient and I alternate between paper towels and a coconut husk/jungle substrate mix. I usually feed FK, but the last time I fed her I was in a hurry and just gave it to her live..
    I'm not sure if she was scratched by the rat, or if this is the start of scale rot. She's never had any health problems before, and I'm really worried.

    If it is scale rot, how should I treat it? I read that silver sulfadiazine cream is best, but that isn't readily available to me. I do have Silvagel and neosporin at my disposable. Has anyone had any luck with those?
    I do have the money to go to the vet, but the nearest one that treats herps is nearly 5 hours away, so I wanted to make sure I'm not panicking over nothing.

    Here's a picture:

    (sorry, it's not the best pic)

  2. #2
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    Could be a scratch, could be she just rubbed on something in the terrarium wrong. Is there any other weird marks on her?

    What's your humidity at? Is the substrate overly wet for some reason?

  3. #3
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    Re: Possible scale rot?

    That seems to be the only strange mark on her as of now. It is a possibility that I didn't filter through her substrate well enough and left a large piece of wood that could have scratched her.
    The humidity is currently at 52%. I do mist the tank once a day, since it's very hot and dry where I live. Her substrate never seems too wet-- inside the hides are dry, and that's where she spends most of her time.

  4. #4
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    Re: Possible scale rot?

    Use your better judgement. I don't have any experience with scale rot never happened to me, but if your humidity is on point and your substrate isn't perpetually wet it wouldn't make sense your snake out of nowhere is just getting scale rot. If these start popping up all over the place with no explanation you might want to worry and take it to the vet.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Have you recently gotten any new reptiles that may be carrying some disease or something?

  5. The Following User Says Thank You to Jhill001 For This Useful Post:

    averageherp (04-26-2015)

  6. #5
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    Thank you. I'll keep a close eye on her and if the spot gets worse or if I see any more pop up, I'll take her to the vet.

    Nope, not any new ones. I do have two other ball pythons and two leopard geckos, but they've been here long before I got this one and I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary with them.

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