wierd shed

[JLC]

i need some answers.

I'm somewhat speechless, but I'll do my best to give you what answers can be given under the circumstances.

The easy one: Newspaper is fine. No need to change it unless it's dirty...in which case fresh newspaper is still fine. Paper towels are fine, too. Whatever you prefer.

As for the rest...nobody can tell you how to fix your temps if you don't even know what they are. If you can't get out of the house to keep an established vet appt...then I'm going to assume you can't get out of the house to go buy a thermometer, either. But if you have ANY sort of digital thermometer, or even those little sticky dials ....anything...that can give you an idea of what the temps in your cage are...you need to USE them. If you have any of those old sticky dials...just lay 'em right on the paper under or near the hides...leave 'em for awhile, and then check to see what they say. Hopefully they won't be tooo far off the mark.

Especially for a sick snake, you need to get those temps UP...and yet ensure that the surface he is lying on is not hot enough to burn. You really need to have the entire tank warmed up to 80-85 degrees, with a warmer spot in the low 90s.

Right at this moment, humidity is not your most serious concern. Soaking the snake or wetting down the bedding in an attempt to increase the humidity are only going to make things worse.

The triple-antibiotic should be fine, so long as it doesn't have any pain reliever added to it.

I've never heard of mite spray causing this sort of damage. You don't say exactly what you used, so no one can really even guess what you might have done with it.

I've also never heard of mites causing anything that looks like what you've shown in the pictures...but if the infestation is severe enough, they CAN make a snake very, very sick and eventually kill it. So maybe they can also contribute to a weakened immune system that would lead to the scale rot and a thinning of the skin....

I'm just guessing....and really, that's all any of us here can do at this point. Even if we had a vet on staff here, he/she could only guess at what's going on without actually seeing the snake in person.

We can't fix the severe husbandry issues over the Internet, either. All we can do is point them out and do our best to offer ideas for at least finding a temporary fix. It's YOUR snake and your responsibility to use your own brain to figure out how to apply the advice you've been given or come up with your own ideas if all of ours get shot down for whatever reasons you can come up with.

[dr del]

Hi,

I would probably use paper towels yes. (only because it might be easier to see any discharge compared to newspaper)

I don't know enough to advise you on the triple anti-bac - does it have painkiller in it?

Low and medium don't really tell us anything - stick a decent digital thermometer on both and let it sit for 30 minutes or so for the readings to stabilise if you can.

I'm also not sure if you should be trying to raise humidity or lower it.

Did you send these pictures to your vet? Could you ask their advice on the phone?

The last set of answers are really best left to a qualified vet who has actually examined the animal if I'm honest.

One question on the white looking wound on his back if I may - are the edges of the scaled area "rolled up" looking or are all the scales flat and then it just stops having scales?

The reason I ask is I've seen a snake where the skin had split and it looked an awfull lot like that but I can't actually tell for certain from the photo's.

**edit**

Doh old slowfingers McKilty was beaten to the punch again

**end edit**



dr del

[frankykeno]

Quick questions from me. When the snake had stuck shed, while you were doing all this soaking and so forth....did you peel any stuck shed off manually i.e. pick at the shed when it was dry on the snake? Did you apply any ointment to this snake's skin that we aren't aware of? Do you use any overhead lighting with this snake?

Even if you cannot get out to see your vet, considering a winter storm and so forth, you can certainly phone the vet, email those pictures right over and at the very least discuss and get advice on supportive home care until the storm passes. Your snake deserves this effort from you.

You've also been given very specific help regarding your husbandry, I'd suggest you attend to that as soon as possible before anything gets worse.

[serpents-prey]

ok lets see, JLC i have the sticky dial things and they're on the glass my mistake have a humidity thing and it reads 70 at the top. i will move those after this post and repost later the triple antibiotic salve has no painkillers. the spray for mites is called reptile relief and say kills mites on contact as a precaution i have stopped using this spray until i hear otherwise. Dr. Del let me take another look at him and get back to you. the scales looked flat and fused before they came off. Franky no i didn't pick at the skin but i noticed that there was a spot about the size of a dime that was shed and looked like he was shedding so i placed him back in the tank with a few rocks placed together to help him shed and when i came back the next day to handle him he looked like that and the scales were "sweating" and humid despite me drying him he was also cold despite sitting on the uth and he was only cold in certain spots. hope this helps.
saturday is the earliest i can get out to get a digital thermometer and other stuff. i will repost later

[serpents-prey]

Dr.del he is entering another shed and the scales are rounded the there's nothing the vets have no way of recieving photos and he is never there when i am home to talk to him

[dr del]

Hi,

If the edges are rounded then I am leaning more towards your snakes skin having split wide open - in all honesty that isn't something i'd be willing to leave till tuesday next week as the chances of infection are very very high.

Also the longer it goes without being fixed back together the more problems it will likely cause as the edges shrivel and die back.

I can't beleive a vet in this day and age wouldn't have acess to email either at work or home.

Looking at your previous posts I don't think the scales were "sweating" but more probably "oozing".

I would also try and phone from work or whatever because if he basically has an open wound like that and an infection in his belly time is not exactly on your side.


dr del

[serpents-prey]

well the skin didn't split a strip of scales came off just off no spliting involved.
gotta go get the reading on the temp in hide. ok temps are 86 degrees in warm side hide and 80 on cool side should i lower the cool side? and humidity needs to rise its at 50%
as i have said the scales peeled off in my hand i was handling him and it just came off.

[bender29]

do me a favor, shut up. i don't need some one to come in here a criticize me with out posting a way of remeding the problem. the uths, plural: two, one on each side, are warmer than 70 degrees they keep the tank at an ambiant temp of 70 that is the cold side for the warm side i have a heat lamp aimed at a ceramic hide. the hide can be used as a basking spot and the heat warms the inside of the hide as well. lemme re-iterate the strip of missing scales is not a burn the scales simply dried out too much and peeled off. going to the vet today will post what she says l8r.

Wow.

Thanks for the leaving the negative reputation on top of it. Your maturity shines throughout your thread. Moving on... for your snakes sake...

You said that the UTH's themselves were at 70 degrees, which is why I stated that they are way too cold. I didn't realize you had two. You weren't specific in your previous posts.

Regardless, you need to get a digital thermometer showing you what the temps are. Do you (or your father) happen to have a temp gun?

That's ashame that you aren't able to make it to the vet. I'd try to deal with this sooner rather than later.

And I'm sorry that you weren't able to see my solutions to some of your problems. I'll try to bold, italicize, and underline them next time.

Regardless, best of luck to your snake. Hopefully he makes it out of this.

[bender29]

well the skin didn't split a strip of scales came off just off no spliting involved.
gotta go get the reading on the temp in hide. ok temps are 86 degrees in warm side hide and 80 on cool side should i lower the cool side? and humidity needs to rise its at 50%
as i have said the scales peeled off in my hand i was handling him and it just came off.

No, leave the temps alone. The warm side could be higher, but they aren't that far off. Your humidity is fine at 50%.

Did they individually come off or was it like a full strip of scales/fat? Do you still have the strip? Are the other scales around the area loose?

I'd say you should use white paper towels as you could easily notice if he starts bleeding from his wound. I'd take out any sharp objects in the terrarium.

The rocks that you put in, were they decently sharp/rough? If your snake has a mite problem, he could have "rubbed" his skin off due to extreme irritation.

[serpents-prey]

ok i apologise i just do not need people coming off as abrasive. about your question the scale came off yes i have a piece left i think no fat on it. the stones are sandstone maybe not sandstone but abrasive enough to help with shedding. i was estimating the temp of the uth's because i had the thermometer at the top of the tank. yes my father has a temp gun. we are going to walmart saturday to pick up a digital thermometer. we will have to pick up paper towels because all my father has is mechanic cloth and thats blue and greasy.
i will try to get ahold of the vet tomorrow and find out if i can email him pictures.
i think getting a boa this summer just went down the drain. oh well there's always next year. i will try to get better pics of the spot on his back