Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was examining my BPs tonight and noticed that 3/4 of my snakes have pinkish spots on their bellies. I will try to take pictures tomorrow but I'm not sure if my camera will even pick up these spots. Could someone show me some pictures of the first stages of belly rot? I know it's a weird request but I'm really starting to worry... These three BPs are not about to shed either so that isn't causing the pinkness. Maybe I'm overreacting but I want to rectify the problem if there is one.

Has anyone had problems with newspaper substrate and underbelly heating? Is there an ideal thickness that should be attained? Right now I only have 2 layers of newspaper and maybe that's not enough? Maybe it's time to switch to aspen?

Any help would be so great! Thanks

change the paper clean the cages, then put triple antibiotic ointment on it. with the stuff on the belly you should switch to paper towels, and give them a water bowl to small to soak in.
also try raing the temp and humidity alittle.

hope this helps
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jake

my addiction:
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You say your using belly heat? Are you using flexwatt or heat pads, Tubs or glass aquarium? Using a thermostat? The reason I ask is a while back I used a glass aquarium with heat pad and the surface temps where extremely high. I also noticed a pinkish belly. Are you monitoring the surface temps of you hot side?
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0.0.1 Green tree python (Aru LT)
0.0.1 Green tree python (Wamena LT)
0.1 Irian Jaya carpet python
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0.1 Brazilian Rainbow boa
1.0 Leucistic Texas ratsnake
1.0 Albino cornsnake

I don't really know the answers to any of your questions, but I will recommend that you do a temperature "gun" survey of the entire bottom of your snakes' cages. If you don't have a temperature gun, I think you now have reason to get one. I have a PE-2 from Pro-Exotics, and I like it very much. The PE-1 is less expensive and popular with many folks around here. Other places sell other temperature guns. If you do this survey, you can at least start eliminating potential causes of the problem. These data will help others who know more understand your situation.

Bill
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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.

Thanks to the replies so far but I still have some unanswered questions. I do have a heat gun and the belly heat is flexwat. I also use a thermostat.

My heat gun says the surface temps are good on the hot side(around 92). The temperature under the paper is around 98. I'm worried that when the snake is on the newspaper substrate it really isn't feeling 92 degrees underneath it but rather something closer to 98. I feel like the 92 degree reading might not be that accurate because it is affected by the small pocket of air between the bottom of the tub and the newspaper.

For those of you that also use newspaper and have belly heating, how many layers do you put down? Also, could someone describe or show me a picture of belly rot in its earliest stages? I will try to take some pictures of my girls right now...

I'll probably end up taking them into the vets office tomorrow but I would still love some info from the KS experts. Thanks!

So I can't get the faint red marks to show up on my camera which gives you an idea of just how light they are. Nonetheless these spots are there and I'm still freaked out! I've lowered the temps and their tubs are all clean (we clean then every day anyway). Any more info on belly rot would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Ok if you are reading 98 degrees at the bottom of the tub then it's probably a burn if that is where the snake has been sitting. The very begginning stages of rot, a burn and shed are all pink bellies. the only difference I've noticed is that if it's rot it will have some very small crimson "freckles" in addition to the pink - I cant recall if I've ever seen them on burns or not - I'll look around and see if I can find a picture. Further along they take on a noticably different appearance. I know not very helpful. See if you can take a picture.
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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

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Thanks for the reply. Unfortuantely I cannot get these redish/pinkish spots to show up in a picture. I don't see any "freckles" or anything like that so I'm thinking it's not actually belly rot but rather just a burn. Also, our tubs are not overly humid and we clean them very regularly so the conditions for belly rot are not present. So yeah, it's probably a burn.

What should I do, if anything, to treat this? I've lowered my thermostat 5 degrees and from now on we are just going to assume that the temp of the tub is pretty much the same as the temp on the top of the newspaper substrate. So hopefully we will not ever have this problem again because I don't think I can go through this another time!

Any advice on treating a mild burn? Also Tosha, if you can find any pics I would really appreciate it. Thanks so much!