Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is a kinda long post but I wanted to be thorough, so please read and help if you can...

I have an 11 year old female Colombian boa that recently went through the normal pre-shedding routine with blued-over eyes, etc. When it was time for the shed to happen, however, she appeared to be having difficulty so I gave her a good soak, only to find out that about 90% of the old skin seemed to be literally GLUED on. She did some belly shedding in a few spots, but VERY LITTLE of the actual body skin came off, and in spots where it did, it looked not like new fresh skin, but like the "shiny layer" had been ripped off with the old stuff (does that make sense?) and this continued for a couple days, with another abnormality- the not-so-good-looking new skin started to harden in spots. So, I though an extra long soak was in order. But, when I took her out of the water, two of those hard spots actually started to COME OFF, leaving only raw, pink skin underneath! What I did then was to put triple-antibiotic ointment all over those two spots (I wanted no infection) and I've watched the snake carefully now for five days. She is acting fine, other than the fact that her skin obviously needs to go. BUT- today, when I checked on her, she now looks like she is preparing to shed AGAIN! Her eyes are starting to blue over again (and she only got rid of one eyecap the last time!). Has anyone ever heard of anything like this before? Even though her body just tried to go through the shedding process, could it be realizing that it didn't work and be triggering the process again? One possible cause- before this whole problem, she was with another snake which regurgitated a rat, literally covering them both in rat slime/grease. Could this have caused that initial bad shed? Thanks for reading this long post and PLEASE help if you can!

Phil

or hydrochloric acid in the stomach. Have you ever felt the burning in your throat after you threw up? It probably gave a chemical burn to your snake all over it. This caused all the rest of the way the skin looked initially. You have added injury by rubbing the skin off of the burn. Leave your snake alone when it is shedding. Don't try to rub the skin off if it is clinging to your snake because you will hurt the snake. If you wish to help a snake shed then soak it or make a humidity bin (see below).

The places where it is pinkish white is where you have actually rubbed so much of the skin off the poor boa that you rubbed the layer of the skin that contains the melanin off. Now you're going to have to watch this boa for infections. Use regular Neosporin (not Neosporin Plus) everyday on the places where you rubbed the color off. These are places where he snake can get infections, but because of the burn of course infections could happen in other places too.

If I had your boa I would take it to the vet. That is a whole lot of trauma for one poor snake and it must be in great pain as well.

If all the skin doesn't come off the first time this snake sheds, do not be surprized, and don't try to pick it off. Anything left will come off the next shed. Keep the humidity in the cage high for a while too (spray the cage a couple times a day but not so much the water is running down the walls), and make a humidity bin for the snake with soft moss in it and put it on the cool side, so the snake can get some relief from the burns by laying in it (do this right away). You can do this with any tupperware container by cutting a hole in it and putting moist sphagnum moss in it. You can buy the moss at most gardening centers and other snake places. It is especially important that you keep the bin clean too because your snake has those abrasions, and you will have to check it everyday to be sure it is still nice and moist. Keep the cage clean as well.

Good luck,
Caden