Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi. I posted this on the carpet forum but got no ans....has any one seen this before on a jungle carpet before he is going to shed? i noticed this today and tried to take a photo of his back. "safari" is @4 years old. male. @7-8 foot. very mellow with handling. takes f/t rats so its not a bit from live food. i don't feed live to any of my snakes. i just want to know if i should be doing something or just let him to his thing when he sheds. the thing is we are heading out of town this weekend an he is due to shed any day. GRR!! so unless he sheds by morning he'll be on his own till monday. any ideas of what or how this happened?

the area in questions is pretty much in the middle of the photo. you can see some scales raised with shed getting ready to come off? i dont' know. also i was misting him a bit so he looks a little wet.

while i was out of town. it was a perfect shed. he still has these areas like this. i'm thinking now its blisters from misting him before he was going to shed and he was setting under his heat lamp and got some burns??? thats my guess. should i take him to vet? leave him alone? the vet i want to go to istn' there till next week. so i guess i'm going to wait and see right now if it gets better on its own. NO....the lights are not inside his enclosure but i have a big branch he hangs out on up near the light. i've misted him in the past and never had this problem.

can anyone give advise??

The pustule within photo doesn't appear to be a burn, as the dermal tissue appears quite normal, though it can take a few days for the dermis to show signs of a burn. Unfortunately, health issues are difficult to diagnose via an image and description on the internet.
As you have suggested, it would be wise to take the snake to a veterinarian well versed in herpetofauna, should your preferred vet not be in, call the office to see where he is forwarding clientele with herpetofauna, as most veterinarians out source such care when not available.
Off the top of my head, the pustule appears to be the result of a Staphylococcus spp. infection, but again, it is impossible to tell from an online descriptive and photo.
As has already been indicated Furacin Soluble ointment would be a good treatment, as would Silver Sulfadine Cream, as both work well in the treatment of burns and are broad-spectrum antibiotics, though some specimens tend to demonstrate sensitivity to Furacin soluble ointment and both generally require a prescription to obtain, depending upon your local…

Good luck,

Jeff
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Jeff Snodgres
University of Arkansas
snodgresjeffreys@uams.edu
501.603.1947

Did you have him exposed to any heat sorce, I.E. lights, hot rocks?

Dress the burn with Furacin ointment till it has healed.