Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

I was going to clean one of my snake's cages today, and picked her up to play with her. I noticed a few of her scales looked brownish/reddish on her belly, near her head, and chin and some scales on her head looked dry and flaky. I looked on the internet and it said that this might be a sign of scale rot. Since its the weekend, my normal vet is closed, so I came here for some advice on what to do, and see if this is an actual issue.. and maybe find out where it came from.

She is fed live rats, but has killed them almost immediately, so I doubt that they caused her damage.. but it is a possibility. Since she has more than one mark I think it's something more than just a battle wound.

Her substrate is EcoEarth (which is a compressed coconut bark, but I have seen things like small twigs and seeds in it at times), and she has a sterilite tub with a hole cut in the top as a hide box. Could it be possible that she is getting this from the coconut bark?

I was looking on the net and it mentioned that if this is indeed scale rot, that the treatment is antibiotics and low humidity. Brazilians need high humidity, so I'm not sure what to do really. For the time being I've switched out her substrate with paper towels and gave her a tupperware container of water.

I would appreciate any advice on what this may be and what course of action I should take until I can get her to my vet on Monday. I called the emergency vets in the area, but none are really too knowledgeable about reptiles. I could drive a distance to find one if it does look serious.

Thank you.

Ii does look like your snake has a very mild case of scale rot. Don't get too alarmed. I've seen it much much worse. I've even seen bad cases heal up nicely in one or two sheds.

I'd recommend a thorough cleaning of the animal's enclosure and temporarily switching its substrate to newspaper. Give the snake a hide spot on the warm end of its enclosure and a nice big water dish on the cool end. Other than the water dish, keep the snake's cage dry for a while. Keep an eye on the scale rot, if it worsens, see a vet. I'm betting it will clear up almost entirely the next time the snake sheds.

Three factors combine to cause this condition. Heat, moisture and unsanitayr conditions. I'm not implying there's anything wrong with your husbandry practices, but sometimes I see people keeping these animals too wet. Keep in mind that humid shouldn't lead to dankness or stagnancy.

The mark on the snake's head doesn't look like scale rot to me. It looks like it was caused by some type of mild trauma. Perhaps a rat bite or maybe it rubbed against something in its cage.

Good luck with the animal. Keep us posted. Pretty snake by the way.
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Mike Lockwood
www.tooscaley.com