Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok, so my little girl has been being treated for a week and ahalf now for scale rot with silver sulfadiazine. it seems to look better. well then last week wednesday she shed, it was all in a ball in her water bowl in the morning so i was unable to unroll it to check for eye caps, but her eyes were clear. humidity has been at about 60-65% with a big water bowl for drinking and soaking. well two days ago i saw that she had a dent in her eye, which has since goten a little better, but now her eyes are cloudy again and her overall color is getting dark and greyish again and her belly is coral in color again too, like how it looks when she is going to shed. is it possible for them to shed again a week after they just did??? or is this a sign that she's getting more sick with the scale rot or something else is wrong. she's been eating every 6 days so i'm pretty sure that she shouldn't be dehydrated. oh also she is an 03 ball, prolly from april. she has been growing alot recently, and is about 25-26inches and 325g now.

any help would be great, i'm just worrying too much i think
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~dana~

1.1 ball pythons (hailex and roxy)
1.0 cat (whiskers)
1.1 russian hamsters (peanut and tj)

i think her water bowl might be to big she is soakin to much

i have never seen her soaking, only drinking and i figured from finding the skin in the bowl that she must have been in it while she was getting rid of the old skin. the only time that i have ever seen her immersed in water is when i have given her a bath and she goes for a swim

thanks for your reply
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~dana~

1.1 ball pythons (hailex and roxy)
1.0 cat (whiskers)
1.1 russian hamsters (peanut and tj)

most snakes will shed more often when they have skin injuries such as dermatitis (scale rot) or actual injuries such as punctures, cuts, burns, scrapes. the skin cells are hard at work fixing the injury, and an easy and effective way to get rid of some dead tissue is to....you guessed it, shed. this is why snakes with burns, dermatitis, and other skin injuries often shed 2 3 or often more times in rapid succession. out with the damaged in with the fresh. reptiles arent like humans, even if they shed in broken pieces like most lizards, or one large piece like most snakes, they shed all at once, unlike humans that shed constantly. but again its how our skin heals too. so id say you have no need to be worried about the rapid shed cycles. tho i dont know what caused the dermatitis, but, that is what needs to be looked into. good luck.

J
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Jaymz
"got a bowlin ball in my stomache, got a desert in my mouth. figures that my courage would choose to sell out now..."

thanks for the great helpful advice that's what i was hoping that was going on with the whole sheding part. what is making me feel better is now that this time the scales on her belly are looking dull so hopefully that will help to get rid of the scales that were effected by the rot. i think what caused it was that for a few weeks i switched from cage carpet to that crushed coconut fiber stuff, after i saw that she was having a problem i switched it out for paper towels, which she has been on since.

you seem to know alot about this, when should the scale rot clear and look back to normal and healthy scales?? i'm just curious. these two snakes that ihave are my first balls and i am of course the nervous first year owner, with all the fun that comes with that. at least i have never had to go through the not eating thing, and they both switched over to prekilled mice with no problems

thanks again for your help
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~dana~

1.1 ball pythons (hailex and roxy)
1.0 cat (whiskers)
1.1 russian hamsters (peanut and tj)

If it wasn't a serious problem, there shouldn't be any scarring and if so it should only take a few more sheds to get rid of. That's what my Vet told me, anyway.