Also posted in herp health forum, just looking for as many experienced opinions as possible...
I just received this snake this week. The snake was deep in shed cycle when she was handled roughly prior to shipping. The seller informed me of this in the email he sent to advise me of the tracking number and assured me it would shed out. Per the seller's recommendation I applied silvadene cream the first night and she shed the 2nd night (tonight). Well, it shed out all right, along with lots of her scales. Her enclosure was humid and I watched her shed with ease, no trouble at all, she crawled right out of her slough. There is now a large patch of missing scales along with several scattered missing and rough scales. Do you think this area will ever heal and look normal again? Please see attached images.
This is how she looked as received, pre-shed.
This is post-shed
Here is a close-up of the slough showing scales that came off with it.
Any comments will be appreciated. Thanks.
Paul
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Distressed skin and missing scales on pastel
Replies (2)
This appears to be scarring from rodent bites. Sometimes left overnight or just for a few hours. It happens when breeders have a lot to take care of or are careless when feeding. Rodent is hungry or scared for its life so bites the snake sometimes close to death.
Greetings Paul:
Actually this condition doesn't look like rodent bites-they are usually THROUGH the skin exposing muscle. Rather, this condition LOOKS like what occurs from early skin infection with bacteria, usually from fecal exposure.
Looking at the shed skin and post-shed picts, it appears that the injury was NOT full-skin thickness, but rather affected the outer layer of the skin. The "basement" layer of skin cells looks to be intact, but the layer just above this containing the specialized pigment cells, which differentiate FROM the basement cells, are affected. Unfortunately, the depigmentation in this type of condition often is permanent. In other cases, some pigmentation will return. Impossible to predict which way it'll go. The GOOD news is that further pathology is unlikely given good normal BP care. Furthermore, there is no genetic basis for this condition and future pastel offspring produced from this specimen should be as nice (when bred to high-yellow normal). So no worries mate!
Scott J. Michaels DVM
