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I have had a LTC wc black king for over 5 months now. He tends to spill his water a lot. This would result in a constant wet substrate of cypress mulch. I decided to move him onto aspen and give him a much smaller and heavier water bowl so he couldn't flip it. Just the other day I fed him and checked him out, everything appeared great. Today, I looked at him and he has super raised scales. You can even see the flesh under each scale, most of the raised scales are around the neck region. I can't figure out what would have caused this. Its cage is dry and has been dry for weeks. Do you think it will shed out? He is an '01 animal and is looking blue right now. Thanks.
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1.0 snow corn snake '02
0.1 butter corn snake '02
0.1 hi-red corn snake '02
0.1 CB KY locality corn snake '02
1.1 Texas Baird's rat snake '00
0.1 black rat snake '03
1.1 Het for albino and albino radiated rat snake '02&'03
1.1 tri-color hognose snake '03
1.1 albino striped Cal king snake '01
1.1 black king snake '01
1.1 black milk snake '01&'02
1.1 pueblan milk snake '03
1.1 African house snake '03

It could possibly shed out but how severe is it? There is a blister disease that has been mentioned to me time and again from other breeders that can become fatal. Personally never have had to deal with that myself but hear it is a bear of a problem.

I have heard of several attempts others have made dealing with these blisters but I am not a Vet and would hate to mislead you. Try a search to see if there is any mention of this disease on Kingsnake.com and see if it is possibly what you are up against.

Goodluck..

Rich Hebron

See how the snake looks after the shed as alot of my Kings neck area swells up right around shed time and it looks odd but it can be normal in some Kings.

Keith
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Doesn't really sound like blister disease but here's something harmeless that has worked for me. I think I got this idea Jeff Schoffeld(sp?). If you catch the blisters early enough it seems to work. Just wet a clean towel with H2O2(hydrogen peroxide) and let the snake crawl through it a few times. Do this a couple of times a day until he sheds. If it's not blister disease I don't see how it could hurt and if it is, it should at least help. One drawback is that it will leave scars where the blisters were. I've have had a problem with blisters on the WC eastern milks I've had.

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Martin Whalin
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