Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hey all!
my ball has a few spots on his belly where the scales are brownish. some of them are kinda crusty and look damaged, not just brown in color. are these burns or something else? should i be concerned? he's about to go into his first shed since i got him, should i just wait and see how the new scales look?

thanks in advance for your expertise

sounds like what happened to my bp...he got burnt by the uth. if ya have a pic would help better....

here's two pics, kinda hard to see but hopefully itll help a bit

heres another pic

Looks like what might be the beginning of scale rot. A visit to your Vet is in order. I had one like that. Injections of antibiotics and Betadine soaks were given with complete recovery.

thats not good news!
does the fact he should be shedding in a few days make any difference or does the problem go deeper than the outer layer?

>>thats not good news!
>>does the fact he should be shedding in a few days make any difference or does the problem go deeper than the outer layer?

I personally would....if he is due to shed in a few days (not a week or so but a few days) just wait and see what it looks like after a shed. It looks like rot to me too and if it is due to your husbandry it could be worse after the shed. If you are improving his conditions it could be better.
I personally would touch it up with a bit of neosporin cream. You could do a swab of betadine solution too but again, see about after his shed.
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Sonya

waiting a few days sounds good to me because i really cant afford the vet right now
ill try some betadine and neosporin.
im not quite sure what the housing problem may be- temp upper 80s at the warm end, lower 80s on the other end, although he is almost always on his heat pad. humidity is 70ish, and the substrate (paper towel) isnt wet or anything. am i missing something?

If he is on his pad almost all the time, then I would suggest more of a substrate than paper towels. He may be getting a little too warm, but not getting off the pad when he gets a little crispy Zan, my male, exhibited similar scales also. I found after he shed, they were gone. Do wait a few, until he sheds, if they are still there, do what you can to scrape up the $$$ for a vet visit.

Zoe

Zan's Den

ill put some newspaper over the pad for now (my roommate has confined me to my room and thats all ive got on hand lol). if it doesnt look better after the shed ill defientely take him in to the vet; even though it isnt going to make me very happy in the wallet, my animals are my children

am i the only one who gets a little misty eyed when they shed?

Mine went away after the shed but slowly came back. After the treatment it took 4 sheds to disappear and not come back. If the BP has an internal infection like mine did you need to get antibiotics ASAP.

and I would raise the ambient air at one end without overheating the uth. The snake needs more warmth without it all centered on it's belly and burning it. It would be like me trying to warm up with heat pad on my back....when I need to turn up the thermostat.
I know with flexwatt is says. "don't run it over 95" and I don't have a UTH box to check. But they shouldn't be so hot as to burn even with just papertowel. All alot of folks use is newspaper or PT and sometimes snakes burrow under it. If they are getting burned the UTH is too hot and the cage too cold.
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Sonya

Might be scale rot.

>>hey all!
>>my ball has a few spots on his belly where the scales are brownish. some of them are kinda crusty and look damaged, not just brown in color. are these burns or something else? should i be concerned? he's about to go into his first shed since i got him, should i just wait and see how the new scales look?
>>
>>thanks in advance for your expertise
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"Stupider.....like a FOX!!" -Homer Simpson