Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi all
help needed in dealing with this new WC that i just rescued. she is around 5ft female. doesnt have any red or orange color on her body. just very pale chocolate, yellow and grey.she look more like borneo,s .she having a severe scale rot all over her body.and very skinny until you can see that she

1)is it ok for me to soak her in water since she her previous skin is still intact and she seem not liking the water at all.

2)how to treat her problem?

3)is it infectious to others?

4)should i keep her dry all the time?

the skin seem so dry at most part of her body.

help needed since its very hard to get VET that really know about reptiles here in Malaysia. the breathing is ok.and have a normal WC blood temperement. plssssssssss

p/s sorry about the photo, im using NOKIA 6600 camere phone.

tq in advance
ALI

np

np

np

Well of course the initial responce is get her to a vet immediately, but that isn't sounding possible. Scale rot is not contageous so you dont have to worry about it getting on your other snakes, but I would keep this snake seperated from the others. Typically snakes obtain scale rot by staying on wet bacteria infested substrate for too long. Yours has a very horrible case of it tho so caring could be different from the typical way used. I would say try to keep it dry? There could be some underlying problems developing as well and since the problem is so severe it might be beneficial to clean the skin regularly(a vet could say better, I'm only guessing). If you can get your hands on some anti bacterial ointment that would help things greatly (Betadine being the best, but even Neosporin or something of the like would help) and apply it to the snake daily. Maybe putting a clean towel on the bottom of the cage every day would help with the bacterial condition too. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will post up but I figured I would take a stab.

J
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"It's my snake, I trained it, so I'm going to eat it!" - Mad Max, The Road Warrior

Hey,

I had a wild caught large female ball python that I went through the same thing with (shown below). I fought with it for 3 months, it just got worse & worse, and she just died. The scale rot is the outside indicator (what YOU can see), but definitely not the sole source of the bacterial infection. The snake most likely is suffering mainly on the inside and is likely headed toward a painful death. With this said, I tried soakings with betadine (did nothing), salt soakings, changing substrate daily, raising temperatures, placing on a screen lid to hasten loss of moisture (drying her out), and finally a triple antibacterial ointment- where she died the next day. I was either too late with the ointment or that's what killed her (but I doubt it).

Don't give up trying! The snake's coloration will return or at least improve with health improvement. Antibiotics are what you need, so if there is any way to get to a vet or to have them sent to you, please try that.

Good luck, let us know what happens.

Steve Harrison

Hey,
How long has this poor thing been suffering with the scale rot? The only thing that I could recommend barring taking this poor thing to the vet would be to treat it with a topical antibiotic oinment like Neosporin. Any topical antibacterial oinment that contains Bacitracin, polymixin B and Neomycin, might help, however this looks like it really needs some serious medical intervention in the form of injectable antibiotics.

Warm soaks using a betadine solution applied daily to wash the skin and help the skin to slough all of the older scaly soars might also help. Pour the betadine into a tub and soak by mixing the betadine and water, till it is a light colored tea. Soak and dry well using a very clean towel. Allow the skin to dry thoroughly, before applying the oinment to the skin. Try doing this daily until there is a noticeable difference. The cage should be as clean as possible with plenty of ventilation. Also, be sure to provide fresh bedding. Newspaper would be your best option right now. Keep the temperature at 82-86 degrees and not cooler, although, it is probably a lot hotter in Malaysia. Keep the cage dry. The only time you want to wet the skin is during the warm soaks with the Povidine (betadine) solution.
-Angel
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In life you can fall many times, but you're only a failure, if you don't try to get back up!
Evil Canevil