Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My BRB has a few discolored scales on his belly, one is entirely discolored and then theres 2 with little spots. The discoloration looks odd, like they turned kinda flakey and tannish brown. also they arent as glossy as the normal belly scales appear. ive heard of belly rot but i dont know what it is. someone educate me please!?

description? It could be that your RB is just getting ready to shed or scale rot or? What color is it, is this stuff hard soft or ? Is there a lot of water on the cage floor? seems many keep their RBs either to wet or to dry. With more info we might be of some help.
Randy
-----
I don't care if the glass is half full or half empty !
I just want the full glass I paid for !

The single scale appears wrinkled and frail, instead of white/offwhite and glossy it is highly dulled and more of a tanish color. It looks very much like a weak fingernail. here are some pictures of the affected area, while it doesnt show detail i think it they are usefull to compare it to the rest of the snakes scale.

np

My guess is that it is a little infected area. Hard to say what to do about it. If it is bacterial then one of the OTC antibiotic creams might work. If it is fungal then one of the antifungal jock itch/athletes foot/ringworm creams might work on it.
Jeff

>>np
>>

From the photos it's hard to say what it might be. I had a number of WC emeralds in a few months ago and one large male had his belly all rubbed and abraded, light brown ragged looking scales. I wasn't to sure just what all it was so I kept an eye on it to see if it got any worse and when he shed it looked better. My guess is that he had just scraped it badly as with his next shed it was almost all gone.
I'd keep an eye on it and if you notice it is spreading then you might want to have it checked out. If it doesn't seem to spread I'd just wait till the next shed to see what happens.
Randy
-----
I don't care if the glass is half full or half empty !
I just want the full glass I paid for !

The one scale is a isolated incident, and 2 other scales are only partially effected, and since i noticed it about a week ago it has not spread. So hopefully it will just go away next shed, im going to put on some ointment, and if that doesnt work after next shed time to hit the antifungals. thanks so much

Any chance this could be some retained unshed skin? Has your Boa shed recently? If you think it could be some skin still stuck try moistening the area and carefully try rubbing the skin free. But, as others have stated it could be a bacterial or fungal infection. No way to know for sure without a vet taking a culture. Do monitor it closely though and see if it becomes worse in any way.
-----

"Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD GOD had made."
Genesis 3:1 KJV Holy Bible