Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I posted earlier this week about my 05' bci with possible stomach/scale rot or a stomach burn. I'm assuming its a burn. Is there any household medication I can apply to her wound such as neosporin or somthing along those lines? I am currently strapped for cash (college student, book buys, etc...) so i really can't afford to pay for a vet right now. Anything I can do personally to help her recover? Thanks in advance.

That looks like a classic burn. Fortunatly it doesn't look too bad. I would recommend a product called SSD (Silver Sulfadiazine Cream). It is made for the treatment of 2nd to 3rd burns and is a antimicrobial ointment. I would clean and apply it to the wound once a day. The most important thing is getting rid of the heat rock or heat pad that caused the burns. The animal needs to be kept in a very sterile enviroment, infection is the biggest factor you are fighting against.

I would also look into getting him on a low dosage treatment of an antibiotic (like baytril) to help prevent infection.

Anyways, that is just my opinion, it is best to consult a good vet.......

What kind of setup do you have it in? Also is he still eating? Make sure you keep feeding him well (once a week or so), this will promote shedding and growth which will make him heal quicker.

Hope this helps!

Bigbarret85,
...If that is a burn it does not look too serious. I would apply OTC antibiotic cream like the Neosporin you mentioned to lessen the chance of it becoming infected. I would also make sure to keep the snake on CLEAN paper substrate until it heals. If it is a burn and it does not become infected it should heal fairly quickly. Any idea how it may have been burned? Do you use a hotrock to heat the cage?
...Scale rot would most likely be a fungal infection and might respond best to an untifungal OTC cream like Lamisil or Tolnaftate.
Good luck.
Jeff

>>I posted earlier this week about my 05' bci with possible stomach/scale rot or a stomach burn. I'm assuming its a burn. Is there any household medication I can apply to her wound such as neosporin or somthing along those lines? I am currently strapped for cash (college student, book buys, etc...) so i really can't afford to pay for a vet right now. Anything I can do personally to help her recover? Thanks in advance.
>>

Jeff,

How you been? How are the rainbows and suris doing?

-Kemper

Kemper,
...Things are going well here. I delayed cooling the Rainbow Boas this season so they could put on a little more weight. They are most of the way through cooling and males are in with the females. A few have been breeding. I put my two males in with my biggest female Suri but so far have seen no courtship. I may move them in with my two six foot females for awhile.
...I think we posted at the same time. I like the SSD cream you mentioned. On human patients with burns it is the preferred treatment. I have some and use it instead of the more common generic antibiotic creams. Do you know if SSD is available over the counter?
Jeff

>>Jeff,
>>
>>How you been? How are the rainbows and suris doing?
>>
>>-Kemper

Unfortunatly, I just checked an it looks like it is not an over the counter drug. But, neither is baytril, flagyl, and many others herpers seem to get their hands on LOL.

I agree, neosporin/polysporin is probably the best way to go for an over the counter medication. It definitely works great for smaller wounds, I would prefer something stonger for larger wounds...

Bigbarret, If you go this route it should work fine, just keep a VERY close eye for infection as you might need to get the animal on an antibiotic (given via injection or oral).

Jeff, best of luck this year, I am sure you will be posting some amazing babies this summer! Out of curiosity, do you know how many rainbows you have produced over the years?

Take Care,
Kemper

Kemper,
...I have had just over a thousand baby Rainbows. Around 900 of those were Brazilians.
Jeff

>>Unfortunatly, I just checked an it looks like it is not an over the counter drug. But, neither is baytril, flagyl, and many others herpers seem to get their hands on LOL.
>>
>>I agree, neosporin/polysporin is probably the best way to go for an over the counter medication. It definitely works great for smaller wounds, I would prefer something stonger for larger wounds...
>>
>>Bigbarret, If you go this route it should work fine, just keep a VERY close eye for infection as you might need to get the animal on an antibiotic (given via injection or oral).
>>
>>Jeff, best of luck this year, I am sure you will be posting some amazing babies this summer! Out of curiosity, do you know how many rainbows you have produced over the years?
>>
>>Take Care,
>>Kemper

That is definitely an accomplishment!

Thanks for all the help. I am almost certain she got the burn from the under tank stick-on heat pad. The funny thing is I have used the same pad on 2 other snakes (ball python, bullsnake) until they grew out of it and they never once experienced a burn. The setup was pretty close for all 3 snakes. I assume she dug her way down through the "Jungle bed forest substrate" and sat directly on the heated glass. I would also assume that this act meant that she felt cold, however the temps range from 78 on the cool end to 90 on warm end with 95 hot spot. Not exactly sure how to prevent this in the future other than to completely remove the heat pad and use only the ceramic heat emitter on the warm end. Any more suggestions? thanks again for the past help.

-Ben-

I have heard of people putting down repticarpet then a substrate on top of this. Keeps the snake off the glass. Might be worth a shot.

Quig

That was my guess! Zoo med brand? All of those aticky ones are trash. Check out the "cobra" heating pads, they seem to be of a lot higher quality.

Best of luck and keep us updated......