MORE HELP PLEASE?????

[serpentboy78]

I WAS WONDERING IF NE ONE KNEW WHAT COULD CAUSE VERY ROUGH DRY..ALMOST ALIGATOR TYPE SKIN.. TO APPEAR IN PATCHES ON CERTAIN PARTS OF A SNAKE.....ONE OF ME FEMALE PUEBLANS THAT I HAVE COOLING RT.NOW HAS THIS PROBLEM AND IT APPEARS TO BE SPREADING.......IT IS MOSTLY ON HER TAIL,BUT IN A FEW OTHER PLACES ALON HER BODY.....DOES NE ONE KNOW WHAT THIS COULD BE???AND HOW IT CAN BE TREATED????

[mattymattel]

I had a pueblan that had a simalar problem. Eventually the entire skin beacame like this and it had a hard time shedding. I put it in a container with moist vermiculite. It did shed OK but the scales were a bit rough after shedding. It happened again the following year after cooling and the snake died. There was article article that mentioned Zonata disease in Reptiles magazine. This is found in other milk snakes as well. I believe this is what it had. In the last issue there was a letter from a subscriber that used Neosporin on a Sinaloin with this problem (entire body but not in the eyes or mouth) and the snake shed without any further issues. The skin was healthy after that. The editor recomended a vet, but the Neosporin shouldn't hurt and may help. Try it on the problem areas first. Although I never had issues with my other Pueblans, they recomended keeping the snake by itself. Good luck, MY

[trdhrdr007]

I have a ruthvens kingsnake that I have had for 2 years, it goes through this on almost every shed. I have tried everything I can think of as far as humidity levels. My local vet doesn't know much about snakes, but he can't find anything wrong as far as parasites. I keep the ruthvens separate from my other snakes, keep the humidity levels as high as possible & hope for the best. I have considered euthanasia, but he feeds well & has no other signs of a problem. I have a female ruthvens that I keep under identical conditions, except with lower humidity, & she has never had a problem. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Tim Retzlaff

[Seamus Haley]

I don't have a tube here in front of me to verify this but if I remember correctly Neosporin contains Sylverdine (spelling?) which is potentially... potentially lethal if large amounts get into a reptile's system...

If anyone's got more specific information on this, I'd appreciate it myself. I utilized neosporin as an antiseptic/antibacterial for many years myself without any signifigant problems but it was always minimal applications and I tend to err on the side of caution, so when hearing that Neosporin was potentially a problem, I discontinued it's use.

[BrianB]

I found a reference to Silverdine on Google, and it seems to be Silver Sulfadiazine. Silverdine cream seems to be an ointment for burns.

I've heard that neosporin with pain reliever in it is not good for herp use, but neither the plain nor the pain reliever kind seems to have silver sulfadiazine in it. It's possible that a generic triple-biotic ointment may contain this, however.

Here are the ingredients on my handy tube of Neosporin:

polymyxin B sulfate 5,000 units
bacitracin zinc 400 units
neomycin 3.5 mg

Also contains:

Base of cocoa butter, cottonseed oil, olive oil, sodium pyruvate, tocopheryl acetate, and white petrolium.