Garter Snake Scale Rot & Blisters Help (contains pictures)

Hey all
I have 1.2 adult garter snakes and 2 juveniles born in July and have been experiencing trouble with scale rot and blisters that I've been unable to fix completely, so I'm hoping someone could give me some advice. I apologize the pictures are with a camera phone, but that was the quickest.

The adults live together in a 24L x 18D x 18H Exo Terra Terrarium. Here is a picture of the set up:

It's a 24x18x18 Exo Terra. The bottom is divided in half and where you see paper towels, hide, and a water bowl was a water feature with a waterfall. I drained it to clean it thoroughly and to see if removing the large area of water would help with the skin condition. It's been drained for somewhere around 2 weeks now.

The shelf has two hides which also serve as basking platforms under the heat light (behind the strip light). The lamp is on during the day and during the winter there is a heat mat taped to the back up there as well that is on all the time. The humidity on the shelf is under 40%.

The land side has two pieces of bark which form 2 hides. The dirt is topped with dried grass clippings and bark chips to help keep it dry. Here's a picture.

The top two inches of dirt underneath are also pretty dry now too.

The humidity in the cage is between 50-60%. My room is around 50% right now. I have been drying the cage out over the past couple months as the humidity was too high earlier in the year. I added a computer fan on top of the cage to circulate air, which definitely lowered it. I will probably ad a second if the humidity rises when I fill the water feature again. I am also keeping it as clean as I can, removing soiled bedding quickly, cleaning the bark and hides and shelf etc. etc with vinegar to help kill bacteria.

All of the adults were treated with neosporin in June for minor scale rot, which cleared up. The females got blisters before shedding in August, but haven't had any issues since. One of the females would spend days at a time in the water and has since I got her. She isn't very happy that I removed the water.

The male has developed an area of blisters on his lower back this month that is worrying me. I noted it on the 1st and he shed on the 14th. I cleaned them and treated with Neosporin in between. The blisters were the worst right before he shed, but when he shed the blisters disappeared and he was left with a couple scabs, but it looked much better. I treated with Neosporin again and it seemed as if they it was clearing up. Now he's going into shed again and unfortunately the blisters have returned in force. He's just about to shed, so they're pretty bad. I got some Betadine and gave all the snakes a wash in it. I just treated the male again today. I am assuming the pattern will repeat itself and the blisters will go away after he sheds. Here's a few pictures of the area, this is after cleaning them, so they look better than they did 5 minutes before.





Also, the adult garters are all from different places. Other garter snakes on the same property as the male also had skin issues. Is it possible that this has something to do with why he has more issues than the females?

The juveniles live together in an 18x18x18 Exo Terra with a juvie Northern Water Snake. They recently moved into this cage from a smaller temporary cage where the garters had minor cases of scale rot. I treated both with Neosporin and one healed nicely, but the other developed another spot after being moved into this new cage, which is dryer and cleaner since the bedding is paper towels! The one that has the scale rot also suffers from birth defects which I'm going to post another thread about, so I am wondering if that has any affect on her suceptability to scale rot, vs the other garter which has healed and the NWS who doesn't have any.

Here is a picture of their cage. The humidity is around 50% since my room is around 50% and they don't have a very large water dish. I am planning to set it up as a terrarium soon, but it won't have a large water feature until the snakes grow some more.


Here's the picture of the scale rot on the one:


Everything I can find says keep it clean and dry and treat with Neosporin or betadine, which is what I've been doing so If anyone has any more advice on how to treat and prevent the scale rot and blisters from reoccurring or any more modifications I should make to my housing, please let me know. I'm willing to overhaul the cages again, but I'd like to make everything as naturalistic as possible.

Thanks!
- Julia Grace

On the adult garter it almost looks like a possible burn. Scale rot usually only affects the ventral scales. I noticed the picture of the adult setup, and the basking spot looks like it's very close to the heat lamp. It's possible the snake could have burned itself on it while basking. I could be wrong and it is scale rot. I would recommend adjusting the basking spot so that it's a little farther away from the lamp, and continue treatment. Hope it works out.

Wade

I advise you to give up on the Thamnophis. You didn't exactly say where you aquired them, but they look like purchased Eastern garters. The infection they have is probably systemic and won't go away with topical treatment. Like many other species, garter snakes are stressed when kept in groups because of dominance issues; single or maybe a "pair",OK. You have a great set-up for keeping a pr. of corns for 20 yrs.

I would get rid of the water feature, and provide water in a small bowl. Garters are water-loving snakes, but clearly their access to water has gone a bit too far. You can wipe down their bellies with a paper towel soaked with hydrogen peroxide once every few days. In addition to this, continue with the betadine baths. I agree with Wayne, in that keeping multiple animals together might be stressing them out with dominance issues.

Also, it wouldn't hurt to have the vet peeks at the one with the blistering back. It could be a persistent infection that may require antibiotics.