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HELP me please!!! BP's scales are sloughing off--not a shed! Pics

P

Parysa

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Help me, please! I've talked to several breeders and Terry who runs the Dixie Reptile show and several vets and none of them have seen anything like this before. My snake's scales are sloughing off. It's not a shed. I mean her scales themselves are sliding off of her body from the tip of her nose to her tail in patches and I can see the skin underneath. It's only along her spine, not on her sides or belly. She's in pain. She's tense and was hissing when I went to (gently!) clean the substrate off of it. She wasn't striking, just hissing in pain. I've had her for two weeks. She has refused food so far, but otherwise was behaving normally. This wasn't going on a few days ago. She's in a tub. Temps are 90 on the warm side and 83 on the cool side, 60% humidity. No mites. I had her in QT already with a few of the other new guys I'd gotten, but she's now separated from them as well. There are no herp vets in my area. Terry called his vet and he seems to not know what it is, either, and is about 2 hours away. I'm afraid a ride that long would stress her even more, so I don't want to drive 4 hours round trip with her if he's not going to be able to help her. I've called every vet in a 100 mile radius and none of them specialize in reptiles or have any idea what could be wrong. They said it could be bacterial, could be fungal, might be contagious, might not be. I don't know what to do! My first sick snake and it's a mystery illness.

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My advice? Take the 2 hour drive. You can put her in a completely dark box and the move won't stress her out. There is no way any of us here can give you a definitive diagnosis on her condition without actually running tests. It could be fungal, it could be an odd burn that's finally showing itself now, it could be bacterial... it could be almost anything. She needs a vet.
 
After talking to several breeders and the vet, the consensus is rat attack. :( I feel so guilty. It was only in with her for about 15 minutes (I never leave them unattended for long periods of time) and she was covered in substrate when I went to take the rat out, so I didn't notice it till I cleaned her off today. I'm switching to pre-killed or F/T with all my snakes now. I don't want this to ever happen again. What a newbie mistake and it hurt my snake. :(
 
Poor girl, I was going to say that looked like either a burn or rodent attack to me. :( I'm sorry to hear this happened to your snake, but if you're sure it's from a trapped rat, then it's a good thing you didn't leave it in there any longer. The wounds in the photo appear fairly superficial, so hopefully she'll heal completely and quickly for you. Injuries can trigger a shed early and her eyes do seem cloudy, so my fingers are crossed that she'll start looking a little better after each one. She might always have a little scarring, but those just remind me of the risks one takes when feeding live. Personally, I'm glad to hear that you're going to try and feed pk or f/t whenever possible. :eek:
Preventing infection is probably the most important thing now, did the vet give you any instructions? Their word is always best, but if it was me, I'd probably soak in a dilute betadine solution and use a topical antibiotic without painkiller (silvadene if given by my vet or else bacitracin) Also I'd switch out their substrate with paper towels until they get better. Just food for thought, a vet would know better than me.

I'm wishing you two the best of luck, hope she gets well soon~
 
Just Curious, that's exactly what the vet recommended. I started her on it last night and she seems to be doing a bit better.
 
Helen, update on this girl. She's completely recovered and has only minimal scarring which is fading with each shed. I've switched almost completely over to f/t and for the few who haven't switched yet I offer pre-killed and have had no further issues.
 
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