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Help with sick Ball python- skin thing

E

Elfmaze

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OK i've had fluffy about four years. i recently made him a new tank out of pine wood, nice big tank. freash chips and he has his water bowl in there along with a hid box. he also resides with another yearling ball female. they usually get along really well and get real disturbed when there seperated. But now i'm having problems. Fluffy started turning pink like he was going to shed. upon examining his pink belly we noticed a few spots that concerned us. so we kept an eye on him and as his shed progressed it has gotten worse. he just cleared up from his milky stage a day or so ago and i've finally decided to isolate him. I have him in a seperate tank with papertowels and i wiped down his belly with a 50/50 H2O2 solution. these are the pictures i took tonight right after isolating him. his tank is relativly clean and it hasn't been moist at all due to a pine warping issue i'm having with the tank. My plan right now is to keep washing him down with the H2O2 two times a day and i'm going to start pain free neosporin tomorow morning. Could this be worse than i think. His tail at his vent is a bit swollen as well. thanks
 

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time is short so I will give you a link to a related thread (which also links to another thread) that I responded in. If you have further questions, post away - I'll be back later tonite...in the meantime, I'm sure there will be other respondants. Sorry I couldn't fully address this right now.
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88847&highlight=scale

btw - I would avoid further use of H2O2 - while it does have a drying effect, it also disrupts healthy tissue in the process and can prolong healing time.
 
well hes still alive this morning wich is a good thing. Still no shed but he doesn't seem very active the past two weeks. I have been finding him in some odd possitions. Like one time i spotted him with his tail in the air like a rattler. this morning i found him like this(see pic below....) i'm wondering if the new tank location and lack of sunlight could be to partially blame? I work graveyard shift so natural light doesn't make it in to the room much durring the day. I'm having troubles with heat since the heat lamps are all on the main enclosure so i've brought the temp in my room up to 85 to try and stabalize the temps in the quarenteen tank. on the humidity front i have no idea where to get moss around here, would a hangin clean moist washcloth work if i changed it out daily? I've always had a problem with keeping humidity levels up. i'm not home enough to keep misting. the humidity levels are either really low all the time or really high, i've never been able to hit 65 very well. if there was some automatic system i could buy to monitor the humidity i would be all over it.
 

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Did you read the thread Harald linked to? It looks like belly rot, and the last thing you would want to introduce into the tank is further moisture underneath him, if that indeed is what his problem is....though it seems strange if he has had fresh chips and a completely dry tank.

Is the floor of the pine enclosure you made for him well-sealed? Why would it be warping if it is kept dry?
 
Repti bark, the chips are probably not a month old in there. The pine is warping because with humidity inside and dry "room" air outside the pine is swelling on the insides and forcing the walls to bow in...... Gona have to brace it with angle iron to stop that. Bad original design i guess. should have put the grain the otherway or somethign.

See how the side is bending in? the windows need to be able to slid up and down. So its "pinching" the window pane and making it real tight.
 
Pine oils are not good for snakes, I wonder how well sealed the pine wood is if it is warping like that from the humidity?
 
... pine is not good? After much discussion with a local herp peoples we came up with pine was not bad...... I'm shure there is tons of sawdust from the pine still floating around and the tank has not been laquered yet untill i found out which laquor was snake safe....
 
I almost commented on the pine oils - but, quite frankly, I'm not convinced it would have that type of impact. Generally the effect is respiratory irritation, (and I think I remember hearing about a couple of cases of neurologic issues). Of course, it is also possible that this started in the previous enclosure...in which case it should improve significantly with the shed. Another possibility is that there is some other underlying infection, and that this is merely a secondary symptom.
 
Daniel,
It would be a reasonable conclusion to draw that he is suffering from an adverse effect of the new enclosure. Pine oils can present problems. I would suggest that you get him out of the new tank immediately until you can determine the source of the problem.

Were there any symptoms prior to the cage change?
 
Also, I have used pine bark & mulch sporadically over the years and never had a problem associated with it. Of course, unlike wood (board) and shavings, these are generally stored outside and get enough water passed through them over time to reduce the aromatic oils.
 
should i remove the yearling as well and put them both in the quarenteen tank for now? She seems to be doing extreemly well right now. but she was extreemly upset last night being alone in the tank(trying doubly hard to excape). Once i seal the wood it should be ok for there return correct?
 
Daniel,
Yes, I would remove both of them until you can determine the problem. Just to be safe, I would also suggest that you house them separately.

I have built and used pine caging in the past without problems, but sealing them is an absolute must. I'm quoting this from memory, but I believe I used a spray version of Spar varnish. The cage was completely sealed (inside and out) allowed to dry, completely sealed again and then allowed to sit for a week to air out.

Even with this, after about two years, the cage begin to exhibit problems with moisture. I initially made 4 such cages and have already destroyed 2 of them - they just don't lend themselves well to high-humidity animals.

Good luck and keep us posted.
 
Mike Greathouse said:
Daniel,
It would be a reasonable conclusion to draw that he is suffering from an adverse effect of the new enclosure. Pine oils can present problems. I would suggest that you get him out of the new tank immediately until you can determine the source of the problem.

Were there any symptoms prior to the cage change?
Click to expand...

I'd have to agree.

Both pine and cedar contain compounds that include hydrocarbons and naphthalene. Much of the research regarding animal bedding has been centered around mammals, although there is no reason to believe that these compounds differ widely in their effect on reptile physiology as the toxic compounds found in these materials are generally well understood in terms of their pathophysiology in differentiated tissues and systems. Some research even suggests broad systemic effects including hepatic and reproductive complications.

I personally would not be comfortable using pine as an enclosure material even with deliberate and copious sealing, but I am relatively conservative when it comes to my collection.
 
ok so the tank needs some work. back to the snake, continue the neosporin? How bad is where hes at and how fast can it go down hill?
 
Elfmaze said:
ok so the tank needs some work. back to the snake, continue the neosporin? How bad is where hes at and how fast can it go down hill?
Click to expand...

Is there any blistering or just the reddish brown streaks?
 
I have to run to work but before I go the spots on the belly look similar to scale rot. I had a ball python that had these spots on his belly which was also pinkish. I was misting the cages to help keep the humidity up and the aspen shavings were getting moist and I think thats what caused it. I disinfected the cage with a mild bleach water mix rinsed and dried the enclosure. Then I put him on paper towels and wiped his belly down with a 1/2 and 1/2 mix of clorahexaderm and water twice a day for 2 weeks. His redness went away and after his next shed you couldn't even tell that he had this issue. Call your vet let them know what is going on and they can provide you with the clorahexaderm. This is very usefull stuff to have on hand. Oh and his humidity while he was healing was at about 50 to 56%.
be back later.
 
the worst of the scales is that one in picture three, in the first post. i wouldn't really call it a blister yet but just a dead shrivled scale. clorahexaderm is an anti fungal. so the neosporin being an anti bacterial might be fighting the wrong thing?
 
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