Help! My Ribbon Snake has scale rot

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Bottomfeeder

Dovii
MFK Member
Aug 4, 2008
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State of chaos
I hanled my Ribbon Snake today and saw several brown blotches on his ventral scales. I picked up the phone and called Parrots of the World, and described the problem. That, plus the research I did all scream scale rot:( The POW guy said to wash the wounds with peroxide a few times a day, which I'm gonna do. I also replaced the substrate with newspaper, so I can change it out easier. I think the problem was brought on by the snake utilizing the water dish more, and splashing water all over the cage. Even worse, he started burrowing under the water dish, so he basically soaked in the damp substrate:irked:

What else should I do???
 
Update: He took a crap in the cage, and I can't tell if it's a mix of musk and feces or if it's watery :(

I did some more research and from what it seems, it's just the beginning stages. The spots don't seem too red, and there is no blistering. The spots are only where the ventral scales meet the body scales.
I got some hydrogen peroxide.
 
Okay, I have a treatment plan:
Every day, I soak him in 10% betadine, then I swab him with a 50/50 hydrogen peroxide/water solluntion, then swab him with non-painkiller neosporin. I took the old substrate (potting soil) out of the cage in favor of newspaper, and switched the water dish for a bottle cap. I also put a small fan over the tank to decrease humidity.
 
The betadine soak will definitely help - scale rot is easy to deal with if you catch it soon enough and it's always caused by a husbandry problem.

Take care and good luck,

Simon
 
Skip the neosporin and H2O2, those will not help. Just changes the news paper every day and keep the substrate very dry. You can put the water bowl back in the cage so long as it is sturdy enough not to tip over. The dry substrate and the betadine solutions should be enough to eradicate the problem by next shed. This is an easy problem to solve and should not be a problem for you.
 
Oh but one thing to keep in mind is that after the scale rot has gone away, before you switch it back to the original set up, you need to think about what caused the scale rot in the first place. Was the water bowl tipping over? was there not enough ventilation causing excess humidity? was the cage being cleaned properly? All of these need to be addressed and fixed before you go back to the non medical style set up.
 
snakeguy101;4316554; said:
Oh but one thing to keep in mind is that after the scale rot has gone away, before you switch it back to the original set up, you need to think about what caused the scale rot in the first place. Was the water bowl tipping over? was there not enough ventilation causing excess humidity? was the cage being cleaned properly? All of these need to be addressed and fixed before you go back to the non medical style set up.
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I have figured it out already, actually. It was my own dumb*** falt. Here's what happened:

Heat wave plus heat lamp made my room really, really hot, so my snake went in and out of the water dish several times a day, splashing water everywhere. The water funneled to the lowest point in the tank, AKA the substrate under the water dish. Unfortunetaly, that's my snake's favorite place to burrow. So he was probably sitting there, wet, for like, 3 days:irked:
And I'm not going back to the potting soil. If anything, I may use aspen chips when the scale rot is gone, but I'll probably stick with newspaper. It's just easier to change if it gets wet or soiled. And I will never again not pay attention to humidity :wall:
 
It happens. I have had several cases of scale rot in my time. As a matter of fact, I just found out my female cobra has it because she tipped her water while I was out of the country. No big deal though, it is easy to treat.
 
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