Skin grossness- milk snake

Starbuck · 04-30-13, 06:35 PM

So its been a week since i got demeter, and she literally has not come out of her humid hide at all (that i have seen, no sphagnum phaffed about)... So i decided to check on her, and take her out to do a once over on her...
And she is going into shed (BIG TIME!). Eyes blue, dull as a rock (i thought she was dead she looked so grey when i opened up the viv

), etc.
I took some pictures of her gross skin lesions, to document any changes after she finishes shedding sometime next week. If anyone has any theories as to what caused them, please let me know!!

Right now i am letting them be, after the shed i may try some betadine washes, or if they look oozy i'll get her to the vets.

Random question: what should the optimal temp be for her warm area? I have a CHE and a white light on the hot end, ambient for the cool, and my temp gun says mid-90s on the SURFACE of her humid hide... so im assuming its like a rainforest inside of it :P Should i move the heat elements so the humid hide is further away, or do you think moist and hot is exactly what she needs?

Also, check out the picture of my boyfriend holding her, he held her right against his body, and he is 5' 7" O_o she is huge! Id say she is darn close to 5 feet.

smy_749 · 04-30-13, 06:42 PM

Typically the humid hides are placed on the cool end I think.

Lankyrob · 05-01-13, 10:56 AM

I put my humid hides in the middle, dont want them too warm or too cold imo

Mark Taylor · 05-01-13, 11:03 AM

That does not look good mate I would get her to the vets sooner rather than later.
Keep us posted.

slowhite03 · 05-01-13, 01:51 PM

why not take out the moist hide and see if shes shed. if i remember correctly she was a rescue from a bad home correct? she probably had a few bad sheds in her days.

Starbuck · 05-01-13, 02:43 PM

She hasn't shed yet and I think the moist hide is doing her a world of good right now. I'm going to make her appt for late next week, hopefully by then she will have shed and I can offer her a f/t mouse before the stress of the vets. She refused the brained ft mouse I left in her tank overnight the other day, but she's so blue I'm not surprised.

Will move the lamps away from her hide for now, shoot for kid 80s. Will keep yall poosted after the shed etc.

Yes, she was from a less than ideal home. I have had her for one week

**Aaron_S** · 05-01-13, 04:15 PM

Those look like older marks. See how they look after the shed.

Starbuck · 05-03-13, 06:24 PM

She is shedding now! I saw the loopy shed skin through the side of her humid hide, so will check on her tomorrow am to see how she did.

Should i take the humid hide out if she is all done tomorrow? She has other places to hide; i just havnt seen her use them. Since i'm not sure what her skin will look like post-shed, i dont want it to stay moist and suppurating through the weekend (i will be away till sunday) if it should be drying out.
Also, i weighed her today, 914 grams (!!!!) thats just over 2 lbs

smy_749 · 05-03-13, 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Starbuck

She is shedding now! I saw the loopy shed skin through the side of her humid hide, so will check on her tomorrow am to see how she did.

Should i take the humid hide out if she is all done tomorrow? She has other places to hide; i just havnt seen her use them. Since i'm not sure what her skin will look like post-shed, i dont want it to stay moist and suppurating through the weekend (i will be away till sunday) if it should be drying out.
Also, i weighed her today, 914 grams (!!!!) thats just over 2 lbs

Haha thats funny, my GTP with stuck shed just started right now too! The race is on !

Mark Taylor · 05-04-13, 02:07 AM

How did the shed go?

Starbuck · 05-04-13, 05:07 AM

So I am waiting for my phone to upload the pictures, i will post them later today-
The shed went very well, it was still on in a few places, because she crawled into the humid hide and stayed there overnight; but one pass with a damp rag got all the skin off. There are a few single scales with stuck skin around the 'trouble spots' but i am not worried about them.

Her colors look awesome, she is a great rich red and black, however in a few areas around her head there is some old scarring evident; patches of scales (maybe 3 inches squared) with broader white boarders/skin between them and with irregular scales themselves. These seem very well healed, and may just be old injuries.

Most of the small defects in the scales have disappeared; there are a few TINY scabs left here and there, but i anticipated that it would take a few sheds to get her back to normal.

HOWEVER: the yuck yellow spots on her lower back (about 10 inches cranial from the vent); i have some nice pictures of both sides of the shed and her back. Large chunks of skin came off of both of these spots; though the new spots do seem much smaller than the old areas. There was some redness and bleeding (less than a paper cuts worth) on the edges, but the inside is white skin tissue and i cant see any scales there at all, or at least no fully formed ones. The area did seem to bother her when i flushed it out with dilute betadine. I also noticed a gross smell to the shed in that area, but NOT on her body. I pretty much wiped her whole lower half with a dilute (<10%) betadine rag.

Her tail seems the worst; as the last 3-4 inches past her vent had quite a bit of stuck shed, and the same foul smell. This was also the area with the highest persistence of old scabs. The shed here was also very thick (?) as if the skin was inflamed or infected (which i think it may have been), but most of it came off with a few passes of the betadine rag.

Over all she looks very good, and she was bright and alert as i was treating her. I removed about 60% of the sphagnum form the humid hide, since i will be away this weekend and didnt want her to be too moist. When i get back on sunday i will flush her again and take some more pics, and maybe try to offer her some food. (not in that order though

)

Pictures coming soon!

Starbuck · 05-04-13, 05:16 AM

below are the pics:

first one is the section that was yellow, raised, and hard before; that plug came off with the shed and this is what was left.

clockwise: This is the skin section that came off of the previous picture.

the tail is, as you can see, kind of flaky etc, but i didnt want to bother her too much.

notice on the picture of her head that the scab below her right eye is now gone, though a paler patch of skin remains. The acts and looks much brighter now.

The random body pic shows the irregular part of her scales toward the head, with pale borders etc. I think this is mostly healed, just an old injury.

I will be taking her to the vet sometime next week.

Mark Taylor · 05-04-13, 05:49 AM

She looks a lot better than she did before the shed keep doing what your doing and hopefully in a few more sheds she will be back to her old self.

As you said the tail is the worst part and seems sore in the pics.

**Aaron_S** · 05-04-13, 08:02 AM

Keep things clean and sterile. I'd remove any bedding and use paper towel. You can replace the moss with moist paper towels in the humid hide.

Starbuck · 05-04-13, 09:11 AM

Yup, she is on paper towel anyways for now. I will use PT in the humid hide as well once i get home. I was under the impression that peat moss was acidic anyways, thus inhibiting bacteria? Not sure where I am getting that from :-P
Vet appt is not until the 22nd, but that gives me time to try feeding her a few times and let her relax.