royal python skin issues

[fr0glet]

I have a young royal python in rescue at my house.

He originally came to me because he had lesions of fluid under his skin, possibly skin blister disease. He went through a round of antibiotics and I drained the remaining fluid from him; this problem seems to be gone.

He just shed this morning, first time since he's been in my care. The skin on his neck appears quite red, almost as if it had blood on it. I carefully daubed at it with moist paper towels and none of it came off.

Any idea what this red area is? I noticed he had a tiny bit of retained shed on top of his head, perhaps he was rubbing and rubbing and rubbing his neck to attempt to get that bit of skin off?

Here's the pictures:
http://www.cnw.com/~fr0glet/babylon/

Thanks for any/all advice/comments
fr0glet