Scale Rot?

cat001 · 06-06-12, 11:08 AM

About a week an a half ago when I tended to the snakes I saw one of them had a few small lacerations on the edges of his stomach scales, I've got a picture of it... he was in shed when I took this shot

Poor Benny by cat.read, on Flickr

Around that time he started becoming a little flinchy when I went to pick him up and even rattled his tail at me once. However, since I noticed it I went out and bought a RUB to house him in, changed substrate to kitchen towel, gave him the opportunity to drink water each day but did not leave a water dish in with him to avoid raising humidity, and cleaned the RUB out routinely. Since then there are no longer any lacerations on his stomach, it seems to have cleared up completely. He also seems to be more active and is eating better too. Also he no longer flinches when I touch him.

I can't think what would have caused it

I've had him for 8 years and had never experienced this before. His main viv is currently under renovation and he will be moved back in within the next few days. From the picture does it look like scale rot? or could it have been something else? Just not sure what caused it in the first place.

cat001 · 06-15-12, 05:20 PM

I take it nobodies got any ideas then :P

Well he's back to full health now anyways, am really pleased at how quickly he improved.

Frozenflame · 06-15-12, 06:51 PM

yes it sounds like it was scale rot.... its supposed to be very painful and that looks like the right colors like a redish brown. its a combination of humidity and crawling around in his own feces so little bits of bacteria from it get under the scales n start to eat and chew away at the scales its sort of like a cavity.

sounds like you did the right thing

just keep doing what you are doing, keep it dry and look out for defecation and remove it from his tank if you see it instead of leaving it until its cleaning time.

what kind of snake is he?

does he require humidity?

snake man12 · 06-15-12, 08:15 PM

I don't know might have just been a temporary irratation that healed after your viv change

Snakefood · 06-15-12, 08:23 PM

I don't know, I've never had scale rot on any of my corns (or my BP's for that matter)

Glad to hear you have it all cleared up though!!

cat001 · 06-17-12, 06:55 PM

Ah ok, just not seen this condition before, scared me to death if i'm honest lol.

He's a corn so doesn't really have any special humidity requirements.

stopping to really think about this now, I had noticed some time before the condition started (not sure how long before) that he had soiled inside his cave hide so not sure if he had sat in that for any length of time. At the time I had assumed he must have eliminated when he was leaving the hide as he wasn't in it when I noticed it was dirtied.

Frozenflame · 06-17-12, 07:16 PM

Yea that could have been it, doesn't necessarily mean you don't clean it properly or anything it just depends. =]

i have a corn snake and i thought he had scale rot starting on one of his tummy scale and went through a panic attack and did a whole lot of research.
turned out he had broken one of his scale and it cleared up after he shed.

good luck with your snake!