Burn or scale rot?

[Shelliebear]

Cheesecake's tail looks horrible. I don't know if I messed it up by rolling her shed off before it was ready or what, but her scales on her tail look AWFUL. Her belly is yellow and pink up to two thirds of her neck, looks almost like a burn. It was NOT that color when we got her.
Some patches of scales are grayish white and some look blackened a little. They look completely unhealthy, they are shaped weird and odd colors, the texture is rough. It is obvious that it hurts her when the area is touched because she will squirm away and try to bite.
What do I do?Is this scale rot or a burn? I have polysporing but no neosporin. Is that ok to put on her tail?
I can try to get pics but I don't want to hurt her and my camera won't pick up the clarity that well anyway. :/

[Shelliebear]

please please help. She didn't eat today, the first time since we got her. I'm scared.

[Lennycorn]

Why do you think it could be a burn???

Best advice is to see a vet.

And without pictures, it's hard to tell you what to do because it could be either one!!

[Lennycorn]

and don't worry about not eating. snake can go a long time without eating.

[Shelliebear]

I worry about a burn because she had a UTH that wasn't hooked to anything to control it. I'm confused because I thought I had unplugged it for this exact reason--she likes to burrow in the substrate against the glass. Now I find out I unplugged a heat lamp instead. I'm an idiot.

[Tinkerbeller87]

Yea, without pictures it is hard to know. I would also recommend a herp vet check.

[Dreamsnake]

Ask the people who took her how they kept her. I'd be breathing fire if I were in your shoes, but try to control your anger, they'll be more receptive to your questions that way. I never meant to freak you out by my question, I just couldn't tell from the last picture you posted. Get her to the vet and if you can make the other people pay for it.

[bitsy]

Unfortunately the pics are too blurry for me to see any detail. The vet is your best bet. It could be scale rot, could be burns.

Just keep her on clean dry newspaper and make sure the temps are OK in her tank. Give her plenty of (easily cleaned or disposable) hides. She'll be feeling extra shy if she's under the weather. I wouldn't put anything on the affected areas until the vet has seen her. If they're burns then applying an ointment or powder could do more harm.

[Shelliebear]

If it is burns or scale rot, and I leave her alone in the tub with the newspaper and proper temps, should she start looking better in a few days?

[bitsy]

Sadly not, in my opinion. Either condition would need appropriate treatment and wouldn't necessarily clear up on their own without problems. Scale rot needs a snake-safe anti-bacterial treatment of both the animal and the tank and fittings. Burns will be susceptible to infection and will possibly need dead skin/flesh cut away if the burn is deep and serious.

Seeing the vet is your best call - we're still just guessing here.

[Shelliebear]

I will definitely call the vet, I was just hoping that maybe when I took her in she might be feeling a little better. :( My poor girl.

[Kronos]

Sorry to hear about your snake. Be sure to let us know what the vet says and does for it.

[Shelliebear]

....is she going to survive this? :( does it look really bad? Do snakes her size generally survive burns or scale rot to the degree she might have? :( I want her to make it.

[bitsy]

I think we really need in-focus photos to give you any more of an opinion.

IF it's either one of those, then scale rot would be the least serious. It should be treatable but might take a long time to sort out. When mine had it, she went off her food for weeks and I suspect this is the major risk. If it gets very bad, I suppose there's always the risk of secondary infection of open wounds but normally scale rot is an inconvenience rather than a life-threatening risk.

Burns would be a different matter. If they're just shallow then they might clear up in two or three sheds. If they're deep, then there could be catastrophic damage. I would have thought that there was a much bigger increase in the risk of infection with burns as well.

However - this is all still guesswork. I don't think we can really tell you anything to put your mind at rest before you see the vet. After all, it's possible that we're way off the mark, that it's something much more benign and that we may just be worrying you unnecessarily.

I think you're as much in need of the vet's advice as the snake is. Let us know how it goes.

[Shelliebear]

Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

[wretchedprocess]

Okay. I can't see any photos at all, but I will say that you can, and should, probably get some neosporin without pain medication and apply that. It's not going to hurt no matter what the condition it, and it well might help. Any drug store will have it.

I don't know the vet situation in Spokane, and I know it's a ways to Seattle. If you have a good exotic vet out there, then you may not need this advice. But I've been going to Dr. Bennett at the Bird and Exotic Clinic of Seattle. I know she's good, she's also got a SUPER-knowledgeable and awesome vet tech whose name I can't remember right now, and she's recommended by the Pacific Northwest Herp Society. She's the president-elect's vet. I've been very happy with them so far, and I highly recommend them.

When I accidentally ended up taking a few of my difficult little Worm's scales off before a shed, they turned a bit yellowish and looked a bit shrunken. Worm was in the middle of a bunch of difficult sheds then, but the only thing that happened was that I had to help her out when she did shed, as usual. On the other hand, during my move, Whisper, another of my corns, kept knocking over her water bowl every day in her transport bin and did end up with a little bit of scale rot. She's a snow, so it looked brownish. Again, I have no idea without seeing pics of your snake's problem, but with Wisp it was really easy to take care of-- small enough amount of water in her dish that she wouldn't knock it over until her big cage was delivered to our new place, a little neosporin, and waiting.

Regardless, you'll want to get a thermostat for the heat mat. I also find that Ultratherm heat mats, which one can get from The Bean Farm, are a really good bet, because they don't heat up as stupidly much as the ones from the pet stores anyway. I've had a pet store UTH break glass before. The Bean Farm (near us) also has an off/on thermostat for about $30. Works for my kids, and it's a REALLY good idea.

Good luck! Sorry if this is too much advice, but I just moved to the area, and wanted to share what I've managed to find out since I got here in case you didn't know.

[Shelliebear]

The photos are here:
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=107476

[wretchedprocess]

Those are much too out-of-focus for me to see anything weird. Honestly, if you didn't tell me there was a problem, I wouldn't know-- from the amel babies I've seen, including my own, the general coloration looks pretty normal. (I don't know any ultramels personally.) Hopefully whatever it is is much less of a difficulty than you fear, and your baby will be just fine in no time!

[Dreamsnake]

I've Googled scale rot and found a description and treatment on pet-snakes.com, I've found information on burns from bp.net and animalhospitals-usa.com.

If she is burned it most likely came from a hot rock, that is why you should ask the people who had her if they used a hot rock in her tank. If there was no hot rock present than it is most likely scale rot. She'll need to see a vet either way.

[bitsy]

It's not just hot rocks that can cause burns. Some unregulated UTHs can get hot enough to burn, because sometimes snakes don't move even when physical damage is caused. Burns can also result from coming into contact with heat lamp bulbs or fittings. Basically, most types of heat source are capable of causing burns under the "right" (i.e. wrong) conditions. Some makes/models of UTH don't seem to get hot enough even when unregulated and those are the only exceptions I can think of.

I'm really not convinced that we can diagnose either option (or another as yet unidentified cause) from the photos.

[Shelliebear]

I took her both to the vet AND the breeder we got her from.
Nobody knows what the heck it is. It's not a burn and it isn't scale rot. For some reason her scales are turning color and then just disappearing...
So she's on antibiotics, once every other day, for 10 doses, given orally. I hope it'll help. :(

[Lennycorn]

Does the vet works with snakes on a regular bases?
Because it's a shame they can figure out whats wrong.
I hope the treatment wotks tho.

Good luck

[Shelliebear]

The vet was trained to work with reptiles, yes.
The breeder who works mainly with corn snakes had no idea either. He's also worked with nearly every other type of snake out there and had NO idea, plus he has worked in reptile stores--still nothing. :( Never seen it before. Confusing. :/