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Scales Rotting/Dry/Cracked on my Albino Corn Snake

Lyreiania

Lyreiania

New member
Hello Everyone...
I have a puzzler. My beautiful albino corn snake Shekinah has some bizarre scale issue going on and I can not figure it out.

Background on the snake. I have had him since 2003; so he is an older snake of at least 10 years; he was a young adult when I got him. He is about 5 feet long and he lives in a 135 gallon terrarium which I keep impeccably clean. His substrate is pine shavings, he has a heat pad under the cage on one side and plenty of snake enrichment in the cage itself. A water basin big enough to soak comfortably in. Its a mansion, not a tank. He cohabitates and has been for many years with a 6 and a half foot long rat snake who is in perfect condition (Ive had that once since 2006; hes 7 years old).

I feed them every two weeks, though I have been sick lately with vertigo flares so their feed has been somewhat more erratic than I like for the past couple of months. Normally he gets 6 small mice per meal. He has not been eating, last good meal was in March 24; his last shed was in March as well. I thought it was just the male snake springtime hunger strike, but now I am not so sure of that.

His ventral scales look dry cracked, rotted. Some have red appearances but it does not really look like an infected area. It LOOKS most like the pictures of scale rot I have seen, or maybe slightly that of blister disease. HOWEVER, both of those are related to bad conditions in the cage and I keep my cage clean...and the OTHER snake who shares the tank with him is the image of great health and he eats everything I give him (hes a rat snake). Theyve been sharing that huge cage for YEARS. If the cage was bad, wouldnt both snakes be ill?

I dont recall his ventral scales looking like that at his last feed; I think I remember thinking maybe he scraped himself. Now he looks dreadful, to my eyes. Hes in a seperate cage now, on newspaper so pine shavings dont abrade his scales.

I am writing asking what to do because I can not do the obvious which is take him to a vet. I can not drive any distance due to the vertigo; my reptile vet is a long distance and public transportation makes me incredibly sick.

I have novolsan solution that I am using as directed, its from a past snake of mine. I also have 0.12% Chlorhexadine rinse solution which I am wiping him down with. Anything else anyone can think of? I may be able to attach pictures later.

Thank you for your help here. It is much appreciated.
Sincerely,
Lyreiania
 
OK to go to the main problem. It does sound like scale rot but a picture would be very helpful. Scale rot is bacterial so it could affect your other snake - make sure he gets the same amount of cleaning. Separating them was a great idea so that it doesn't spread. The fact that one has it and the other doesn't, might mean that one is stressed or has an underlying health problem which makes it more susceptible.

You need to go to a "hospital" setup and get your housekeeping head on. First you need to eliminate any nooks and crannies where bacteria can take a foothold. Swapping to a newspaper substrate was a good move. Make sure you change it every couple of days (or immediately when pooped on). Switch to plain untextured hides - old cardboard boxes which can be discarded, or ones with smooth surfaces like flowerpots, which can be disinfected. Disinfect the water bowl.

Empty the tank completely. Deep clean it with a reptile-safe disinfectant. put in the clean newspaper, new/disinfected hides and disincfected water bowl. Clean the snake (I used Betadine when one of mine got scale rot). You can bath it in a solution if it will tolerate it. Mine wouldn't so I made an old facecloth wet with the solution and let her run through it. Basically, the bacteria will be on the snake, the tank and the tank fixtures. You need to disinfect everything and then keep doing it. The tank and fixtures will need deep-cleaning a couple of times a week. The idea is to clean away the bacteria (which occur naturally anyway) and then not let them get a foothold again on either the snake, the tank or the fittings.

You'll probably find that the snake enters a rapid multiple shed cycle as the damaged scales start to heal. Mine went off her food for weeks and didn't start to eat until she'd had her third shed from the start of treatment.

Bear in mind that this is all still just a guess. If you could post photos we can take a look and offer our opinions, but there's no substitute for a vet's experienced eye. Is there anyone who could take the snake to the vet for you? If the damaged skin is infected as you suspect, then you may already be beyond the point where you can treat it at home and the snake could need antibiotics.
 
Sounds like bacterial or fungal infection on skin. Dry environment and slightly elevated temp (with plenty of clean drinking water available) and daily Betadine bath/soak what's recommended as first treatment in case of bacterial and fungal infections.

Rossi's book suggests letting a snake soak for 30-60 minutes per day in a separate container with wet betadine towels, then washing the snake and applying antibacterial cream or such. If it doesn't help, then you need to see a vet to get specific antibiotics or fungal creams.

Skin infections can be serious, so stay on top of it :)
 
Bitsy and Proileri, thank you both so very much for your comments. Its much appreciated. I do have betadine, so I can use that...what is the ratio of it to water? I can't imagine I would soak him in a full strength solution...would that be too concentrated?

I am going to keep on top of this, he is a great snake...(even were he not I still would) but I feel so helpless as I cant take him to a veterinarian. I can to a normal one, thats in my limited driving ability, but not a reptile specialist. If push comes to shove, a general veterinarian may be better than no vet at all.

Thanks again.
 
Does the Betadine bottle have dilution instructions on it? The level of dilution needed will depend on what concentration you have, so I'm afraid I can't really advise on that one.

Be careful about any advice or treatment offered by a general vet who doesn't have specific knowledge. They'll do their best but can sometimes just trot out some general reptile guidelines which don't apply to Corns - I've heard of them telling people that UV is vital when it isn't for Corns.
 
No personal experience but Rossi suggests 1 part Betadine, 4 parts water.

General vet should be able to handle a skin infection, in my opinion. At least they can check if it's fungal or which type of bacteria it is and recommend a specific drug.

Being careful about a vet is a good idea, though, if he doesn't know his reptiles. There was a notorious case locally just last month, where a senior vet with little reptile experience managed to be very cocky about knowing his stuff, yet gave a wrong prescription and didn't follow up on the snake's condition.
 
You say he is on pine shavings? Make sure that you switch it to aspen shavings, ASAP. Long term exposure to the toxins in pine/cedar and other hard woods can cause damage. This might be the source of your issue.
 
AliCat37 said:
You say he is on pine shavings? Make sure that you switch it to aspen shavings, ASAP. Long term exposure to the toxins in pine/cedar and other hard woods can cause damage. This might be the source of your issue.
Click to expand...

Oh sheesh, that's what they had my little one on in the place I got her :(
 
beautifullywild77 said:
What is the name of Rossi's book. dont think I have read that one
Click to expand...

It's called "What's Wrong With My Snake?", by John and Roxanne Rossi. It part of The Herpetocultural Library publifications so pretty much a hobbyist book (A5 size 150 pages), but seems to have decent basic information on general pet snake medical issues and doesn't require much expertise. Probably doesn't add much if you've read other reptile medical books, though.
 
AliCat37 said:
You say he is on pine shavings? Make sure that you switch it to aspen shavings, ASAP. Long term exposure to the toxins in pine/cedar and other hard woods can cause damage. This might be the source of your issue.
Click to expand...

Hi AliCat, I know there is allot of debate about the whole oil in pine shaving issue. Cedar is absolutely toxic and the aromatic oils will harm reptiles, but the jury isnt out yet on the pine. I have seen conflicting information there.

I dont think the pine is the problem because Ive had all my snakes on pine and this is the first time I have ever seen anything like this; I have owned snakes since about 1996...and no, it was not a rapid succession of animals <eeek>.

Proileri, thanks again for the betadine dilution er, recipe.
I will keep you all posted on his progress.
 
OK. I am having trouble uploading the pictures I took; cornsnakes.com says they are too big and I dont know how to resize them.
 
Update on my snake: He shed, and looks allot better. Hes almost his normal handsome self. AND, he ate THREE thawed mice! WOOHOO, his last good meal was in March. He is still in the hospital tank and will be there for a while; his insurance covers it, he has COBRA! <grins>

Thank you all so much for the advice, suggestions, and encouragement.
-Lyreiania
 
That's great news! Congrats. Probably best to be more conservative with feeding whilst his digestive system gears back up, but with luck you won't have a problem.
 
Good to hear he is almost as good as new :)

I wonder if he does not get chubby on 6 small mice every two weeks? In general people feed their corns one medium or large mouse every 10 days - 3 weeks, depending on the snake, or two small mice. 6 mice seem an awfull lot.
 
He may indeed get chubby...but when he decides not to eat for a few months as he did, I dont get all that concerned as I know he has a reserve. But hes not taking all 6 mice now, I bed him June 2 and he only took two. But if hes chubby to start with, its OK.
 
Corns are evolved to go for several months a year without food. They brumate during the winter when there are none of their natural prey animals available. It's not a problem for an otherwise healthy adult to miss feeds for a couple of months - many adult males go through this as part of their breeding season routine.

It's not necessary to keep a Corn slightly "chubby" to safeguard them against these sorts of situations - they are perfectly natural in a Corn's life and can occur for a range of reasons. Nature has designed them to live well on much less food than they generally get in captivity.
 
Their little lives are so proscribed; trapped in a cage, even my 135 gallon terrarium is confining if that's where they are the majority of the time. If they are happy with an extra mouse, fine by me. If I'm anthropomorphically thinking they are happier with an extra mouse, thats OK also. If it means they have high cholesterol levels, atherosclerosis, and snake diabetes, (if a snake can even get diabetes secondary to obesity) they may indeed live a shorter span, but perhaps, more contentedly. And that is fine by me as well.
 
OK, to put it in anthropomorphic terms then...

My mum's overweight and has high cholesterol, arthritis, sciatica and diabetes - all caused by or made worse by the excess weight. She certainly isn't content. She's in constant pain, she has breathing difficulties, a loss of heart and lung function, can't sleep properly and can't move far. She can choose to put down the biscuits but refuses to -a captive Corn can't make the equivalent decision because they're driven by instinct.

She suffers. I wouldn't be so quick to deliberately inflict those health problems on an animal and say it was fine.
 
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