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suspicious spot on head

T

travisreiner

New member
My corn has an unusual spot on his head. It is gray/black in color and covers several scales on the dorsal side. It is directly between his eyes and I'm just wondering if any one knows what it might be. I'm thinking maybe a fungus. How can I treat it? Thanks
 
Does your snake have a rock in its cage? There is a chance that he is trying to get under the rock and damaging the skin on the top of his head. If so, I'd take the rock out.

Shotgun treatment for skin problems is to first check over the basic husbandry, such as cleaning, humidity, and temperature. Clean the cage and put in newspaper so that the cage is dry. Moisture favors germ growth. Then get a tube of Betadine cream. It's a first aid cream available over the counter in many drugstores. Apply some to the affected area every day. And ultraviolet light is hard on many microorganisms, so taking the snake outside for around 5 minutes every day so that unfiltered sunlight gets to the affected area may help, too. This may not be possible though. Continue treatment with the Betadine through shedding time and repeat it once or twice after the shed. You can raise the humidity at shedding time. Then watch the spot to see if it is better. Abraded skin may take several sheds to fully heal, if that is the problem. Skin diseases clear up faster than that, usually. Good luck.
 
He has a rock in his cage. I really started to notice the spot after I had put the aspen shavings in. I switched to some jungle mix and it has gotten a little worse. I'll try the paper and betadine. it has to be the cream though? what if I soaked him in diluted solution? Would that harm him? Thanks for the reply
 
I would think you would use neosporin cream, polysporin cream or something like that. To my knowledge, Betadine is a pre-surgical scrub, and I haven't seen it in a cream. Are you thinking Benadryl, the anti-histamine that comes in a cream? I'm not sure how safe it would be to soak your snake in Betadine. You could probably safely clean the injury with a diluted solution on a Q-tip, but you risk ingestion if you put it in the solution. My snake did the same thing to her head as yours. I'm waiting for this shed to see how it looks. Here's what here's looked like. The damaged scales are right in front of the arrow marking.
 

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Yours is in the same spot as mine, but mine is a little fresher. It isnt shiny, it's kinda a dull gray. I'll try the cream and see how it works. It needs to be once, twice a day? Thanks
 
The Love's manual suggests Polysporin cream (available in the first aid section of any pharmacy or market) daily. I would take that to mean once a day.
 
Betadine (not Benadryl) comes in both liquid and cream forms. I prefer the cream because the snake isn't likely to swallow the cream and it is easier to use than the liquid, especially as all you need is a little dab on the top of the head once a day. Neosporin and Polysporin are good products, though I think Betadine is better if fungus is a possibility.

FWIW, a friend of mine once was given a corn snake with a bad case of blister disease. He coated the corn with Betadine cream from nose to tail tip every day for a week or so, until the snake shed. The corn shed out of the blisters and was fine.

Aspin could lift a rock off the floor enough for a snake to push his head under and abrade the top of its head on the bottom of the rock. I don't know what junglemix is, but it might have made the spot gray just from dark dust.

Good luck.
 
Thanks for the clarification. I haven't seen the Betadine in a cream. I'll have to look for it.
 
I put the neosporin on it like meg said. It may be helping a little bit. I dont have any betadine cream. I might need to pick some up. Junglemix is a mix of bark, soil, and mulch. A very reputable store here in Austin suggested that I use it. My snake wasnt losing his dorsal scales after he shed. Once I put that in there, next day they were off. It seems to work well. Thanks again
 
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