Unusual shedding issue. Only bottom scales shed. Ways to help a shed not working

[Montythesnake]

I realize shed questions get asked millions of times but mine I can't seem to find help for. My 12 year old snake has only shed off part of the bottom scales and head. The entire tail, the whole back, most of the sides, and around the neck all have skin remaining. I have the humidity going between 50-60%, humid hide but I only recently added that as he's never needed one before, I have given him a few baths including one with the shed-aid stuff, I tried a pillow case but I've heard stories of snakes dying in them so I abandoned that, and now I'm out of ideas. I'm going to try another bath but if I don't make significant progress by Wednesday then I'll be going to the vet.

To add more to the story, I've been treating mild scale rot and had him on paper towel. He tried shedding one night but was only able to get the head off. A couple nights ago I added cypress mulch and him crawling around quickly took off most of the bottom scales shed. It's unusual as he has had a couple incomplete sheds before but a damp towel always worked.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Montythesnake]

Sorry forgot to add. Since I'm proving a lot of humidity and moisture should a bath now include betadine? I haven't been using it while he has been shedding. I don't know if it would have caused shedding issues.

 

[Rich Z]

Not sure if it will be relevant to your situation or not, but a long time ago I was working with some blotched king snakes, and I had one that gave me a notable shedding problem. What brought my attention to the problem was that I kept shedding and feed records on index cards with each animal, and I happened to notice that one particular animal hadn't been noted as having shed for a few months. Now this was a rather young animal, so that just struck me as being unusual. When I inspected the snake, I noticed that the skin seems almost hard to the touch and kind of a *krinkly* feel to it. Naturally, thinking that perhaps the cage was too dry, I took steps to increase the humidity level inside. I noticed the snake going opaque a little while later, and anticipated it's shedding. Which did not happen after the eyes had cleared up and a few weeks went by. So yeah, something was wrong.

I felt the cage was plenty moist enough, so on a hunch, I completely reversed the direction I was going trying to fix the problem. I put it into a cage with a lot more airflow, which greatly decreased the humidity level inside. Not long afterwards, he started going through another opaque cycle, so I waited with interest to see what would happen this time.

A few days later I looked into the cage and saw that he was beginning to shed his skin, and seemed to be having difficulty with it. He only had it below his head, and seemed to be struggling to go further. So I took him out of the cage and assisted him in his efforts. It was slow work, but seemed to be working. I was surprised at how thick and stiff that skin felt coming off of him. More like thick cellophane than a snake skin. It seemed like there were a half dozen levels of sheds there, considering how thick it was. He finally was able to shed completely, even the eyecaps and tail tip, and seemed no worse the wear for this event.

So I guess the moral of this story is that sometimes you have to try the complete opposite of what seems the logical solution to a problem. In this case the snake appeared to be having difficulty shedding, and normally with a snake like a king snake this would be caused by too low humidity, which instead turned out that there was actually too much. Not sure why that inhibited the shed cycle, but as best I could tell, it sure enough did. He never had a problem again since I just left him in that cage with more airflow.

 

[Montythesnake]

Not sure if it will be relevant to your situation or not, but a long time ago I was working with some blotched king snakes, and I had one that gave me a notable shedding problem. What brought my attention to the problem was that I kept shedding and feed records on index cards with each animal, and I happened to notice that one particular animal hadn't been noted as having shed for a few months. Now this was a rather young animal, so that just struck me as being unusual. When I inspected the snake, I noticed that the skin seems almost hard to the touch and kind of a *krinkly* feel to it. Naturally, thinking that perhaps the cage was too dry, I took steps to increase the humidity level inside. I noticed the snake going opaque a little while later, and anticipated it's shedding. Which did not happen after the eyes had cleared up and a few weeks went by. So yeah, something was wrong.

I felt the cage was plenty moist enough, so on a hunch, I completely reversed the direction I was going trying to fix the problem. I put it into a cage with a lot more airflow, which greatly decreased the humidity level inside. Not long afterwards, he started going through another opaque cycle, so I waited with interest to see what would happen this time.

A few days later I looked into the cage and saw that he was beginning to shed his skin, and seemed to be having difficulty with it. He only had it below his head, and seemed to be struggling to go further. So I took him out of the cage and assisted him in his efforts. It was slow work, but seemed to be working. I was surprised at how thick and stiff that skin felt coming off of him. More like thick cellophane than a snake skin. It seemed like there were a half dozen levels of sheds there, considering how thick it was. He finally was able to shed completely, even the eyecaps and tail tip, and seemed no worse the wear for this event.

So I guess the moral of this story is that sometimes you have to try the complete opposite of what seems the logical solution to a problem. In this case the snake appeared to be having difficulty shedding, and normally with a snake like a king snake this would be caused by too low humidity, which instead turned out that there was actually too much. Not sure why that inhibited the shed cycle, but as best I could tell, it sure enough did. He never had a problem again since I just left him in that cage with more airflow.

That's interesting. It's been really dry this winter and this is his first winter in my current house. I have been keeping a wet towel over half the screen lid to keep it humid enough. I'll maybe try wetting the mulch a bit and taking the towel off to see what happens. This is my first time using cypress before I'd use aspen and as I understand it will hold humidity better and not mold. He has gone through his opaque phase already. He is an adult and only sheds every 2-3 months so I don't think it would be stacked sheds and what has come off seems normal. But I'll remove the towel and see what happens.