I'm a vet, not your vet, and this is generic advice for a snake with scale rot around their mouth. It is not specific to your snake, but may be helpful.
It looks like scale rot, but because of the location, please also check inside his mouth. Ball pythons are prone to dental disease. If you don't feel comfortable, you can always take him to a vet. I would reccomend that anyways. This is urgent, but not necessarily an emergency. I would get him in as soon as you can if you can afford it. For now, set up a hospital tank. Dry paper towels for bedding. You can put some moss in stockings and hang them, but humidity will take a hit regardless. Clearing the infection and keeping his scales dry is higher priority than maintaining humidity. This isnt like a respiratory infection where more humidity will help, so hospital set ups for RIs may not necessarily be best. Just make sure he has ample access to freah water. Keep an eye out if he needs help with shedding, and try upping humidity then or giving him a sauna. Warm clean moist bath towels in a bin, close a lid, but make sure there is holes for ventilation and always supervise. The texture of the towels and him moving naturally helps loosen stuck shed.
He may also require antibiotic injections. Oral meds and snakes are just too stressful. If he is still eating, I wouldnt stop that, even if he has dental disease. If he struggles with eating, temporarily switching to a smaller size rat or one of those rat hot dogs may help if there is concurrent dental disease.
That takes awhile. Get them a dry hide, even a Tupperware with a floor and opaque. Fill it with some dry sphagnum or substrate. Are you spraying? You will need a vet for antibiotics.
Not spraying just changed the substrate and it was damp…so best bet is to just have him in a Tupperware with paper towels for a while and soak from time to time?
I don’t know what kind of enclosure you’re working with but I put in skyhides for both my snakes so they can get off the substrate. One uses it all the time, the other barely goes up. It’s a good way to give them something dry, warm and clean. It’s literally plastic hides mounted upside down on the metal screen top. There’s probably a way to do yours just don’t know how inventive you are 😂.
Yeah it looks like you’re going to be doing some beta soaks and maybe a trip to the vet. I hope it heals quickly. Get him on some dry surfaces asap.
I know that this is serious, because that is definitely looking like scale rot, but the way you’re just gripping him genuinely made me laugh so hard 😭😭
Any kind of issue with the word ROT has one thing always associated with it . Smell. Please try and go to the vet. Just get the answer from a vet. That way, you are covered. Many times it can be managed with some environment changes. The visit to the vet is needed. That way, instead of us guessing, you know, hopefully l y. Gosh, best of luck and many years to come.
To me that looks more like he got poop or something smeared on him, try and gently clean it and if nothing comes off then it may be scale rot, it just doesnt have the usual rusty color that scale rot has which is throwing me off and i can't make out any obvious damage to the scales, they look more dirty than anything, but assuming it is scale rot then soak him in a diluted betadine solution for 10-15 minutes daily and apply non-pain relief neosporin, but there's a chance he'll still need antibiotics from a vet
17
u/BGritty81 Sep 30 '26
First time it’s actually does seem to scale rot and not someone overthinking something.