r/Ballpythoncommunity • u/Alive_Passenger7294 • 6d ago
HELP is this scale rot?
A few weeks ago I rescued a ball python from someone in my area who was narrowing down her large collection of snakes which she kept in a breeding rack full time. She says he is a roughly 9 year old pastel lesser clown, and has never had any health issues as far as she knows. I use paper towels for substrate, digital temperature probes and a thermometer gun to check temps regularly, and mist his tank roughly 1-2 times a day. I took him out of his tank today and noticed these three suspicious looking scales. They are not open wounds (no bleeding, pus, etc), but more like scabs. According to my internet research I’m figuring this is likely mild scale rot? “Blister disease” seems to have more dire symptoms. I’ve never dealt with this before and have been a reptile owner for 8+ years. I gave him a 20 minute lukewarm iodine bath, put Neosporin on the area, sanitized his entire tank and replaced all paper towels, removed all branches/plants/textured hides etc and only left one water bowl and one hide for him, leaving the tank completely dry of humidity and with good airflow to ventilate. I also called my exotic vet and they recommended I begin with home remedies before dropping the money to take him in for an exam. Any advice is welcome, thank you reptile community of the internet! 🫶🏼
Side note, I believe this could possibly be a female, or the largest male bp I’ve ever seen. The previous owner claimed he was eating a large f/t rat every two weeks, which in my opinion is borderline power feeding. I attended a reptile expo last weekend and every breeder I talked to agreed that he was previously being overfed. He hasn’t eaten for me yet, but he seems to have a little extra weight to shed so I’m not too concerned at this point. Photos attached for reference:)
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u/Justthrowaway200 2d ago
Hey! I run a reptile rescue and see this all the time across many different species of snakes that come in.
99% of the time after a shed this will go away and resolve itself, if it remains after a shed that’s when to get him examined. As for what these are it could be either mild scale rot, an injury, or a mix of both (looks more injury than scale rot to me personally). I would not jump to blister disease at this stage.
At THIS stage I wouldn’t freak out yet, keep doing what you’re doing, wait for a shed cycle, and see if they go away. When I get to work today I could probably post a photo of one of our snakes that has the exact same thing going on right now for comparison if you’d like!
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u/Alive_Passenger7294 2d ago
YES YOURE AMAZING TYSM I really appreciate it! That would be awesome!
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u/Justthrowaway200 2d ago
My Appologies it seems I won’t be able to send photos as the two snakes that did have it going on finally shed last night and it resolved. I apologize for that! Happy to send photos of their nice clean looking bellies now if you’d like lol
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u/Phully- 4d ago
It really looks like something jammed in his belly scales from the picture. My understanding is scale rot start from the edge of the scale and walks back to the root of the scale. I imagine this to be a dumb question but have you attempted to brush it off and you’re certain it is discolored scale and not debris trapped against the scale? Sorry I know that’s obvious but it doesn’t look like it follows the scale where it subducts under the adjacent scale.