i read in another thread about a boa with belly rot..... well, my cornsnake has a funky looking scale on his belly that I just noticed tonight.




sorry, cel phone pic..... i tried to get more of him in focus than the room.... but he wouldnt hold still and started hissing so I figured he had had enough


its brown, the area that is affected has looks pretty ragged..... im pretty sure its belly rot even tho I havent dealt with it before. how do I handle this?


also, reading in a different thread about a snake owner complaining the feces seemed diahrea-ish (this was a red tail however)..... what consistancy should his poop be? its always been very watery and I considered this normal since hes been doing it for over a year now.

First of all my advice is not a replacement for vet care, but this is what I did UNDER SUPERVISION of my vet.
I had a snake, ball python come in with a minor case of belly rot. It started out looking just like that scale. Since he came in friday evening, I didnt have the chance to get to a vet before monday. So I went to my local farm supply store, Bought clorhexidine surgical scrub (I think the brand is novalsan $30 a pint) and I scrubbed his belly twice daily. I dulited the scrub two table spoons to a gallon, just enough that it suds well, worked the scrub between the scales, rinsed very well, and dried him very well twice daily. Monday, we went to the vet. Scale rot like that can spread very fast if you dont get it in time. I also boosted temps by 5 degrees and lowered humidity. I compleatly took his water dish away except for an hour while he was active. And my vet reccommended I just keep doing what I was doing. Scale rot is most common with having too high humidity or unsanitary conditions. Most commonly is a spilt water dish that wasnt noticed. This also isnt something that happens over night. Usually it takes a week or two. Also while treating your snake, make sure you disinfect his cage every other day use paper towel or newspaper for substrate, it easy to notice when wet, and you can just toss it when you disinfect. I also reccomend using the chlorhexidine (2 table spoons to a gallon of water) to disinfect the cage. Make sure you rinse the cage after letting the soulition sit for 5 min, and make sure the cage is perfectly dry before putting stuff back in, also disinfect and compeatly remove cage furniture, because it can harbor bacteria and other nasty stuff. Just make sure it doesnt get any worse or you could get a secondary infection. Hope this helps and please remember chlorhexidine is toxic when ingested!!! And my corn snake has watery poop compared to a redtail (and my vet said this was normal as long as it wasnt all water)

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"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." ~ Immanual Kant

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened." ~ Anatole France

thanks. I was actually going to ask a couple more questions but your edit covered all of them

thought id give an update: Jack has an appt with a vet tomorrow morning. my GF will be bringing him in for me. I was told based on my description they may be able to control it with an antibiotic and a week or so on paper substrate. I hope so

If you have any more questions about it feel free to ask!

__________________
"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." ~ Immanual Kant

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened." ~ Anatole France

UPDATE:
it does not appear to be an infection. rather, it looks more like he just turned the scale over while moving around in his enclosure, he is rather forceful with his movements and has a tendancy to wedge his head into things he shouldnt so id believe this.

the brown was just dirt from his bark/soil substrate, it just happened to look alot like a rotten nail. I was told to take him home and wash him up good, and the brown came off with a little scrubbing. I didnt go too hard since hes about to shed, and wasnt happy about it. im going to keep my eye on him for a little while though

that's great news! glad that he's alright.

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<3 Tessa

0.0.2 painted turtles (Mo and Squirt)
1.0.0 yellow bellied slider (Jebidiah)
0.1.0 Amelanistic corn snake (Rose)
1.0.0 Hog Island/Colombian Boa (Kah)
0.2.1 Colombian Boa (Jasmine) and her babies
1.0.0 Suriname? Boa (Kayne)
0.2.0 Cats (Lilly and Reese)

Right on, glad it was a false alarm

__________________
"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." ~ Immanual Kant

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened." ~ Anatole France

well, he shed today, and the "affected" area didnt lose the skin, so I took to rubbing off the little left over patch. It was pretty good and stuck on there, but I finally got it, and the skin over the bad scale came off in a single gross looking chunk. the scale underneat was definitly damaged, but not dirty, and not infected. so I guess thats good. I just feel bad for him

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0.0.1 - Jack, Ghost corn, never sexed, but its a He darnit
1.0.0 - Neo, Columbian Redtail Boa. Everybody's best buddy :) except my roommate.... he bites my roommate....