Vaseline should NEVER be used on burns, nor should it be used on mucosa or any open wound for that matter.
Do you have any source for that? Im going off of medlineplus.gov and NIH.gov which are reputable government websites. Im absolutely open to discussion, and if im mistaken, thats fine, but ill need an actual scientific article or some other reputable source of information besides hearsay (I have seen the vaseline myth quite a bit, but have yet to track down any science behind it.) So if you have information i dont, id love to give it a read!
Here is a NHS source as well, so it is UK recommended as well.
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I notice you specifically mention open wound, perhaps thats the difference here. The vaseline recomendation on all 3 sites is 1st degree burn, meaning it isnt an open wound, but rather damage to the skin not penetrating through. In my situation the wound is 2nd degree at best, possibly pushing 3rd degree. So in my specific case, vasoline is not recommended.
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OK,
no Vaseline on fresh burns for humans or the old idea of butter,that retains the heat and is a bad idea as holding in the heat it will increase the damage.
As for snakes, the risk after the event once cooled, is the oil will be spread to other parts of the snake clogging pours and damaging their natural oils.
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Gotcha, ill have to look into that. Ive seen people around saying its bad, but usually the arguement always amounts to “because its a petroleum product” with no real sources or reasons for why that matters. The point if it is to keep the wound moist to expediate healing, as scabbing slows healing down significantly, but if there are better products to the same effect, and studies showing petroleum gel causes issues, that would definitely be good to switch 
Like you say there are other non oily and drying out products that might be better.
I was corrected about oils and petrolatum products in this thread, which I fully accepted, but the small amounts i was suggesting seemed ok, but readers need to read the whole thing to get the context…
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I use heat mats but I use the ones made for seedlings instead of reptiles because they do not get near as hot if your thermostat fails. I also Mount mine under a half inch sheet of PVC that completely conceals the mat and there is no problem with heat transfer and the entire panel gets up to 95 to 100 no problem.
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Not to get into Political discourse but trust in government websites to be perfectly accurate and have the best up-to-date information is not always a good practice
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I don’t really think that is what @verinium was suggesting. Medical articles should taken with a little bit of weight.
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I agree but a lot of times the articles are based solely on human interaction and don’t contain much information about animal reactions especially reptiles. My point was just that medical or otherwise, even government sites should be fact-checked and corroborated with other sources. Even stuff on a government Medical website, especially given the mistakes they made during covid, I would definitely do further research or get corroborating research before I would wholeheartedly take anything on a government website as being factually 100% true, medical or otherwise.
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Agreed. politics is different to best practice.
We should look at best medical guidelines and science. Governments have many agendas. Rightly so, I get it. the economy vs health.
The UK courts just found the initial UK government covid advice for care homes unlawful and wrong.
Sending covid positive cases into care homes saying its not contagious if no symptoms.
Many people died unnecessarily from following these government health guidelines. Not my opinion, the courts opinion.
But on the other hand, politically the government could not let the health system become overwhelmed.
Governments have other considerations than just best health practice.,
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Its alot more trustworthy than the media and hearsay. For example, i read many of the CDC releases for COVID-19, and the news sources citing the CDC studies was making up half of it and exagerating the other half. While i would not give it as much credit if it came from say the white house, i do trust sources such as the CDC, NHA, etc. Obviously everything should be taken with a grain of salt, but my main point was saying something is bad doesnt have as much credence when it is only the opinion of some with no scientific backup. It doesnt mean they are wrong, only that without more data, its not my method to arbitrarily change my course of action.
Hope this clears things up a bit!
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Fair, but NHS is medical, probably one of the most funded medical organizations. Everything advances with time, and with COVID many organizations over and under reacted, it was something new to everyone and they were esentially giving recommendations based on assumptions. Its still better than no medical or scientific data at all
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Both are flawed. you can find any view you prefer on social media. Even that the world is flat.
That’s why I say stick to the science. Don’t trust either, government guidelines (who have their own agendas). or social media (where you can find people saying black is white if that’s what you prefer to believe)
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100% thats why i asked for their sources, i fully intended to read through any sources they posted! I wasnt being sarcastic
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agreed, I chose them (NHS) as the main source of information during covid. and always in my health care business. Nothing is perfect, but they are at leased science based and also non profit and so less agendas than government or social media
Edit : i used to inspect the NHS on behalf of the UK government, and now I have A private health care consultancy agency.
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I believe NHS uses government funding, it says “publicly funded” which usually means through taxes. Its the british version of NIH i believe (National Institutes of health)
Unfortunately any time something is goverment funded, some governmental bias and bureaucracy is bound to seep in, but if you are good at interpretting scientific data, it can still be pretty trustworthy
I hope nobody feels i am trying to completely dismiss them or belittle them. Everyone has their own beliefs and opinions, and i think we have all been pretty danged good at discussing them civilly here :).
My only point was i dont intend to change my opinion without scientifically or medically sourced information. “Common hobby knowledge” would have people keeping gators in shoe boxes a couple decades ago, and we all know how bad the herp community can be at adapting to new info instead just going what has always worked for them.
Im always open to new information! I just like seeing sources so i can understand the science behind it.
Heck, even for people the “common knowledge” was if you got a cut or burn, you throw neosporin on it and a bandage and good to go, but its no been shown the neosporin can cause alergic reactions in people due to the long contact time of the antibiotics and its actually a better method to us cleaning agents first, then petroleum jelly or aloe vera afterwards as part of the dressing after cleaning (and definitely after cooling in the case of burns!)
Essentially, common knowledge can be out dated, so i love seeing sources so i can make an educated decision!
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Agreed, That’s why I said nothing is perfect. but its, the best source of information for me if not perfect.,
But also with your condition in your comment below, always double check and fact check.
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Thanks for sharing this experience with the community, verinium. This is a good reminder for all of us that even with taking the proper precautions, accidents and mishaps can still happen. It’s never a bad idea to double-check our hardware, especially when failures of the hardware in question can lead to injury (not being critical of you at all, just to be clear).
I mostly use external heat mats with thermostats, and none of them get warmer than 100F even if the thermostats fail, so not hot enough to burn, even if my snakes somehow ended up sitting directly on top of it with no barrier. I do use a CHE for my sand boa, but it’s used externally over a very sturdy mesh screen, so there’s no risk of my snake coming into contact with it. I’m thinking about upgrading to radiant heat panels at some point.
I hope your girl recovers quickly and completely. The scabs look pretty typical to me of burns on mammals that are healing properly…but I have no idea if they should look different for reptiles. I don’t have any experience treating reptile burns. 
But it sounds like you’re being very vigilant, attentive, and level-headed about her treatment, so it seems like she’s in good hands.
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The best sign is the dark red color with no discharge. All signs point to no infection (from what i can see). As long as no infection sets in, its just a matter of keeping her on feed and clean water and she should heal just fine, my only worry is the pale splotches, but i think those may be first degree burns from touching the bulb, but not areas that wrapped and held on.
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