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…
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.
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
I don’t really think that is what @verinium was suggesting. Medical articles should taken with a little bit of weight.
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.
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.,
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!
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
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)
100% thats why i asked for their sources, i fully intended to read through any sources they posted! I wasnt being sarcastic 
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
This is definitely a valuable thread. It demonstrates so many of the positive things about this community. Sharing experiences, sharing and discussing ideas without ugliness or acrimony. Caring so much about the animals, as well as we people who keep them. @Verinium, I’m so sorry that you and your girl are going through this. I’m thankful that you’re sharing it with the community. Prayers for speedy healing!
I appreciate it, and im glad it served its intended purpose to show that we all can make mistakes and to always double check setups and equipment as time goes on :). Im sorry that it happened tk my poor girl, but sharing my experience prevents it from happening to even 1 animal, it would have been worth it even if i did catch hate. I have thick skin, and I know i should have paid better attention, so if there was anyone with harsh comments, i would know them came out of anger for the animals pain, and not out of unbriddled hate.
Fortunately for the most part, we are all very respectful on here as long as people are respectful back
here you go lol the second picture they posted
In all seriousness though I hope she gets better soon!
Hello all, its been about a month and i figured some of you may be curious as to how she fared.
I would love to be able to tell you guys shes completely healed and good to go, however her burns were pretty serious, and so they are still healing and will likely need another month or two before all of the scabs are gone, and she will likely have the scars for the rest of her life.
That said, it isnt all doom and gloom, while she isnt fully healed, she is making great progress healing. She just finished a shed, so here is a good indication for how her healing is going. The graphic warning isnt really needed anymore at least haha.
She’s looking SO much better! She’s healing up really well. Glad she seems to be through the worst of it.
