Hey all, I’ve had this ivory since early 2020. She’s done great since, I’m not new to keeping reptiles and have had ball pythons as a child. Have her in a tub and rack set up.
Recently this spot has appeared on her face. I have her a soak in lukewarm water for about 30 minutes before her last shed and it went away, wasn’t there post shed last week either (I assumed she pooped and got it on her face). Today while feeding I saw that it’s back and it’s over twice as big as it was I last saw it. It’s rough and feels like a scab. I AM REALLY HOPING THIS ISNT SCALE ROT.
Before I head to a vet, does anyone know what this could be or what it looks like? I’m going to switch her to paper towel/news print in the meantime. She seems fine otherwise, active alert eats no problem. But I’m obviously concerned. I’ll take a look in her tub/rack although I already checked for sharp or rough things like a nail so I’m a little lost on how this happened if it is a scab.
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It definitely looks like a big scab. The placement suggest that it was caused by head rubbing.
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Looks like a bad head rub from her shoving her face in between the tub and rack. Maybe see if you can make the gap smaller or use a tub with a locking lid while she heals.
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I’m a bit confused, I’m using VE tubs and rack and there’s pretty much no gap at all. It’s a super tight and snug fit, more than I wanted tbh. I’m more than happy that it’s probably something significantly more minor than scale rot, but I’m really unsure how this could stop otherwise. Tub set up is pretty standard, two hides, water bowl. Whenever I check in or do maintenance she’s in her back hide. I have caught her exploding at night but not head rubbing.
I’m also not comfortable with a lid for security reasons, that was her original set up and she managed to escape despite there being clips. I had to put text books on top of the corners until I got my rack.
I wonder what her deal is. My husbandry’s pretty solid, she’s never declining any meals and is still growing fast. Could she just be exploring her enclosure?
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I’ve had this happen with one of my hatchlings before! She was shoving her face in-between the top of the tub and the rack, causing it to scrape pretty badly. This was due to a design flaw that allowed the snakes to push up on the top of the tub, causing it to bend outwards. One even managed to squeeze out of the tub this way, and escaped a couple times!
One of the hatchlings, my holdback female Blue:
This is her now, almost two years later. The scar is still fairly visible.
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Your post made me realized what caused this. I had a period of 2 weeks after switching substrates a month ago where humidity was getting too high (condensation without me misting) and so I left the tub slightly cracked for a few hours each day to let some humidity out. I never saw her doing this but it must have happened at that point. Kind of weird for it to not be present until a week or so ago. I’ll see how it heals up. Your snake still looks great btw. Should I intervene in anyway or just allow her to heal on her own?
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That could very well be the case — it usually takes a bit to scab over so that’s likely why it wasn’t noticed right away. Snakes are notorious for attempting to escape if they think there’s even the slightest chance they can get out!
As long as there isn’t any space for her to shove her face into, you shouldn’t have to worry about it occurring again. It’ll heal over the course of a few sheds!
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