So, it is apparently my fate to go through every problem known to snake keeping, so it would be a shame to allow the experiences go to waste by not sharing them.
When my bamboo HRA girl came in, i noticed some red areas and lifted scales. Knowing the seller was feeding live ASFs, i mistook the spots for small bite marks, nothing i was overly pleased about, but nothing that wouldnt heal with a little time. However, the condition has gotten noticeably worse in her bioactive tank, and looking through some articles about what it could be, it appears scale rot fits the bill perfectly. She arrived very cold, and a good deal underweight as well, so i imagine her immune system was shot, mixed with the more moist environment, made for the perfect breeding ground for the infection.
She is going into her own hospital tub, she will have a small water dish to prevent soaking, and she will be on reptizorb as i want to keep humidity to a minimum while i try to kill the fungal/bacterial infection.
Here are some pictures of what to look out for, first pictures are when she arrived, second set is today. I will add a few more after her betadine bath and antimicrobial spray. She has 30 minutes of soak time first.
Same haha, at least this one was a quarantine snake from receiving, and not one i hurt myself. Now that i know whats wrong i can treat her and get her healthy once more in a month or so. I checked her mouth, it looked OK, but i am a little concerned it could have something to do with why she is so skinny. They said she was a shy feeder. Will see if she takes food now that she is in a tub instead of a 3x3x4*
This is why it is always best to quarantine in tubs with paper towels or similar things. That way you can not only monitor them easily and prevent things like mites spreading fast, but also so you can keep stuff like scale rot and other things from getting worse. It also makes getting them feeding easier in most cases.
Yeah, apl of my enclosures are set up bioactive with predator mites, so the snake mites are self corrected, but ive never dealt with scale rot before, so didnt know what to look out for. Each snake is a lesson to better my practices, now i know
Here are a couple of better pictures for reference in case others suspect. After her first night of treatment and move to a dry container, she is already looking better. I will treat her for a minimum of 4 weeks to be absolutely sure its gone before putting her back anywhere humid just to be safe. It says it can take 4-7 weeks, so if im not completely sure, ill treat her longer.
My personal opinion is if I receive an animal with any issues I send them back. The larger your collection the more it can cost you bringing in animals in sub par health. Just my two cents but can save you major headaches. No judgement speaking from personal experience.
I appreciate it. With her weight and condition now, i would feel uncomfortable sending her back, i can feel her ribs and with how the scale rot is now, the stress of shipping in this climate even with heat packs would do her no favors.
If i had 100s of snakes i had to care for, i likely wouldnt have the time to deal with animals received sick, but since im at 28 including her, i have the space, and im already treating one for a burn, and the treatment is much the same, so its easier for me to keep her seperated and bring her back to health.
I definitely appreciate your insight though! For now i can get away with dealing with it, but in the future i may need to make those same decisions. I wish i had caught it right away and started treatment, would have been alot better
I don’t have hundreds of snakes either around 60. It’s not a time thing I just don’t feel comfortable risking the health of my other snakes treating someone else’s problem. Even with proper quarantine things can spread. If the snake has visible health issues who knows what else is going on. It’s the breeders responsibility to send you a healthy animal. When they don’t taking in these animals can risk the health of your entire collection.
I really don’t think that’s scale rot. Scale rot would mainly just be on the underside and look more brownish. That looks pretty concerning to me and would warrent a vet visit
I’m in agreement with Hilary doesn’t look like it to me either. And one other thing predator mites will die if they have nothing to feed on. So there not self sustaining if your not continuing to add them yours have probably died off. To me these look like some sort of bites not scale rot.
That is true, and i can certainly respect the mindset. It is definitely a moral conundrum of “do i send the one back and have it potentially die in transit, but protect the many; or do i try to save the one, and potentially harm the many” . On a purely logical business front, your route is 100% the better option, as you are right, risking the rest of your collection could absolutely doom the business, and it is not a chance that should be taken lightly.
Im still new to this, so i think i may still be a bit too naive to make the smart choice. Logically i know you are right, but morally i cant bring myself to send her back to the conditions she had to have left from.
All of that being said, i do greatly appreciate the sound advice you always provide!
But not sending it back we are also supporting breeders who selling visually unhealthy animals.
I don’t make any money doing this lol the problem is if we as a community don’t hold sub par breeders accountable they will continue to send out sick animals and that affects the community as a whole.
Predator mites sustain themselves on springtails, all of my enclosures are bioactive with healthy levels of springtails. I added the pred mites about 3-4 months ago and still see a good number of them pop put of the soil whenever i add water to the enclosures, so i know they are still in there kicking butt! I also see the predator mites patrolling on top of the snakes every so often looking for an easy meal (they are far faster than snake mites and are orange instead of black or dark blood red, easy to tell apart)
Looking online, it looks similar to me, but since ive never dealt with its also possible that it is not the case. Whatever it is, is currently reacting very well to the treatment i gave and the lower humidity. The inflamation has subsided substantially. The discoloration is still very visible, but betadine and topical antibiotics with a clean heated tub seem to be doing the trick. If it goes away fast, then im inclined to agree it may not be. Thats just the closest i could find to what it looked like, and given the conditions she arrived with, seemed the most likely to me, but im still learning!
True, but thats the same logic of when people buy from puppy mills or bad pet stores, the human urge to “save” things is strong. Again, logically, i can find absolutely no fault in what you are saying. I jist cant bring myself to do it especially since she is responding well to treatment. I did tell the seller however that since i brought the issues to their attention upon arrival, that if the animal is lost i will expect a refund. They then have the opportunity to request the animal back to care for themselves, or accept that its in my care and if bad things happen, it is because of the conditions the animal arrived with.
… they could also blow it off and say it isnt their problem and im screwed, but thats the risk we take with online sales.
I agree with you, im just a sucker who is caring to a fault when it comes to animals. At least this wasnt a big breeder, and they are getting out, so little chance of them being a problem for the community.
For clarity, as well as pictures, i used this to help with diagnos… holy cr*p im in a vet group and didnt post photos there to double check… god, thats the least i could have done.
Sorry, distracted mid thought. Here is what im using to treat, hopefully it continues to go well. If it gets worse, i will schedule an exotic vet visit as it may require more than just topical care.
Do you think you would change your mind if you lost half your collection from someone else’s problem? Stuff like that happens and I would hate to see it happen to you when it could be prevented.
So they maybe selling a bunch of sick animals to a bunch of people that can certainly lead to a lot of problems for a lot of keepers.
I truely dont know. If my answer were yes, then i should have no problem doing it now to be safe. But i didnt and cant. So i truely dont know. Maybe when i go through it, my mindset will harden, and i wont repeat that, or maybe ill still be too soft. Its a good question, but one i dont think i can answer without going through that loss. I feel bad because i know your questions are purely coming from the standpoint to protect the animals and protect me from going through something so many before me have gone through, and i am just dismissing it with excuses because i cant bring myself to make the right choice.
@saleengrinch and to be fair, even if she recovers, and none of the other snakes get sick. I know logically, what you are saying is still true. Jusy because it doesnt happen one time, doesnt mean it wont happen the next
Looking at your photos, that looks much more…Involved than scale rot. You said she arrived to you poorly, did you take her to the vet? Was she tested by the breeder for anything? If she hasn’t seen a vet since she arrived to you, that needs to be a priority, because her condition could suggest an underlying ailment. You’ve got 28 animals in your collection, this isn’t a situation that I’d treat conservatively because it puts your other animals at risk. Especially since it’s a condition you can’t identify for sure and have never dealt with yourself. Not only that, but you could be looking at an allergy or systemic infection, which could be incredibly uncomfortable for the snake.
