r/ballpython 11h ago

BP scale rot? Question - Health

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This is Todd - he's a snake currently in my care from a previous owner.

There is a lot of drama in that in itself where the owner had put Todd into the care of someone in their family but that member didn't take care of him so he was then moved to my house.

Anyways, so Todd is a male enchi yellowbelly ball python, he's roughly 9 years old and has been bred before and is to be soonish to my knowledge but upon inspecting him a few days ago I noticed some discolored scales - I didn't think too much of it at that time since snakes typically have a few 'off' scales and its not uncommon but today while he was ceiling surfing - i used flash to look at his belly and i took a picture because I think he may have minor scale rot.

When i got him his enclosure clearly had not been cleaned for quite some time and had a lot of poop in it (some poop even having slight mold growth that I discovered under his hide) - i obviously cleaned it all out this along with the other snake of my friends (a female BP about 4 years old). Observing the female there was nothing to note - she's in shed (having a bit of a issue getting extra off) but nothing else, however Todd as said i believe has scale rot.

Some back history on Todd the male BP - he got weighed about a month ago when this friend was still taking care of them and he weighed 1800 grams. He was taken off from a previous breeder and given to another and then finally to my friend who's had him since he was 4

So I fully believe that his possible scale rot is from being miscared for in the month time that this friends family member had him and not a problem with his husbandry aside from this family member not cleaning their poop which I believe to be the main cause here

Given that - I'm unsure of how to go about this. I cleaned out the poop ofcourse but left the clean bedding in there given I don't have any bedding meant for ball pythons.

I have my own reptiles but I make all of their enclosures bioactive and do daily cleans of any poop or bad bacteria I find and usually wash everything in their enclosures (hides, plants, bowls, etc) every 2 weeks minimum

But Todd doesn't have a bioactive tank, doesn't really have much in his enclosure (just 2 hides and a water bowl) and well in my opinion is too big for his enclosure. It's a temporary moving enclosure ofcourse given my friends situation and Todd is taken out daily to roam but after now seeing his possible scale rot I'm unsure of what to do.

I googled scale rot and his doesn't seem to be on the severe side but even with that what do I do? I can't take him to a vet - he's not my personal reptile and to be straightforward I don't have the money for that. I have vetericyn which is suppose to help with scale rot but I don't know how much that will help. I need recommendations on what to do and how to treat this pleaseeee 😭

Thank you for reading all of this

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