Scale Rot - necrotising dermatitis

*UPDATE*: Unfortunately Jasmine (The Retic featured) never made it and died on May 1st 2009. R.I.P.
-----
a short video shot at my friends, Jen & Andy's, they run a rescue based here in Scotland and asked me to video them treating a very severe case of Scale-Rot to show you guys, the following was written by Jen to go alongside the video:
Scale rot - Kayuadi Retic - Jasmine

Blister disease is a common condition in reptiles due to poor environmental management that is, housing the reptile in overly-moist or dirty surroundings. It is also known as vesicular dermatitis, necrotizing dermatitis or scale rot. This is because the animal is forced to lie on a damp substrate, often saturated with urine, faeces or rotting food and not surprisingly, the skin becomes infected and effectively rots.

The first signs are usually watery blisters on the reptiles skin. These blisters then burst and transfer the infection into the reptiles body, leading to septicemia, an infection of the blood which is potentially fatal, as well as infection in the internal organs. In addition, the skin around the initial blister may rot away leaving the body exposed and even more vulnerable to other bacterial and fungal invasions as well as injuries, abrasions and burns. Mites can also spread bacteria to the blisters and in some cases, bacteria can cause abscesses at the site of the blisters which recur as ulcers following the next shed. This cycle continues until the snake eventualy dies.

source for above info: http://www.reptileexpert.co.uk/BlisterDisease.html

Since coming into our care Jasmine is being treated twice a day everyday. She has also recieved a week of anti biotics due to concern for internal infection as her vent was swollen and bleeding, there was also blood in her urine. She is cleaned with an animal safe Iodine solution and each time we do this we change her paper substrate and clean her water bowl etc. Once a day we will also apply flamazine cream which is mainly used for skin condition and burns. This was quite a severe case and as you can see most of the scales that were rotten are now coming off, the skin underneath looks bad but it is healed and there are signs of scales growing back. When she came into our care she was also very dehydrated, due to this we have also been giving fluids orally via syringe. What you see is the results of 2 weeks of treatment and though it may look bad, shows dramatic signs of improving. This treatment of cleaning her twice a day will probably still continue for several weeks.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• scale
• rot
• reticulated
• python
• reticulatus
• iodine
• snakes
• reptiles
• infections
• diseases
• illnesses
• scales
• scale-rot
• rotten
• rotting
• necrotising
• dermatitis
• vesicular

[ErikPaterson]

@YoUrCoNsEqUeNcE I'm afraid I don't actually recall the name of the shop, or the owner, btu I do believe he was selling it all up as he was moving abroad which is why nothing could be done re: his pet shop license etc. But, yeah. Crazy stuff!

[YoUrCoNsEqUeNcE]

@ErikPaterson Omg... so that's their 'not noticing' excuse out the window, because just from that excuse the person was obviously hiding the problem. So it was actually the shop owner that kept the snake in those conditions?! Shocking... what shop was it? Or can you not give that info out? I understand if you can't but was curious what kind of so-called 'professionals' would do such a thing...

[ErikPaterson]

@YoUrCoNsEqUeNcE Yes, If I recall, they were even told that the reason it was coiled up amongst moss was because the snake was heavily gravid, which would lead Jen & Andy not to mess about with it too much in the shop! Fly buggers.

Aye, definitely.

[YoUrCoNsEqUeNcE]

@ErikPaterson Yeah i totally agree... 'not notice' indeed... and yeah, to then try and say it happened all of a sudden. What a load of rubbish people come up with hey?

I am just glad that there are good people out there as well, that help bring awareness of the neglectful idiots out there etc... and help save the lives of other potential Jasmine situations.

Jen and Andy did what they could :)

[ErikPaterson]

@YoUrCoNsEqUeNcE Yeah, It's surprpsing the number of people who don't realize that it isn't their fault the snake got that bad too. This video was shot only a few days after they received it.

It ius absolutely shocking that someone could 'not notice' this and then proclaim that scale rot of this magnitude came about during a 5/6 hour drive up from England to Paisley!

[YoUrCoNsEqUeNcE]

@ErikPaterson Yeah i understand that... just emphasizing how awful the previous owners were to treat such a lovely animal in that way. It's good you post vids like this as it makes people realize how harmful it is to animals when they are neglected in any way. The person who owned the poor snake should be shot! Makes me sad and angry all at the same time... it's just horrendous.

[ErikPaterson]

@YoUrCoNsEqUeNcE I must stress that Jen & Andy had nothing to do with the snake getting to this stage. They only purchased it from a pet store in England.

[YoUrCoNsEqUeNcE]

I've never seen anything this bad before... i think it was left WAY too long without being treated. As far gone as this poor snake is it should have been humanely euthanized!! It must have been in agony - skin hanging off of it like that and open sores. If scale rot is treated as soon as it has become apparent then it would never have gotten to this stage!! Sorry but no excuses for this!! Either kept in very poor conditions or general lacking in early treatment... end of story!!

[herpingandgaming]

at that point just end its misery

[repticman123]

Poor thing.