Scab

[Peanut]

Hi: I'm a newbie to this board, but not to the hobby. Anyway....this is my problem. I have 2 Surinam red tails, they are both 3yrs old and over 7 feet. About a month and a half ago I went on vacation and let a friend (revising the meaning of the word friend) of mine to check up on my babies. While I was gone they had defecated in their large enclosure. Instead of cleaning the cage he put them in a small dog kennel that I keep to put them in while I clean the cage or to separate during feeding. He kept them in there almost for about 2 weeks. In that time he had tried feeding them and left a dead rat in the small enclosure. 4 days later he smelled what turned out to be a decaying rat, he took the snakes out and bathed them and he cleaned the small enclosure and he noticed maget from the rat. All this time he was telling me that everything was fine. When I came home a week later, my snakes where in teh small cage. I cleaned the large enclosure and fed them. I noticed something on the snout of my female, a scab. It is located in between the eyes above the nostrils. She was getting opaque at the time so I let shedding due its job. There was no sweeling nor blood, and I didn't see any infection. When she shed the part where the scab is did not come off, leaving the old skin on top of the scab. This was a little less than a week ago. Since then I have been applying neosporin and soaking it daily. I'm I doing the right thing? The scab is dry and again no signs of infection. Help please!!!!!!

[Red]

Re: Scab

Well you are doing fine from what I can tell... Make sure that you are not using neosporen plus... It has a pain releaver in it and is not suposed to be used on snakes...
Other then that I would say next time let your snake not eat for the two week's put a auto drip in the cage and let the snakes be.. I left my snakes in the care of somone once and luckly it was a sucsess but I was worried the whole time... Next time I would like to make it so that the snakes would not have to be touched so I know that the door was shut and stuff like that... Well that is the ignorance that we deal with...
Eric aka...Red

[Doug]

Re: Scab

Hi,
Jeeze its most have been warm in your snake room, I hope they don't get RI, Better find a reptile lover to keep them Snakes for you when you take that vacation. So many people think Boa's are just snakes and don't have temp requirements and humidty..
Be glad they didnt get that food down they could have died of food poisioning if at the wrong temp the digestion dosen't work at cool temps and the meal ferments.. yech..
Keep a close eye on them, poor snakes.. doug

[Peanut]

Re: Scab

Thanks for responding. I knew I was doing the right thing, but was looking reassurance just in case. She seems to be doing well. I fed her a rabbit yesterday (first time eating a rabbit) and she took it with a ferocious bite. That's my girl!!! Always an agressive eater. No matter how much I've handled her in the past 3yrs and no matter how sweet she is when handling, she never looses her instinct to snap at her food. But I love her the way she is. I have full confidence that the scab will go away in a few sheds. I will post pictures of her ( Red) and my male (Peanut) soon.