Yellow Crusty Skin Problem, please help?

[MickeyB]

Hi there,

My blonde mac shed on the 22nd of Dec, at the time he had a bit of a prob with shedding, humidity was low and his skin came off in pieces, and the lower half had not come away. So following advice from here I soaked him for a little while and used a damp soft cloth to hold him while he got the rest of it off. It all came away fine, I checked him as usual to make sure there was no residual skin, cleaned his enclosure and put him back.

Today I've gone to feed him and have taken him out to clean the enclosure first and the lower half of his belly has thick yellow crusty skin over it. I thought that maybe he had done a poop or something and been laying in it, but his space was clean. He has been moving around as usual since he shed, seems very alert and not in any way affected by it. His eyes are clear, the rest of his skin is fine, it's about a 5cm section of body that is affected. That section of his body looked a little 'deflated'. I gave him another soak and bits of it were coming away, but I didn't force any of it off. His body looks more normal now, except for the skin, and he's been moving around scraping some of it off. I've just fed him as usual and he has taken the food fine and seems to be quite undisturbed by the skin issue.

I rang a local vets who had no idea and passed me on to Alan Ogrady, who's receptionist wouldn't discuss any possibilities of what it was over the phone and insisted I come in to get him checked tomorrow. I'm more than happy to do that, however it's over an hours drive away and was hoping to be able to find someone on here who was more local, which I have and will be ringing shortly to get him seen.

In the meantime does anyone have any idea what it could be? I always use a hand sanitiser before picking him up, and don't really handle him that often, his enclosure is cleaned regularly, fresh water when needed etc etc and not in contact with my other snake.

Could it be mites? Fungal? Skin infection from not shedding properly? Or something worse?

Thanks
Mic

 

[herptrader]

Perhaps if you could provide a photo.

 

[Helikaon]

Could it be mites? Fungal? Skin infection from not shedding properly? Or something worse? {/quote]



Take your pick until you see the vet it could be any of the above. could be a burn to and the yellow crusty stuff beign plasma seeping from the damaged skin. which would also cause him to shed and cause the complications

 

[MickeyB]

Well here's the best pic I could get, for what it's worth the skin underneath looks undamaged and non-inflamed.

You can see in the pic that the belly is white and then starts to fade to a yellow jsut before the break. This is the very start of it, and from there it just looks like dry skin. It's approximately where the shed was up to when he was having probs before I soaked him. Which is making me think that perhaps the shed is the cause of the irritation and this is possibly a complication from that?

Mic

 

[herptrader]

That just looks like a poor shed to me, in which case he/she should shed again pretty soon and provided you have given sufficient humidity this should clear up any issues.

If it is feeding well and is otherwise healthy - nothing to worry about.

 

[Snow1369]

What Herptrader said. Looks like retained shed, if he comes into shed again soon (which he should) then give him a misting daily until he's shed.

 

[MickeyB]

Thanks heaps for your help. I rang the vets today and they couldn't see me till the end of next week and also only in the afternoons which is very hard for me to do with work and family commitments, so I was hoping that it wasn't something really serious and that he would be alright till then at least.

And yep Herptrader, he fed well today and seems his normal happy self, other than the yucko skin. He's normally very placid, has never snapped, bitten or attempted to strike and there hasn't been a change in his behaviour.

He sheds like clockwork every 6 weeks, is there any way to encourage him to shed earlier, or will he automatically do it earlier because there is a problem? If not, it's only been a week since he shed last, will he be ok like that with the misting for another 5 weeks?

Thanks
Mic

 

[Craig2]

if you are reall worried give it a nice walm about 28-30deg bath for a while and gently rub from front to back and skin should come off quite easily. how long has it been like this.
Regards Craig

EDIT the carpet/(substraight) you are using can cause iritation and may have something to do with this issue.

 

[MickeyB]

Thanks for that, I'll let him settle his dinner for a couple of days before handling him anymore. There were bits of it coming loose today with the soaking that I gave him, I just didn't want to do any further damage by rubbing it off without being sure about whether it would hurt him or not.

He's had the carpet in there for about 6 months now, same as my BHP and it hasn't caused any other irritations, but I'll swap him back to newspaper while he's trying to get over this.

Mic

 

[bigguy]

Your snake appears to be shedding 1.5 to 2 layers at once. This is not uncommon with macs. The yellowish appearence is the oil between both layers going off with bacteria present. Try and soak the rest off, but then it should reshed in a few weeks and get back on track.

Its good to see less experienced keepers actually picking problems and giving correct advice. Several years ago very few people could have even been close to knowing what the condition was. Great work guys

 

[MickeyB]

Thanks BigGuy, I'm relieved to know that everyone is on the right track and that what is happening isn't uncommon for the mac's.

It's also great that everyone here was so helpful and informative when the vets in this area were so slack in being able to offer assistance. This is the first issue I've ever had with him, so it's been quite worrying, but it's a learning curve as well.

I'll update later on when he's shed again and hopefully everything comes good.

Mic