I have a Albino corn snake that is about ten years old. he has weird brown spots on his lower body is that ok?

Question

i have washed him in warm water and rubbed the brown spots with hydrogen peroxide. and i also cleaned his terrarium and put new substrate in i don't know what is. i don't know what to do. need suggestions.

Answer 1

It sounds like he has developed the skin infection commonly known as scale rot. It can be either bacterial or fungal. It is often caused by some problem in the husbandry like a too damp or unclean substrate and/or too cool temperatures. You are on the right track with changing the cage and washing him. I would suggest newspaper as a substrate until you get this cleared up. The best over the counter treatment is Betadine (povidone iodine) which is a broad spectrum anti-bacterial and has anti-fungal properties as well. Soak you snake daily for about 10 - 15 minutes in a water and Betadine solution that is the colour of weak tea. You can also apply a topical antibiotic ointment like Polysporin to the spots. If you don't start to see some improvement (no more spots developing) in a couple days I would strongly suggest you see a vet for systemic antibiotics. There may not be any great improvment in the existing spot until he sheds which he will likely do soon in response to the infection. Good luck.