Potential shed issue

[d_virginiana]

I'm starting to wonder if Harley may be having shed issues. I never saw her eyes go blue, but my life has been truly insane lately, and hers only stay blue for about a day, so it's very possible that I could've missed it.

Anyway, the rest of her has looked like I would expect her to shed for a week or two now (Houdini and Sithis both went blue and shed during this timeframe). Her color is starting to look odd though. Like, dark instead of the sort of pastel color that it normally gets before a shed.
I can also take the skin at pretty much any part of her body and fold it up like paper; she isn't dehydrated btw. I've seen her drink a LOT in the last few days just because I've been watching her more.
The 'dark' coloration is starting to creep up closer and closer to her head, which still appears bright like normal. She's been soaking a lot and I've seen her several times rubbing her head against things and acting like she's about to shed, but nothing happens. She has a soaking water dish, a shed box, and the humidifier is next to her cage, so that's all taken care of.

The main thing that makes me think that this may be a retained shed issue is that her tongue shed off about four days ago (surprised I was even there when that happened). I've never had that happen when they didn't actually shed soon after. That and the fact that she's going through the motions for shedding, but not getting any results.

Anyway, like I said... Pictures tomorrow. This may just be a very oddly-timed, odd-looking shed but if not I'll document what it looks like and what I do on here.
(I recently lost a fish so it's entirely possible I'm being more OCD than normal about this, but Harley certainly doesn't mind the extra attention).

[guidofatherof5]

I would go through the motions of it being a retained shed until proven otherwise.
If it is a retained shed the procedures in this thread will get removal started if it is needed.
http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/husbandry/11703-retained-shed-indentication-treatment.html

[d_virginiana]

Late last night I put a drop or two of vegetable oil on the skin and massaged it in to try and get the skin soft and less dry and papery. When I put her back into her tank, she spent probably half an hour in her water dish and rubbing her head on the sides.
Today, I spent a while at the sink massaging her skin with the water, especially around the neck and head area. I was also trying to gently get the shed started from the mouth/nose area. I'll give that thread a look and do that stuff when I get back in tonight and have time.

Okay here are some pictures from this morning. You can see the way the skin is papery, and how I can pull it up to a centimeter away from the body. May be wrong, but this is not normal shedding procedure for here.

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This is her normal coloration... As you can see, there's a big difference.
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[guidofatherof5]

The last photo certainly doesn't look like any kind of a retained shed. Looks normal.

[Light of Dae]

Give her, her favorite meal n let her stuff herself, let her eat as much as she wants. I find when any of my snakes take forever to shed, and their skin looks like this they just need a big meal. Its like the extra girth stretches the skin n gives them just that extra nutrition to get the skin off.

Works every time for one of my flames, she'll go blue, then clear, then just stay dark n kinda loose skin like that till I give her a big meal. That is exactly what this looks like to me. Just need an extra boost of food. I can imagine new skin growth n the whole shedding process takes a lot of energy.

[d_virginiana]

Tonight is feeding night, so I'll go ahead and feed her then... I was messing with her a little earlier, and pieces of the shed are starting to flake off... Like, if I rub the skin between my fingers, I come away with a bunch of little scales on my hands.
I'm not crazy worried about her yet, but this is definitely an abnormally long shed, so I figured it might be useful to put up pictures and document things on here in case it does turn into a real problem.

On a side note, I am glad that, out of all the snakes, it's Harley that needs to be messed with like this. She just sits there in my hands while I'm messing with her skin and even messing with her lip scales (didn't do that too much, because it wasn't happening easily, and I didn't want to do any damage...). But she's been treating it kind of like spa day or something. Never nipped, or tried to bolt, or pooed or anything.


The last photo certainly doesn't look like any kind of a retained shed. Looks normal.

Yeah, that's from a couple months ago, I was just using it as a color comparison for how weirdly dark she's gotten.

[kimbosaur]

Tonight is feeding night, so I'll go ahead and feed her then... I was messing with her a little earlier, and pieces of the shed are starting to flake off... Like, if I rub the skin between my fingers, I come away with a bunch of little scales on my hands.
I'm not crazy worried about her yet, but this is definitely an abnormally long shed, so I figured it might be useful to put up pictures and document things on here in case it does turn into a real problem.



This happened to my baby albino a little while back. The skin looked dry and little scale-sized flakes would come off on my hands. At one point, only his back half looked very wrinkly and the general consensus was that it was a partial retianed shed. HOWEVER, immediately after producing a complete shed, the skin at the back half still appeared wrinkled. It seemed to go away after a few clean sheds.

[d_virginiana]

She ate a big meal tonight, and the little scales are still coming off when I brush at them. Keeping an eye on it.

[guidofatherof5]

Soak and continue brushing would be my advice.

[d_virginiana]

Soak and continue brushing would be my advice.

She's been getting soaked as well as spending quite a bit of time soaking on her own.

Just wondering... What does the brushing do, since I'm only getting single scales off? Like, the coloration isn't any different in those areas after they fall off, and it's just individual little scales. I was kind of expecting parts of the skin to peel away rather than flaking off.

[guidofatherof5]

Any breaks you put in the old shed will help reduce its ability to constrict. Any skin shed will come of with the next shed.

[d_virginiana]

Okay. I'll keep doing that then. The couple drops of vegetable oil I rubbed into her skin last night seemed to help a lot with that. Nothing was flaking off previously.

[Selkielass]

I read somewhere that papaya juice/ enzymes can help break down a tough shed and give some relief.Has anyone here ever soaked a shedbound snake in papaya juice? (Meat tenderizer is the same enzyme, but the salt levels are kind of scary.)

[d_virginiana]

I've been flaking the old scales off of her for awhile this morning. A LOT of them are starting to come off, and some of the belly scales as well. I can tell more of a difference in the areas I've gotten most of them off of now, both with the color and texture. She's not moving as stiffly as she was before, and the skin doesn't have that weird papery feeling any more.

[guidofatherof5]

Progress. That's good.

[Ruth]

I read somewhere that papaya juice/ enzymes can help break down a tough shed and give some relief.Has anyone here ever soaked a shedbound snake in papaya juice? (Meat tenderizer is the same enzyme, but the salt levels are kind of scary.)

I wonder if pineapple would have the same effect, it certainly removes top layers of human skin. Be a bit odd rubbing a snake with pineapple cubes though :)

i actually just read that its paticually good for removing dead skin but can have a dehydrating effect. I'm sure if it was a good idea someone would of thought of it before and I can't find any info of people having done so, so there must be a good reason why not.

[guidofatherof5]

I wonder if pineapple would have the same effect, it certainly removed top layers of human skin. Be a bit odd rubbing a snake with pineapple cubed though :)

Interesting thought. Maybe take an old shed and see how the pineapple effects it.

[Ruth]

Strangely enough one of my snakes shed today and we ate pineapple today lol if only I had known. Pineapple removes warts and such and you can remove your finger prints with it. I would think you would have to be incredibly careful though as snakes absorb much more than we do through their skin. Maybe if you had a horrendous situation where things were hopeless it would be worth a go.

[Selkielass]

I wonder if pineapple would have the same effect, it certainly removes top layers of human skin. Be a bit odd rubbing a snake with pineapple cubes though :)

i actually just read that its paticually good for removing dead skin but can have a dehydrating effect. I'm sure if it was a good idea someone would of thought of it before and I can't find any info of people having done so, so there must be a good reason why not.

But I have read of people doing so- but it was back in the 80's when papaya juice and enzymes were big in the health market. I don't know if it never caught on or if there were negative effects. We didnt have the intarwebs back then.

[d_virginiana]

Having just removed a large portion of her skin by hand, and feeling how soft the new skin is when it's first exposed, I'd be afraid to use the juice except as a last resort. I feel like that new skin could get irritated or even burned by the acid really quickly. I'm paranoid that just my fingernails are going to irritate it.

In other news, I'm done with the 'brushing' for today I think. After two sessions, Harley just seemed really exhausted. I got most of the scales off her sides and back, and a considerable amount of the belly scales off. She's still trying to get her shed started from the head but it just won't go. I haven't been messing with her face much yet, as I can't seem to get those scales started.
This whole thing just seems very strange. If the shed wasn't ready to come off, I don't think she'd have been trying to get it started or that the scales would just start flaking off like they are. At the same time, they're coming off fairly easily so I'm not sure why she couldn't seem to get it started on her own.

[guidofatherof5]

Glad to hear thing are improving.

[d_virginiana]

It really does seem like she knows I'm helping her out or something. Because having her scales all scraped off certainly doesn't feel good. I'm really surprised at how well she's handled it.

[d_virginiana]

I was just wondering... At what point do I call it quits on removing the scales manually? I've gotten most of the back/side scales, and one more go should take care of the majority of the belly scales. I just can't help thinking it's got to be very stressful on her regardless of how calm she's being, and I don't want to do it any more than I have to.

Also, oddly, none of the scales on her face have come off. In fact, those are some of the brightest. I'll keep an eye on it, but I'm beginning to wonder if maybe she shed part of her skin and then it broke off and that's why it was starting to look so weird, and also why she couldn't get it started by rubbing her face on things?

I'll put pictures of her up in a day or two and show the difference, even though it probably won't be as drastic in photos as what I can see.

[guidofatherof5]

What % of shed do you think has been removed? Is the tail shed?

[d_virginiana]

Hmm... Well, the sides/back above the cloaca I'd say are about 70 (probably closer to 80 but I'm pessimistic) percent removed. The belly scales... That's harder to tell, but I'd say about 50% of those. The face hasn't shed at all that I can see. Below the cloaca is only partially removed, but another round of scraping scales off should get pretty much all of it.

Any ideas as to why this is happening this way? Everything about the shed indicated that it was retained or at least in need of assistance, but as easily as these scales are coming off, I'm wondering why they won't just peel off in strips or why I couldn't get the shed started somewhere and she could get the rest off on her own? I mean, it's not like I'm having to scrape hard to get them off. Basically just put some vegetable oil on my thumb to keep the nail from hurting her, and running it down her side comes up with a ton of scales.

[Ruth]

Having just removed a large portion of her skin by hand, and feeling how soft the new skin is when it's first exposed, I'd be afraid to use the juice except as a last resort. I feel like that new skin could get
irritated or even burned by the acid really quickly. I'm paranoid that just my fingernails are going to irritate it.


In other news, I'm done with the 'brushing' for today I think. After two sessions, Harley just seemed really exhausted. I got most of the scales off her sides and back, and a considerable amount of the belly scales off. She's still trying to get her shed started from the head but it just won't go. I haven't been messing with her face much yet, as I can't seem to get those scales started.
This whole thing just seems very strange. If the shed wasn't ready to come off, I don't think she'd have been trying to get it started or that the scales would just start flaking off like they are. At the same time, they're coming off fairly easily so I'm not sure why she couldn't seem to get it started on her own.


I total agree I'd never try it unless it was do or die. I would also think you would have to keep rinsing the snake. I personally don't like to use anything on my snakes and when one came in with mites no chemicals were used I don't even use cleaning fluids just hot water and steam :)

[chris-uk]

It really does seem like she knows I'm helping her out or something. Because having her scales all scraped off certainly doesn't feel good. I'm really surprised at how well she's handled it.

I think you're right.

With respect to the head, have you managed to get much shed off around three neck? I found that working from the neck onto the head (so the opposite to the way she would do it herself) worked. It sounds like you're making progress so just keep plugging away.

[d_virginiana]

I think you're right.

With respect to the head, have you managed to get much shed off around three neck? I found that working from the neck onto the head (so the opposite to the way she would do it herself) worked. It sounds like you're making progress so just keep plugging away.

I think that's what I'm going to have to do. I'll put pictures up tonight of how she looks now compared to several days ago. Her color is so much better.

[d_virginiana]

Got the body completely clear, pretty much all the belly scales, though I may have missed a couple without noticing. Also, got the vent and tail off, and got a couple of the scales on the head off!
Waiting till tomorrow when she's had time to calm down completely before I go for the places she really doesn't like me going like her lips and eyes, but after that I should be done with this whole thing!

[snake man]

Sounds like everything is going well. Congratz and good luck for tomorrow.

[d_virginiana]

So the skin where I have removed the shed is incredibly soft and sort of wrinkly looking. It's kind of freaking me out. Doesn't seem to be bothering her too much. You can tell she doesn't really like the way it feels, but it's not like she's in pain or anything.
Is that normal in this sort of situation? Is it because of the vegetable oil I used to loosen the skin?

[guidofatherof5]

Are you able to post up some photos?

[d_virginiana]

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Whenever I put her down, she kind of scoots along. It looks like either she's trying to rub off excess bits of skin (almost like a shedding motion) or like maybe the scales on her belly are too soft to get traction.
I don't know why this is happening...

Oh, and the shot of her head shows the difference between the scales that I just flaked off (the large ones in the center of her head) and the scales that are still on (the ones above her eyes).

[guidofatherof5]

Any chance there is a mite issue?

[d_virginiana]

I would say almost zero chance of that. I've been handling her for hours over the past few days trying to get that shed off and haven't come across a single mite. Haven't seen any or seen any weird behavior from any of my other snakes either.

[guidofatherof5]

I only brought it up because of your "scoots along" statement. Just covering the basics.;)

[d_virginiana]

Yeah, I figured the 'scooting' motion has got to be either because the scales are so soft right now or because the remaining bits of skin itch and she is trying to get them off.
But her whole body is like freakishly soft. I'm thinking it may be because of the vegetable oil? I didn't use a lot, but it definitely got worked into her skin...

[Invisible Snake]

Personally, I think it's because of the vegetable oil, her body feeling "freakishly soft", not being able to get good traction and the rubbing.

Maybe a daily soak will help with that(?)

[d_virginiana]

That's what I think is probably the case... It still worries me though. Should I remove some of the rougher items from her cage? She acts like her skin is very sensitive, and she still has a couple things to rub against if she wants to.
I've been soaking her at least once a day, but usually just by putting her in her water dish and getting her to stay there for a few minutes since she's been so stressed out by this whole thing.

This whole thing has me wondering if I've done something horribly wrong that's going to end up killing my snake. I mean, if I jumped the gun and tried to start the shed early (unlikely considering how gross it looked before...) all her scales wouldn't have come off so easily, right? I'm probably just catastrophising right now, but still...

[kimbosaur]

When it happened to my snake, the skin was flaking off and the back half looked really wrinkly. I was certain it was a retained shed but I couldn't get an edge at all. After much soaking, and upping the humidity of the enclosure by a lot, he went blue a few days later and shed whole. BUT, even after a fresh, whole shed, his skin remained dry and wrinkly and it took a few sheds more to smooth out.

This is how the skin looked. You can see exactly where it smooths out in the front:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-QrCVGJ6HiVs/TynCb9_PEtI/AAAAAAAAAFg/edSwrK6yI1A/s640/IMG_0251.JPG

Skin flaking off in scale-sized bits:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-kaNWrQJ_Aik/TyIRglhd77I/AAAAAAAAAFA/nBm0c9nsOvk/s640/IMG_0214.JPG

I'm still thinking it could have been a retained shed that caused the skin underneath to somehow stay wrinkly since there was such a huge difference from the front to back. Could a retained shed damage the fresh skin underneath?

[guidofatherof5]

Could a retained shed damage the fresh skin underneath?

I would say it is possible. Constriction in a localized area.

[d_virginiana]

Those pictures are almost exactly how Harley's scales looked after I got the scales off (and still looks). Wrinkly, and almost ruffled up. Except her skin isn't dry, which I believe is because after trying high humidity and soaks, and still getting no progress, I had to use vegetable oil to finally get them off.

New issue though, she regurgitated water twice today when I picked her up to check on her. Do you think this is just due to stress and the fact that she really doesn't want me messing with her any more for awhile? I still haven't got the eyecaps off, but I'm afraid of continuing to mess with her if she is so stressed that she's regurgitating...

[guidofatherof5]

Those pictures are almost exactly how Harley's scales looked after I got the scales off (and still looks). Wrinkly, and almost ruffled up. Except her skin isn't dry, which I believe is because after trying high humidity and soaks, and still getting no progress, I had to use vegetable oil to finally get them off.

New issue though, she regurgitated water twice today when I picked her up to check on her. Do you think this is just due to stress and the fact that she really doesn't want me messing with her any more for awhile? I still haven't got the eyecaps off, but I'm afraid of continuing to mess with her if she is so stressed that she's regurgitating...

I think you called it right. I try to avoid handling any of my snakes right after they've been drinking.
Unless this become a reoccurring event I wouldn't worry to much.

[d_virginiana]

She was near her water bowl at the time, so I imagine she had just been drinking or something and I didn't realize it.

I'll keep an eye on it just in case though. I have yet to get the eyecaps off, but I feel like those could probably wait another day or two at least so she can calm down some. There are still some scales in the 'belly' just below her head (probably five or six scales), and the scales on her lower jaw, lips, and eyes haven't come off yet either. I got most of everything down to the cloaca, but there may be sections of the tail that didn't come off. Would it be okay to give the 'shedding' process a rest for awhile considering those are the only regions left?

[chris-uk]

To me, she sounds like the whole shedding experience has stressed her (not surprising really). The areas you say are left aren't ones that are going to kill her if they stay on (the crucial bit you have left is the eyecaps) so you're now in a position of weighing stress against the shed. Personally, if she's showing signs of stress then I'd give her a break for a day and try the eyecaps, then give her another break before trying the rest.
Also, if she's regurgitated water twice in a day, that means she's had a drink, brought it up, and felt the need to drink urgently enough to try again. Sounds like she needs to drink, so giving her a break will let her do that and take the water in before you stress her again.

[d_virginiana]

Okay, quick update.

Today when I picked Harley up to check on her, she crawled around on me for a minute before kind of burbling up a little bit of water. Not exactly regurgitating, but close. So I went ahead and put her back in her tank. I would avoid handling her altogether, but with her acting so oddly I feel like I need to check on her closely at least once a day. Her scales finally seem to be hardening up a little bit, but with the continued almost-vomiting water I'm thinking I need to wait a bit longer on the eyecaps still. She's moving around more today, and is moving more normally. You can tell she isn't comfortable exactly, but she's not 'scooting' as much as she was.

So here's my theory on the water thing... I think that when I removed the shed, it may have already started to fuse or something, so the skin underneath was very soft and a bit damaged when I got it off. I've noticed her drinking very large amounts of water during this whole process, sometimes just sitting in her dish and drinking for minutes at a time. I believe that the regurgitation isn't her being sick so much as that she has been drinking so much, and it's the stress of being held while her scales are still sensitive and uncomfortable and the stress of being messed with so much that is causing that.
But a day or two ago, I noticed that the urates in her poo were almost orange. This happened twice. So I started going in every couple hours and putting her in her water and reminding her to drink. Since then, the urates have returned to looking white and normal. I realize that this could mean either kidney damage or dehydration. Since she is having no other symptoms of kidney issues and drinking lots of water seems to have helped the issue, I'm thinking it was dehydration.

My theory is that she was getting very dehydrated due to the incredibly soft, damaged skin not retaining water as much as the typically harder scales would (seriously, her skin felt like human skin for a few days. it's just now starting to feel like a reptile again) I know there's not a huge amount of fluid transfer through the skin in snakes, but imagine how much fluid you would lose if you pulled bandaids off every inch of your body. It's not a lot of damage, but when it is over your entire body it would cause you to lose a lot of fluid until all the little unnoticeable tears in your skin could be repaired.

Do you guys think that sounds reasonable? I just think this might help anyone else who may be dealing with a bizarre shed issue or anything else to do with potentially fragile skin or skin damage.

EDIT: In regards to the urates. She has been 'going' a lot even with little to no actual poo and just urates. So the amount of urate coming out is staying pretty proportional with what seems to be an increased amount of water going in.

[guidofatherof5]

Spoke to Steve Schmidt last night and he wanted me to caution you about using any heavy oil on the snakes eye caps. He said that he remembers an article about using oil by the Philadelphia Herpetological Society and that it can remove more then just a retained shed. He feels if there are retained eye caps it would be safer to let her shed them off in the next cycle.

Do you see signs/evidence of a retained eye cap/s? If you don't I would not attempt removal. You don't want to run the risk of damaging the new brille (eye cap).
Just my thoughts.

[d_virginiana]

Well, I don't think anything was shed other than what I helped her shed, so her eyecaps are probably still on. I haven't messed with those yet, but thanks for the warning. I'll just let those shed off next time. I figured the oil might have contributed to how damaged the skin was on the body, so I was a little worried about putting anything on the eyes. Only reason I used it on the body was because I couldn't get anything started otherwise.

I'm still worried about her, but she didn't regurge any water today. I offered her food, but she didn't want any. Not really surprising, but she did look interested in it for a few seconds.
Oddly, some of the scales that I missed are starting to flake off on their own. I think now that she's feeling like moving around more she's starting to scrape off the remaining bits on her own.

[guidofatherof5]

Keep us posted on her progress.

[d_virginiana]

Will do.

I just keep second-guessing myself on whether or not I did the right thing in going ahead with manually removing the shed. If it wasn't ready to come off I feel like it wouldn't have come off so easily... But even though I'm pretty paranoid, I think she's passed the danger period and is recovering. I can start to feel the ridges on the scales hardening up again and she definitely feels better today than she has been.

[guidofatherof5]

Not sure what substrate your using but maybe paper towels would be good until she recovers.

[d_virginiana]

I'm using newspaper. I can switch to paper towels for awhile though. I was going to change out her bedding tomorrow anyway.

I have noticed that as of yesterday she had started actively burrowing up under it to hide like normal instead of just crawling under her hide or water dish.

[d_virginiana]

Okay, so Harley vomited more water today. I'm starting to really worry about that since she's normally very calm, and isn't acting as stressed as you'd expect a snake to act when they're about to regurge something. Like, she'll be just sitting on my hand, tongue-flicking, and all of a sudden water is coming out of her mouth... I realize that stress is almost definitely part of the problem here since this seems to mainly happen when she's held, but I'm starting to wonder if there's some underlying problem as well. For instance, whether she's just drinking all this excess water because her skin being soft is causing her to dehydrate more quickly, or if there's a more worrying reason for it.

I'm not handling her more than about 30 seconds in a day, and I wouldn't even be doing that, except I feel like I should try and keep tabs on how she's moving and how her skin is hardening up. Especially since the scales at the vent area were also affected and wrinkled by whatever made the rest of her scales so soft. Nothing is puffy or infected looking, and things seem to still be moving through correctly, but that's something I'm going to be watching like crazy.

I have access to a reptile specialty vet, but it's something that would be expensive enough that I'd like to avoid it if at all possible...

[d_virginiana]

Today's update: She's still drinking crazy amounts of water, but seems to feel better than she has. She hasn't regurgitated any today either. Constantly tongue flicking and she was never in the same place twice when I looked in on her today.

[chris-uk]

She sounds like she's improving. :)

[d_virginiana]

Okay, new problem today.

I got a couple of the belly scales that I had missed previously off because they were flaking on their own, and the skin underneath was a pink color and extremely soft. There's no significant swelling in the area as of now, and she doesn't act like it's painful. This weird pink color was only where the skin had been covered by the scales and hadn't spread beyond where they were at all (I didn't know anything was weird till I removed them) so I'm hoping this isn't infected yet.
Just to be safe, I coated that small area in betadine just in case there were any nicks or tears in the soft skin I couldn't see. I have a midterm tomorrow, so no pics tonight probably, but I'll try and get pics up by tomorrow.

Other than that, she seemed to move more normally after I got those few scales off, and is acting just as happy and alert as she was yesterday if not more. Also the scales on her back and sides are feeling almost normal.

[guidofatherof5]

I'm confused. It sounds like you removed the scale rather then the shed on the scale. Pink underneath would be actual skin. Am I reading something wrong?

[d_virginiana]

Yeah, sorry. The shed was finally flaking off on those last few, and then underneath was that strange pink color. There was one where the shed had only been left on about half a scale, and the left side that I had removed earlier was orange, and the right side that had had the shed on it was pink underneath. Best way I can describe it is you know how your skin looks if you leave a bandaid on too long, and water gets under it?
They flaked right off though like all the others did.

[d_virginiana]

Do you think this could be because the shed on those scales was partially loosened while I was getting the shed off the surrounding areas, and somehow water/oil got trapped between the shed and the skin, causing that to happen? Because the other areas I didn't get (most of her face, a small portion of the neck, and a fair amount of the tail) don't all look like that.

I'll try and get pictures up tomorrow. When I checked back in on her tonight, the pink coloration was starting to look a little more normal. Like the area was 'drying out'. I also want to put up a picture of the vent area. Where the scales are still sort of soft, the scale right over the vent is bent, leaving a little bit exposed that probably shouldn't be. Barely enough to notice, but still. Right now all I'm doing is checking daily to make sure no debris is caught in/around it, but I kind of want to put it up to see what you guys think.

[chris-uk]

I didn't see anything like you've described when I had difficult sheds with my FTT checkered girl last year, but I didn't use anything other than water, a scalpel blade and tweasers. It could conceivably be down to the oil. Best bet is to pop a few photos up.

[d_virginiana]

That's what I'm starting to think. Especially since that doesn't seem to be the case with the scales in the areas that I didn't start peeling, like the face and all. Only the few that were on the body and had probably been loosened already. I thought I was doing a decent job of washing it off between working at getting the shed off, but I'm starting to think it got stuck in and around the remaining scales, so it was effectively soaking her for awhile despite me thinking I was cleaning her off. If I ever have to deal with this again, I will not be using oil. The way her shed was coming off only a few scales at a time, I thought I'd do more stress and damage without it, but that's clearly not the case.
It's 5:30 am here, so I'll get pics up by tomorrow after all my midterm craziness is over and done with.

Thanks for replying; I'm starting to get really worried about her. I know there's probably no reason for my level of freaking out, considering there has been noticeable improvement and she is gradually becoming more active and like normal. She did end up vomiting water again today, but I do believe that will clear up after the scales continue to harden and whatever imbalance is going on right now works itself out. It would worry me more if her urates weren't proportional to the amount she's been drinking.

[chris-uk]

The key thing is that you are seeing improvement. :)

[d_virginiana]

This is what I was talking about. The skin isn't torn off of these areas or anything, they're just that odd color where those remaining belly scales were... I'm still putting betatdine on them just as a precaution (plus, doubt it'll hurt anything...) but I don't think they're infected or anything. She doesn't act like it hurts her, and she was acting fairly normal today.
Just thought this was really weird.

82688269

[chris-uk]

Interesting. The shape of the miscoloured patches wouldn't be inconsistent with oil seeping under the loose shed and discolouring the scales.

[d_virginiana]

Yeah, especially since that doesn't seem to have happened on the areas where the scales hadn't been disturbed enough to let the oil get up under them. If that's been going on, that may be what was causing her to need to drink so much water too. Maybe it could've been causing her to absorb a lot of minerals or something from it, and then needing to drink a lot to compensate?

[d_virginiana]

Well, more weirdness. The scales I didn't even mess with on her neck are getting that weird pink color under them, as well as a couple of the smaller scales on the underside of the tail. She is still regurgitating water whenever I pick her up as well.
The good news is that she is still acting alert and normal (other than the regurgitating...) with a lot of tongue-flicking and everything. Moving normally. Also, the pink area from the scales that I removed a day or two ago are almost normal colored now.

I may be overreacting, but I'm calling to try and get her to the reptile specialist tomorrow or monday at the latest.

[guidofatherof5]

Sounds like a good idea.

[d_virginiana]

Sounds like a good idea.

Do you have any idea what could be going on?

[guidofatherof5]

Not really. The throwing up water is a huge concern.

[d_virginiana]

I'm almost more worried about what's making her drink that much than I am the throwing it up... Because as stressed as she has been, throwing up water right after drinking a lot would be understandable. And I don't think she's throwing up unless I pick her up (which I've been doing only because of the weird pink places and all). But I'm not sure why she's feeling the need to drink that much!
Luckily I can't see any signs of dehydration, or bizarre fluid retention or anything, so I'm holding out hope that this is still due to her skin being so soft and maybe she is losing more water through the skin than would be normal... And her skin is still really soft. The space between the scales seems much larger than normal too. Skin is harder than it was, but still not normal...

It's just so odd because these signs are all pretty worrisome, but whenever I check on her, she sticks her head up and is constantly tongue-flicking and looking around...
I'll post again when I hear back from the vet.

[d_virginiana]

Okay, tonight's update: She ate a pinkie! I only gave her one, because she should be going to the vet on Monday and I don't want her to regurge any food. But this is the first time she's shown an interest in food since this whole thing started, so I'm taking it as a good sign.
No regurgitating either, and it seems like she may have slowed up on drinking so much, but I can't be certain. Also, those pink scales are returning to normal color with treating with betadine.

Of course she would start to improve the second I make a vet appointment. But still, I'm going to take her in to make sure everything is okay.

[guidofatherof5]

Good for her. Glad things are being a little more normal.

[d_virginiana]

Vet visit was today, and I got surprisingly good news. No evidence of kidney failure/infection, and no stomach problems. Apparently her symptoms made the vet think it might be that parasitic disease that keeps snakes from being able to get food past the stomach (I forget the name of it..) or kidney failure. We decided not to do bloodwork since it's risky to take blood from such a small snake, but I'm going to get a fecal sample and let them test it for parasites just in case.

Everyone who handled her today said she was a very calm, well-behaved snake :) I'm very happy with this vet. It'll be the place I take all my reptiles from now on.

[guidofatherof5]

Good to hear.