green belly, dried tail

[TheBeansprout]

Hi, one of my girls used to have a nice yellowish belly and a perfect tail.
Recently, her belly has turned to have an olive-ish green color, the same as my other girl's belly. And her tail seems to have dried up, and not from shedding poorly. Any ideas of what it could be from?

They've had a pellet-type cat litter bedding, which is pine. I just read that that could be bad, so that's being changed. But this seemed to happen pretty quickly.

Thanks!!

TheBeansprout

[TheBeansprout]

Hi again, here's a picture of her tail. She's in a different habitat right now and not liking it very much, so I couldn't get a picture of her belly. I'll post one when she calms down.

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/tail.jpg


Here's my girl. :) She was TheBeansprout's mom.

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/kukla.jpg

TheBeanprout

[Zephyr]

Hmm... I've heard of this happening in wild snakes... Either it's a retained shed cutting off the circulation to the tail or nematodes.
The green belly, if the marks are in ovals and sickle shapes, may be scale rot.

[TheBeansprout]

Thank you Zephyr. The green belly is just an all-over change in color. A couple of her daughters have a darker green belly, it just seems odd that it would change now. She'll be 5 in October.

It's definitely not a shed. She's always been the perfect shedder.
I'll look up the nematodes.

Thanks again!

TheBeansprout

[guidofatherof5]

I'm stumped. Looks like the kind of injury that occurs from an incomplete shed. Is there a chance she could have injured it on something in the enclosure? Is it a dry injury or is there discharge? A Vet's advice would be best but in the event that's not in the picture I would at least treat it with Silver Sulfadiazine cream(prescription needed) or neosporin(OTC) Hope everything works out.
I would also give the tail a good soaking and cleaning before I would treat it.

[TheBeansprout]

Thanks Steve, I'm beginning to wonder if she got it caught in some of the sticks in the cage that they climb and sleep on. I picked up some neosporin and will bring her to the vet Monday if she doesn't seem any better.

Thanks!
TheBeansprout

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

I've only seen that on wild caught snakes for sale at shows before... it looks swollen and infected, I would get some medication for that promptly!

[drache]

that looks like abrasions, like it got stuck it something

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

yea it doesn't look quite like stuck skin.. usually the tail shrivels if it's that. It kind of does look like it took a beating. It's definitely swollen! if the belly color is a uniform change, an the rest of the snake is not turning funky colors... i would not be worried. Especially if her young exhibit that same belly color. it's not unusual for garters to keep changing as the age!

[TheBeansprout]

Thank you!! I'm going to clean it and put some neopsorin on her now.

I so very much appreciate the help!

TheBeansprout