Discolored ventral scales are a symptom of Ulcerative Dermatitis, or Scale Rot. The spots can be brown, red, or pink! It can be caused by oversoaking, over-exposure to damp substrate, or sitting in a dirty cage too long (the heat, humidity and acids from the urate will combine to create a dangerous situation).

Now, you will probably want to take it to a vet that specializes in herps as soon as possible for a diagnosis. However, I’ve treated scale rot successfully on several rescued snakes by using the antibacterial ointment, Neosporin. The snake has to stay dry so take the snake out of it’s enclosure and put it into a SUBSTRATE FREE container for the duration of it’s treatment. This gives you time to totally clean and disinfect it’s cage. The large, plastic sweater containers work well for this. Keep the snake in this without substrate of any kind, including paper. You can cover half of it with a blanket to give it a "hide" and use a basking light or a human heating pad on the other end to create the heat and make sure you have lots of holes drilled into the top and sides for aeration and to allow excess humidity to escape. Keep an eye on the snake and clean the container immediately when it is soiled. Rub Neosporin on all of the spots twice a day -- that is why no substrate -- with substrate it will just rub off the ointment. Do not keep water in the container and offer water to drink when you take the snake out to treat it with the ointment. You can feed the snake as usual during this period and you probably will not see any signs of healing until after the next shed. Then the spots should be all gone and the infection stopped. At that point you can put the snake back into it’s cage with clean, dry substrate. It will be a difficult period for the both of you, but it has to be done.

Also, this is probably exactly what the vet will tell you to do and sell you something very similar to the Neosporin. Another antibacterial ointment you can use is Polysporin, just make sure that any ointment you use does not have any kind of pain reliever or medication in it -- herps don’t respond well to human painkillers!!!!