Missing scales???

Kirby is now 6 months old. He is orange with greyish purple zig-zag marking down each of his sides. Right now his back is starting a shed.

I noticed that he has 3 black dots (1large and 2 smaller ones) that have appeared on his back near his right shoulder. I took a photo of them (sorry poor quality on my phone) it appears that he might be missing scales. You can't see that with your eyes but it looks like that in the zoomed in photo. I read that they have black skin so this actually could be the case.

Any ideas on what would cause this. Should we be alarmed. Do scales grow back? Does it look like missing scales to you?
Kirby is going to the vet for a wellness check next month but I am thinking of moving the appointment up.

He has been spending a ton of time outside in the sun, so I hope he hasn't caught anything. That is the only difference recently.

Looks like a potential bacterial or fungal issue, thought fungus is rare in my part of the country. I had the same thing on my girl.

Vet scraped the scales and tested them to ensure it wasn't fungal. Then I had to bathe her for 20 minutes each day in a betadine solution the vet gave me. I used a toothbrush to scrub her lightly (she loved it) to make sure it got on her tail and facial spikes. It went away after about 3-4 weeks.

Thanks so much for the for the info.

I think we are going to move up his appointment. He is just starting to have a back shed. Would it be best to wait till the shed is over or get him in right away. I worry that with the shed the vet might not be able to really determine the issue BUT I also want to get this looked at right away.

Get it looked at right away. Anything where they lose scales is an issue. With reptiles it takes longer than other animals to respond to treatment so getting it looked at sooner will minimize scales loss and increase recovery time.

We have an appointment at 2 this afternoon. Thanks for your help

The appointment went great.

We LOVE the vet. He was awesome and had a lot of helpful information. He said that it wasn't an infection or a bacterial or fungal issue. Which is great to hear.

I feel much better that we moved his wellness check up and took him in soon.

What did he say the cause was?

He believes that it was caused bY his leach crumpling up a few scales. They scales aren't missing just crumpled.