Please Help! (Potential Emergency)

[texasguitarslinger]

I just had something of a freak accident happen to my pet blue tongue skink. I walked into my room (without my glasses on) and saw something flying around my light. I turned off the light to get it to go away (I thought it was a moth), but instead it flew directly under my skink's heat lamp and landed. I was curious to see what it was. Just as I got close enough to identify it as a bee, my skink was already lounging at it and had it in his mouth before I could get the bee to fly away. And he swallowed it before I do anything to stop him.

This happened about three hours ago, and at first I thought everything looked fine. After all, I've seen him eat more than his share of stray bugs. But I know him well enough to know when he's uncomfortable, and right now he definitely doesn't look comfortable. He's normally very active, even at night, but right now he's just laying with his head down and his eyes closed. He also appears to be breathing a little heavier than he normally does. He still responds to my voice, and he can move and look around. I don't know whether I'm just too worried and overreacting, or if there's really something going on.

Is there anything I can do for him? It's past midnight local time, and even though there is a vet who treats reptiles and exotics nearby, there is no one there at this time of night. I would have to wait until morning to get any sort of professional help. Has anyone else ever had this happen to their skink? If he's sick, how bad does something like this normally get?

[Richard.C]

May have been stung in the throat,mouth are so jusst a bit uncomfy,id say it will settle down over nite,just watch him i guess,ifstill odd in the morning perhaps a vet visit,as bees sting once and stinger could still be stuck

[texasguitarslinger]

Should I feed him anything now or tomorrow morning? Do you think that would help or hurt the situation?

I'm still keeping an eye on him. A little while ago he was walking around just fine and everything looked fairly normal. But that was only for a few minutes, and he seems about the same now as he was when I made the first post.

[Susann]

I would let him have access to water, but if you are worried about him and think you'll take him to a vet tomorrow, personally I wouldn't offer him any food until after the vet has seen him. He'll be perfectly fine without food for many days.
If there is no way you can see a vet before tomorrow morning, you should just turn the lights out so both of you can get as much rest as possible. There is only so much you can do in situations like these, and most of the time the best thing you can do is to just to create as stress-free an environment as you can for a sick/injured animal.

I'm sure he's just fine, but please let us know how this works out.