BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Hello everyone. After giving up my previous beloved Bluey for adoption before a big move several years back, I decided this month that I needed another one in my life: enter Dougie, who arrived this past Tuesday. He's about 3-4 months old and very huffy, but on Day 1, after some initial angry huffs and hisses when taking him out of his shipping box, he calmed right down and was very active, curious, and and seemingly in excellent health. He ate his food (perhaps too much), Wellness chicken entree pate mixed with D3 supplement and some diced collard greens, heartily, and has continued to do so... except it's almost a week on and the friendly, healthy little skink who arrived has turned into an irritable, hissy, anxious little thing that projectile urinates everywhere and passes noxious black-green sludge instead of normal feces when you handle him for more than two minutes.

All that could just be normal stress symptoms from acclimating to his new home, but the thing that has me worried is that in the last couple days, he seems to have developed some sort of eye problem; his eyes still look clear and normal, but he keeps closing them, especially his left one. It's not just a defensive stress reaction when he's handled, it's something I've been noticing him doing in his enclosure--his eyes are closed as he's shuffling around, and his nictating membrane occasionally looks labored when he blinks. There is no crust or discharge or redness I can see, and his breathing sounds fine, but it is not normal "sleepy bluey" stuff, because even when he's active, he will often keep one or both eyes closed now. I do not remember this behavior at all from my previous skink (not even the defense peeing/pooping stuff), and googling it and backsearching this forum doesn't seem to turn up much regarding other keepers noticing this behavior from their skink (unless I'm just exceptionally poor at using the search function).

Does it sound like I'm overreacting, or is this actually a well-known symptom of something I should rush him to the vet for soon?

I am using an MVB bulb, which I saw someone here mention (without elaborating) that they can cause eye problems, but I used one on my last skink with no issues, and I see that others on this board do as well. I have it positioned just beyond the 12" safety point, so it's not too close to the animal. The hot end of his enclosure is also in the low 90s, the cooler end in the high 70s during the day. At night it gets down to around 68-70 degrees. I have him on paper towels right now to better monitor his pooing.

I would take him to the vet if the runny feces keeps going and if his eye problems continues.

That's a pretty fast change and decline - I think a vet is in order.

Might just be dietary .... the chicken stuff may have stuff in it that disagrees with him.

But they can downhill fast and I'd head this off before he gets worse , if the vet tells you its just dietary , you've only spend a little on a vet consult and maybe some tests.

So I have done some more research, and stumbled upon this article about "photo-kerato-conjunctivitis":
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/phototherapyphosphor-info.htm
The Bluey used in the photo to illustrate not only looks uncannily like little Dougie, but also the closed, fatigued looking eyes look very similar. I'm going to switch out the mercury vapor bulb with a standard one and see if that helps; if there's no improvement in a few days, it's off to the vet.

Update! I am still going to be booking a vet appointment, but I have changed out the MV bulb and replaced it with a 100w GE Reveal bulb--which isn't quite as hot, but a few hours later and Dougie is out and about in the enclosure and both his eyes are now open again, including the left one, which is the one he had most closed the past few days.

Dougie went to the vet last week and it was determined he had very high levels of Coccidia in his feces, hence the diarrhea. I searched through the forums and this seems to be very rare among skinks. Has anyone else dealt with this? He's starting treatment for a couple weeks with medication given orally; I'm assuming I'll have to shove a syringe down his throat

I personally have dealt with this before in a bearded dragon and in a skink. Did the vet give you panacur? For both my guys I rescued and had to use it on if I place the syringe on the side of the mouth and gently put pressure they would open their mouths and take the medicine no problem. I always followed the meds with a tasty treat to make the experience positive. Hope this helps and good luck!

My bearded dragon was given SMZ when she had coccidia. It was sent to a compounding pharmacy, they added (my choice of) banana flavoring to it...she loved it and eagerly licked it from the syringe! My older bts was given an anti inflammatory as a baby and he was the same way, got all excited when it was time for his meds and wanted more lol.

The pharmacy that the vet called the compounding order into is well out of my way and they are closed on the weekends, so I'll have to wait til Monday to pick it up, ugh. They didn't have banana flavoring, but they did have strawberry--Dougie has refused all fruits, including strawberry, so hopefully he doesn't hate the taste.

What is the medication?

Ponazuril. Dougie had his first dose today, then another in a couple days, then two more in a couple weeks. Despite his illness, he's really started to settle down; he was hiding in his favorite paper towel roll when I went to give him the medicine, and after a couple seconds of sniffing my hand he climbed right out to me of his own accord. Cute. He also started shedding as of this evening.

I am familiar with that medication. I personally never have used it in reptiles though. I am glad to hear he has settled down and is taking the medication. I wish him a speedy recovery.

Thank you! He already seems to be on the mend--his appetite is back with a vengeance

Awe, that is great! Glad to hear it :-)