Baby Irian Jaya delivered w/broken toe

[jreignltp]

Hi y'all. New to the forum, been lurking for about a month and proud owner of my first bts!

So I received my baby Irian Jaya today, and so far the little fella's been pretty cautious towards its new surroundings(just now seeing him wandering around). Haven't seen a hiss or open mouth for defense during my short encounters so far. While transporting the lil dude, I noticed one of his back toes being bent backwards .. just looks like scales holding it together. I'll take a pic when I get a chance. He's probably a bit stressed from his 1-day, 40 mile trip, so I'm gonna give him his time to acclimate.

Does anybody have any recommendations as to what I can do to help his toe? Will the toe just fall off(I'll post a pic soon)?

[Tokkay]

I always lean towards taking a skink to the vet just to be safe, especially if the toe looks like it's already partially detached since there's potential for an infection. Not to mention that if he arrived in poor condition then there could be other problems with him, unfortunately.

Where did you happen to purchase him from?

[jreignltp]

Sounds good, I'm gonna take him. Would it be too soon to handle him when transporting to a vet, or should I wait a few days to let him relax?

I ordered him from LLL Reptile. I saw them at a reptile show, picked up a nice l.gecko from them so figured they were pretty good handlers.

[kayla990]

Aww, sadly toes can be pretty fragile. Agree with going to the vet to make sure it won't get infected Difficult to say if you should wait (if it's not inflamed/showing signs of infection) or go there as soon as possible... perhaps call the vet and ask for a second opinion for timing.

While it's possible they may remove the toe, they should be able to move around with no problems. Make sure to ask about after care to be on the safe side (a lot of the times it should heal fine; if humidity is correct for your species). Feel free to post a picture if you also want to confirm if it's an Irian Jaya - even places you'd expect to be correct - can make mistakes!

[jreignltp]

Last night was the first time handling the little fella and I noticed much more fingers/toes missing. I'm not sure if I received it in that condition, or he lost them under my care because I really only noticed the bent finger from day 1. Its been 10 days since receiving him and I've never had the humidity below 70%.. mostly kept at 80% and it spends most it's time in his humid hide with the thermostat set at 93 degrees fahrenheit inside the hide. I spray daily(some days more generously) and have the $50 reptile humidifier from amazon running every 4 hours. The little guy loves that humidifier as he always comes out of the hide after. I'm going to take him to the vet this weekend to look at those missing toes. I feel so sorry for him.

The other thing I noticed is that he doesn't look like an Irian Jaya but I fell in love with his thin, broken bands and black and brown colors. It looks like a Halmahera with less orange. Maybe a hybrid? What do you guys think?

[Tokkay]

He likely already had the missing toes before ever being sent to you. Generally skinks that lose toes lose them due to stuck shed or humidity problems, and 10 days isn't enough time to cause those problems. He is likely a wild caught animal or the baby of a recently wild caught animal which could explain why he's a little more roughed up.

I'm not the best with identification, but he looks most like an Indonesian to me (T. gigas gigas) due to the black belly. I believe Halmahera is a an Indonesian locality that present solid black forelegs. Could be wrong about it though; I'll let some Indo keepers weigh in!

[kayla990]

Good point from Tokkay about the missing toes and the timeframe - good chance you received him like that..

Glad to hear he's with you though, sounds like you're doing a good job for the little guy!

And I'm leaning towards a Halmahera myself - our little one also has the black spotty belly like that (and ours also doesn't have the solid black legs, I think that's the Indonesian - but it's pretty confusing!). A lot of the Halmaheras seem to have the 'black lines' between the head scales, which seems to be the case here.

(But of course - do correct me if I'm wrong! Still learning how to ID correctly )

It looks like a Halmahera with less orange. Maybe a hybrid? What do you guys think?

With the less orange - seems to develop with age. At least when ours was 2 months, looked very similar to yours. Now at 4 months, very noticeable peach/pink.

[jreignltp]

Thanks for the replies Kayla990 and Tokkay. Yeah I think the belly gives it off as a Halmahera.

Looks like my BTS has been through so much to get to me. He appeared really distressed when I first got him. Never hissed or try to nip at me, but a bit scared of me. After handling him for a good 20mins yesterday, he was way more active in the enclosure. One of the pics show him basking, which is the first I've witnessed and right after handling. Since then, he's been exploring his home a lot more.

Are there any adult blue tongues here currently thriving that had lost multiple fingers as a baby?