Advice for Dehydrated/not Eating Skink

[Kiya03]

hello everyone! first time posting, but have been lurking here while researching for getting a pet skink, which I finally managed to obtain about 4 weeks ago.
Unfortunately, like many who thought they knew it all before getting a pet, my baby Halmahera, Loki has been giving me some problems...

Basically, the trouble started right away, in that Loki was an unenthusiastic eater at best, at first, I assumed it was him settling into a new home, but over the past four weeks, I've only been able to coax him into eating about a bite of food a day, despite offering as wide a variety of food as I could get (wet cat/dog food, bluey buffet, raw/hardboiled eggs, live feeder insects) and he showed little to no interest in any of it, but was still drinking a fair amount every day, and was active.

as of a few days ago, he crashed suddenly, was no longer visiting the water bowl to drink, not walking unless prodded, and the most activity he would do during the day would be to climb to his basking spot, and back down again to his hot hide. we scheduled a vet appointment right away, and during the days leading up, I did my best to get him to eat a liquid diet and soaked him in warm water, but he continued to decline to the point I was afraid he would pass in his sleep before the appointment.

Fortunately, he was able to make it to the vet, who determined that he was dehydrated, but had no infections or parasites, and gave me a liquid diet and instructions to continue soaking him a few times a day, but I'm here to ask if anyone else has experienced anything similar, or has any advice?

other info:
Loki is about 2 months old, Halmahera type, has coco fiber substrate and standard large waterdish/humid hide/hot hide setup, it's pretty dry where I live, so I spray down the tank 3 times or so a day to keep humidity up, but am considering getting a fogger for his tank because it gets pretty dry on his basking side no matter what I do.

Thanks for reading, and any advice is appreciated!

[kayla990]

Aww, so sorry to hear the situation..

Do you have any pictures so we can estimate age? A lot of Halmaheras are wild caught and prone to parasites - I'm pretty surprised the vet didn't find any parasites based on the description of lethargy (was the vet a reptile specialist?).

It may also be possible he's not moving much from still settling in (as some may try to 'hide' in plain sight), but the non-eating sounds more like a health issue.. how is his breathing?

How are his calcium levels? I'm aware that crashes can sometimes be caused from deficient calcium levels. We were adviced to get an appetite stimulant for a different reptile who had no appetite, I believe called Zilla. Maybe that could be something to try.

Do you know the humidity/temperature levels? In some countries, even spraying that frequently can only spike the humidity temporarily so it's best to know for certain with a hygrometer. Does he feel cold to the touch, or warm? If he's cool, that can cause inactivity/suppressed appetite. If you're able to can you post images of your setup - maybe there's something we can advice on.

Otherwise, the only other thing I'm leaning towards is possible impaction (for example, if he ate substrate when at the pet shop). I would continue giving luke warm baths if possible. On that note, has he been passing stools?

Jumping into more unlikely scenarios (but maybe worth a check, since the vet didn't seem able to give answers on why he's being inactive):
- is there any chance of pesticides on the insects (even though it seems he didn't eat any?)
- 'bad' sprays in the air that could make him sick (such as cleaning sprays or heavy scented items)
- air flow; does the tank have ventilation
- are there any items in the tank that were difficult to clean effectively? Thinking of things like driftwood brought in from outdoors that may have bacteria
- any signs of mold in the tank?

Hope it can give a few things to look into, fingers crossed! And I agree getting a fogger would be a good choice for a Haly.

[lunarisx]

I saw Japanese Halmahera keeper always have big plastic container to drink and soak in. I use icecream container for water dish and he drink, bathe and sometimes poop in it.

[Kiya03]

I appreciate the response, Unfortunately Loki passed away during treatment...the soaking and handfeeding helped with the symptoms (wrinkled scales. sunken appearance) despite looking better and being slightly more responsive, he passed away overnight.

The only thing we could think of was that moving to a new home was just too much stress for such a little guy, plus maybe some underlying issues, he did have an odd way of walking for a blue tongue, a kind of jerky hesitant walk that I didn't think was unusual till I saw videos of other baby blues walking with the same smooth glide as adults. but hard to say, didn't want to hand him over to the vet to find out...rest in peace Loki

still passionate about having a Skink though (not to mention a few hundred put into specifically an Indonesian Blue tongue enclosure ^^;) gonna look into getting an older juvenile or adult next time though

[Janella]

I am very sorry for your loss