Mystery Weight Loss

[LavaCookies]

Hi everyone, I'm sorry to be another person with an unwell skink but I don't know where else to turn to!

I adopted my Indonesian Blue Tongue Skink, Cocoa Bean, in February 2022. He was a surrender to my local exotic specialist pet store but with very little background information other than he was three years old. He'd been looked over by the staff and he was in good health, although falsely identified as a female at first (he started dropping plugs a few months after I brought him home). His last healthy weight was 406g.

In April 2023 I went away for a short trip and left him in the care of that same exotic pet store for four days. I have used them for boarding leopard geckos before with no issues, and he had been before multiple times, plus the whole time before I adopted him so they know him very well. They said he had been fine while with them.
When I got him back I noticed he had stopped eating. He seemed interested in the food, but wouldn't eat it. I attributed this to stress and he was also due to shed. This went on for about four weeks, I weighed him and his weight had dropped to 356g. I took him straight away to my local exotic vet. Investigations took place, his poop was tested for parasites and he had a general health blood test. His blood test flagged stress on his liver, and the poop test showed small amounts of nematode eggs.

He was given a parasite treatment by the vet, and put on critical care formula, reptoboost and diluted milk thistle to support his liver. He was on CCF, reptoboost and milk thistle for six months, until October 2023 when the blood test was repeated. His liver was normal, and the only thing of note was slightly elevated white blood cells which could easily be stress related. The vet advised I stop all treatment as his weight had stabilised at around 370g and he was a clinically healthy animal.
His weight started gradually dropping again and after four weeks he was down to 348g. I put him back on CCF, reptoboost and milk thistle but I am distressed as this time it doesn't seem to be helping him. I weighed him today and it's dropped even further to 342g despite him eating and having treatment. I have an appointment for him at the vet for next week but I am at a loss of what to do or what could be causing this long period of ill health if it's not liver disease or parasites. There are no other obvious health problems. We even moved his tank into a low traffic room without any other animals just in case stress was a factor but it hasn't helped. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Husbandry: Cocoa Bean lives in a 4 x 2 x 2 vivarium. He has a layer of substrate for deep enough for burrowing and maintaining humidity made up of coconut soil, fine orchid bark and spagnum moss mixed together.
He has an Arcadia Deep Heat Projector as a heat source. During the day the cool end of his tank is 25-27 celcius. He has a choice of basking spots, one around 32 celcius and one that is 40 celcius. At night the tank does not drop below 21 celcius. He has a Arcadia Desert T5 Lamp 12% UV-B light on for 12 hours during the day which I change every 12 months. He has the choice of four different hides across the whole light and heat spectrum of his tank, plus burrowing opportunities. He has a large water bowl that I scrub clean every evening. The humidity in his tank is 50-60% during the day and 70-80% at night. I try to feed him a variety of foods, including Repashy Bluey Buffet, Arcadia Omnigold, and homemade diets made with 40% meat and 60% veggies including foods like kangaroo, ostrich, beef, turkey, cactus pad, rocket, green beans, dandelion, watercress, squash..... I could go on but it would be a long post. I try to give as much variety as I can.

[Logar]

The Humidity may be part of the issue. assuming your guy is a classic indo, you need to increase the humidity to 80% at all times. other than that, have you tried to feed grain free wet dog food? Another thing you can do is leave some grain free dog kibble in a shallow bowl at all times and see if he shows any interest or any magically disappears. I can't think of anything else but since no one else has replied, maybe post the same thing on a different form such as the MorphMarket Reptile Community (community.morphmarket.com)? Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

[LavaCookies]

Thank you for your advice! I looked into it and I had my humidity gauge way too high up in the tank so it wasn't reading correctly, I moved it down to skink-level and his tank is 70-80% all day with no issues.

I do have an update, the vet ran some more tests and unfortunately Cocoa Bean tested positive for adenovirus I did some research but there doesn't seem to be any real cure, just long term palliative care. It's a very upsetting outcome for my baby boy but at least we know now why he was having so many grumbling health problems. She reckoned he probably had it before I got him, but it's impossible to know for sure. An X-Ray showed he's currently very constipated which is why he's not eating right now. It's not the outcome any of us wanted but we're determined to give him the best life we possibly can, however long that ends up being.

[Janella]

Hi there, I am really sorry that I didn't catch this post sooner. I also am sorry to hear that your skink has adenovirus. Sounds like you have a good reptile vet and are in good hands. Supportive care is all you can do at this time. Make sure if you have other reptiles you be extremely careful. It is highly contagious.