Olivia Health Update

[Hopeful_Herper]

Olivia seems to be getting better. We finally got to the vet and she is on antibiotics. The crust on her mouth has not come back for a few days now and her eyes haven't been crusty for like a week.

The vet wasn't very concerned about the mouth crust or any of the symptoms that I described really. He said that it was caused by the imperfect care provided to her for the first six years of her life. He was concerned about the color of her belly.




Do you guys think that Olivia just has a beautiful belly, or is something wrong?

Also, when Olivia gets irritated or flexes her neck muscles, sometimes her third eyelid bugs out. The vet saw it happen and said that as long as recedes it is OK. However it is very distressing see because it covers her whole eye and blinds her.

[Fatal_S]

I've never heard of the eyelid thing, so I can't comment there.

Some skinks naturally have an orange/pink belly, but in some it's a sign of septicemia. I just had a skink treated for septicemia whose belly was bright orange like that, and is now an off-white color. However, the skink was showing other symptoms such as extreme lethargy, lack of appetite, and basically looked to be on death's door. Much better now :3 But again, it's normal in some BTS. I'm not sure how one could test for it. I assume someone more knowledgable will be here to comment shortly.

[Hopeful_Herper]

One other thing is that she gets totally lethargic and her symptoms worsen before a shed.

[Susann]

Again, here we go with the similar symptoms of Joey and Olivia!
Joey does the eyelid-popping thing when he is trying to rub/scratch his itchy eyes; sometimes it's the eye he's trying to rub, sometimes it's the other one, sometimes both at the same time.
It's freaky looking for sure. But has not caused any issues as, like you said, it all goes back to normal when he's done.

Lots of BTS have salmon-pink, sometimes almost bright orange, tummies. Joey's actually seems to darken before he starts a shed, a lot of times it's the first sign.
I had no idea about the septicemia, but I would think that bloodwork should show if that's the case. But if Olivia is acting normaly then you can probably just consider yourself lucky to have a BTS with a beautiful salmon tummy.

[Susann]

Oh, and just to be sure; when you say totally lethargic, do you mean less active, staying burrowed, not eating, or as in not moving at all, not responding to touch, limp when picked up?

If it's the first case, it is totally normal behavior of a preshed, or shedding BTS.
If it's the second case, then she needs to go back to the vet.

[Hopeful_Herper]

Now Olivia has diarrhea, could this be a side effect of the antibiotics?

Has Joey gotten any better or worse?

[Hopeful_Herper]

Whoops forgot...

She definitely responds to touch and will even eat a little. However, Olivia has never burrowed to my knowledge. I am pretty sure that this is do to the fact that she was kept on astro or reptile turf before and never got in the habit.