Please Help Me, Is My Bluey In Trouble??

[MaddyKay99]

I have a 2 year old, male, Indonesian blue tongue skink, his name is Loki and I have had him since he was only a few weeks old. Just some background on him and his care... He has never had an interest in eating, I put wet dog food of all different types along with fruits and veggies out for him 2-3 times a week and he only ever eats about a teaspoon of food once a week and sometimes will even refuse food for weeks on end. I have had times where he has gone off food for over a month and my vet had me syringe feed him (this was while he was still very young and needed the food to grow). When I got him he had an RI and intestinal parasites, first vet gave him an overdose of the medication but we fixed that after about a week and cleared everything up. He is in a custom built 4x2x2 enclosure with coco fiber and cypress mulch as a substrate, his hot side is around 95 with a basking zone up to 105 and cool side is around 80. I keep the enclosure between 60 and 80% humidity

Okay now on to the real issue. He has always been your typical BTS, very chill, always burrowed or hiding, not moving a whole ton, content to just sit on my shoulder or on my bed while I am doing homework. But this past week he has been having, for lack of a better word, 'spaz attacks'. He will run around crazily, if it is in his cage he will throw himself into the walls then run across the cage and hit his cave or cork bark, it is terrifying to watch and I am afraid he will hurt himself. If he is out on the floor he will run across the floor until he hits a wall then turn and continue on, way too fast for me to catch him. If he is chilling with me (typically he is on my head or shoulder because he seems to like climbing up high for some reason) he will launch himself off of me if I don't grab him in time. He has done it so he falls 3-4 feet. These 'spaz attacks' last 30-60 seconds for the most part. I am trying to find a vet who knows what they are doing to take him to but our usual vet is out for a few weeks and nowhere else either has openings for him or knows about reptiles.

Please help me. I am scared there is something seriously wrong with him and I do not want him to get hurt

[IvanDanko]

Hi Maddy,

I'm sorry to hear Loki has had a bit of a rough start to his life. What an inopportune time for a vet to be away. Based on your skinks history and what you're experiencing, I can suggest two possible causes for what you are describing:

1. Physiological - It could very much be that the cause of this behaviour is a physical ailment. Rapid uncontrolled movement could indicate Loki is experiencing bouts of discomfort. A recurrence of parasites can cause pain and discomfort for your skink. It could also be indicative of seizure like behaviour though its unlikely he would be able to run or move around if that was the case.

To help rule this out some more information would be of assistance:

Does your set-up include D3 lamps? Are you supplementing with calcium + D3 in Loki's diet (more crucial if D3 is not provided and he isn't eating alot, although dog food does deliver vitamins and minerals).

What is Loki's physical state? Is he a healthy size, shape and length with no prominent bony points? Are his scales smooth and glossy with no lumps? Given his history of not eating combined with parasitic infection and illness, it is possible he has been in some state of emaciation for an extended period of time.

If you can provide some details/pictures that would help us evaluate and rule in/out this cause.

2. Behavioural - as a 2 year old male he may be near or has reached sexual maturity. Males in season are known to exhibit overly active behaviour (pacing the cage, restlessness,excessive wall surfing) Alternatively, we are interpreting the behaviour incorrectly. Loki may be exhibiting a fear response (flight) and is looking for a place to escape. A scared skink can often freeze for an extended period, appearing relaxed before making a run for it. Is his body language around these events relaxed (breathing from the neck, blinking, occasional flicking of tongue, soft relaxed body) or negative (heavy/deep breathing from the ribs, not blinking, rapid tongue flicking, tense body) Is there anything surrounding this activity that might cause this?

[MaddyKay99]

He does have a UVB light on the hot side of his enclosure near his basking spot and I also occasionally dust his food with calcium powder with D3 however that tends to deter him from eating even more than normal so that is normally only every 3 weeks or so. I am including a few pictures of him (he was about a week from shedding in some so he was greyer than normal) , he does seem skinny compared to other blue tongues however he has no hip protrusions or any bony points so I have never been worried. His scales are glossy and look great and he has always had no troubled shedding. I checked on him this afternoon and now he is missing a claw. The toe is still there but it looks like the claw got ripped off so I am assuming he got it caught on something during one of these episodes and it got pulled off (I trim his nails on a consistent basis so they were not too long).

His body language seems the opposite of relaxed, before each 'episode' he exhibits quick, agitated head movements and rapid breathing. Think beardie head bobbing but side to side. It looks like a fear response as I do not think he is paying attention to anything and will only stop if he gets completely covered by anything but I can't think of anything that could trigger this. His cage is in my room with the only other animals in the room being the fish in my 20 gal tank. The cat, dog, rats and bunnies never come into the room. It is a very quiet room and very little happens. When he has had his 'episodes' I have just been sitting on my bed or tending to the fishtank so I cannot think of anything that could have scared him into exhibiting a fear response. I have looked at a few mating videos and they do not seem consistent with his behavior

[IvanDanko]

Thanks for the info. In my opinion he is visibly underweight based on those photos for his age...I'm sorry to hear he has lost a nail

It definitely sounds like he is in a stressed state before these manic episodes happen. Based on his lack of appetite historically and being visibly underweight, the stress may be persistent.

What we need to determine is what that stressor is.

Firstly, I would stop all handling for now and visually monitor. You could try adding in extra hides to his enclosure as he may feel too exposed, or alternatively more substrate to burrow in and see if this helps. If this does not alleviate the issue, your priority is a full examination by a reptile veterinarian to determine the physical cause. I would continue to try to get an appointment by any means in the interim (cancellations etc.) In the meantime just continue providing the best care you can. If you haven't already, try enticing Loki with something like a scrambled egg in his food bowl (you can add your calcium to the wet egg mix before cooking) to see if you can entice him to eat.

[MaddyKay99]

Thank you. I took him into the vet and they sent out some bloodwork. They are afraid of a vitamin deficiency and aren't a fan of the dog food diet I have him on. They said that dog food has too much beta-carotene, too high levels of D3 in the food and high thiamine levels as well. They want me to switch him to a mix of raw diet and pre made food for omnivorous reptiles. Hopefully that will also stimulate his appetite a little bit more as well. I know that dog food is promoted from many bts keepers so I will not be entirely removing it from his diet, but I will lessen how much he is getting

[IvanDanko]

That is really interesting - personally I would be stunned if Loki has vitamin toxicity from the dog food as he's barely been eating it as you've said. Particularly Thiamine (Vitamin B1) as it is not fat soluble (meaning it can't be stored by the body). Proportionately the amount of vitamins that would be consumed and absorbed would be very low as skinks will only have a small amount of the food at a time as opposed to a dog eating the whole serving in one sitting...unless they are concerned with the composition by weight.

Please keep us updated when you hear back on the blood tests, that will tell us alot. I hope Loki is well until then.

[MaddyKay99]

Hopefully the last update on this. Loki's bloodwork came back completely normal except for a high white blood cell count which indicates that there is some sort of infection happening. We aren't entirely sure where this infection came from, assuming it is kind of a fluke thing but he is now on Ceftazidime for the next few weeks to clear up the infection. This is what he was on as a baby for his respiratory infection so we know that he responds well to it so I am confident that this will clear up the infection and hopefully stop these 'manic episodes' thank you so much for your help

[IvanDanko]

Awesome news! No worries and all the best in the future for Loki