help needed for my halmahera...!!!

[ivyjoe69]

here s the result is it ok?

[Dakota]

Looks good!

[alichamp]

You are doing a great job!!

Keep an eye on the humid hide in the middle and make sure it is 'sauna' rather than soggy. You might need to put it under the heat where the water bowl is to get this - so maybe swap these two around? And if you have an old tissue box or similar add in a dry hide for him towards the cool end. He likely won't use it but it might be good to offer him that option.

Maintain temps 35-37 under heat source and above 26 at cool end.

Food wise, he will be more interested in eating once he starts to feel better. Again follow what your vet suggests here. You could maybe offer plain dog food every few days or so, but don't panic for now if he is not eating much. Focus on the rest for now and keep an eye on his weight. From what I can see in the pics his weight looks OK and they can do OK for a while if not eating much.

We are all hoping to see him better very soon so keep us updated. The changes you have made to his home are really positive for him so well done!

[Wiwaxia]

Don't worry about the appetite it will come back very soon when he gets better. They can go without food for really long, so I don't think you should have any worries at that front. Try to get him some silkworms or this Repashy grab pie jelly... at least mine are crazy about these two things and eat them whenever wherever
Is there any improvement?

[Susann]

A few things I'd like to mention:

First:

we are limited (not being able to examine the skink), I would err with whatever your vet thinks you should do as far as course of action.

Always keep this in mind. Yes, we may have more experience with skinks, but we are not able to see what your vet can see, so you must try to weigh the advice you get from us here on the forum with that from your vet, but when in doubt, go with what your vet says.

Keep an eye on the humid hide and make sure it is under the heat

This is important. When he is fighting a respiratory infection, any moisture or wetness needs to be warm, and changed out frequently to prevent bacterial growth.

for the rise of the temperature about how much?

Like alichamp said, make sure the cool side in the tank stays above 26°C. It is good to have a medium size basking area in the tank that reaches 40-45°C, with the rest of the warm side staying in the 32-35°C range. This way he can bask to digest his food, and can cool down as well without getting too cool while fighting his infection.

i think they wanted to have a bit of fluids from the lungs and centrifuged it or something when i go back. goliath is getting a bit *ticked of being ''toyed'' with since i have been treatin him for so long...

If Goliath has already been treated for a while with antibiotics then I don't know if doing testing will be worth it... What is the testing for? If it's to identify the bacteria causing the infection then I believe any results will be inconclusive since he has been treated with antibiotics already. This is my understanding, but I could be wrong...

If nothing could be cultured from nose excretion, then lungs won't yield anything either

This is not necessarily true. I realize I'm a layman talking to an expert, so please correct me if I'm wrong but this would largely depend on how fast the sample gets tested --if the testing is done on-site or sent off to a facility elsewhere.
A nose secretion would be a very small and relatively dry sample --if the test came back negative, it does not necessarily mean that the bacteria wasn't there; it may just mean that there were none in the small sample collected, or, that the bacteria died off before getting tested. A sample directly from the lungs would yield more fluid and therefore a higher probability of "catching" bacteria in the sample if any is there --also a higher likelihood of the bacteria in the sample surviving longer and being present once the sample gets tested.
However, like I said previously, if he's already been on antibiotics then I don't know if the validity of this test would be worth the cost.

Please let us know how he is doing.
We're here if you have any other questions. Good luck!

[Wiwaxia]

This is not necessarily true. I realize I'm a layman talking to an expert, so please correct me if I'm wrong but this would largely depend on how fast the sample gets tested --if the testing is done on-site or sent off to a facility elsewhere.

Usually the excessive secretion in the nose is the first line defense, so the most of the bacteria is emptied via this one. Yes, many of them may be dead, but still enough can make it, this is why a respiratory bacterial pathogen is so infectious. Nowadays sampling and transporting them is not a problem, there are very good containers to keep the sample good for culturing even for days (unless it is some highly vulnerable RNA virus). It is also important to consider that an infection usually spreads downstream from the sinuses and not upstream from the lungs to the sinuses (or starts directly in the lungs, but in this case there is no excessive secretion in the sinuses, only wheezing and labored breathing, hence I think the infection did spread downstream in this case). Also, to get lung fluids is an invasive operation, which I would rather avoid unless REALLY necessary.
By the way, have they had an x-ray done? Usually x-rays are far more informative than many would think, especially in assessing the condition of the lungs in this case. did they do a complete blood profile? The number of certain white blood cell populations would provide important information on whether this is viral or bacterial or parasitic.
Indeed, the amount of bacteria would be significantly lower after the antibiotic treatment, though the infection is obviously still ongoing, so the pathogen is still in there, which suggests four remaining options:
- the pathogen is resistant to the antibiotics of selection
- the original agent has been eradicated though an other antibiotic-resistant strain, which was suppressed by the original one thus had never caused any signs before, has taken over and is responsible for the ongoing clinical signs
- the infection is caused by intracellular bacteria like Mycoplasma (this is the most common agent of sever respiratory infections that affect lower respiratory tract)
- is caused by a virus.
In the first two, a new culture would yield considerable new results and information. In the other two nothing would have grown or will grow. The first three can be tested by giving some broader spectrum antibiotics that target bacteria without a cell wall as well as both gramm negative and positive ones (I have listed some of these before) and this should result in rather fast improvement of the condition. In the last case there is not much to do, but I really don't think this is the case this time. Though totally important to keep in mind we indeed have not seen the skink.
Hehe, I'm not a professional; never ever practiced and always wanted to go to research not to clinics. Unfortunately I only saw "my patients" when they were dead.

[ivyjoe69]

I m glad cause my temperatures now seems to be pretty much what you guys suggested. As for the appetite he had two big meals since last time, looks like he much prefer cook stuff. They want the lung simple to identify the bacteria since he doesnt seems to get a 100% with the ceftazidyne... what do you mean by invasive? Should i pass on this one?? But still i am glad to see him eat again and look more active. A big thanks to all of you

[Wiwaxia]

Invasive processes are the ones that require to do harm to the animal or cause a lot of stress and major discomfort. To get down to the lungs is rather painful. I would personally only do it if the treatment with antibiotics of a different spectrum doesn't bring any improvement in his condition. And trust me, if you get the right type of antibiotics there should be very drastic improvement after like three days of treatment. But it's great news he's eating!

[ivyjoe69]

He already had two types of medecine with two types of range... they want to put him asleep for the lung thing.Trackial enema went supposely well but they let him bite his tongue during the procedure now i am scared, i dont want it to get infected since he have bacterias.... they told me that i dont have to worry about that... and again i have other questions like, is the dry feet and tip of tail or related to his problems or is it something else?^