BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

My family and I have been on vacation in Southern California for the last week. Our second or third day there, a friend and I walked into a local shop in search of skinks and found this poor guy. He/she had just been treated for an upper respiratory infection, its left eye was stuck shut, it had recently lost nearly all of its toes, and the ones that remained were cracked and ready to fall off. To make things even more sad, he has clearly had mbd at some point because the jaw is pretty out of alignment. I asked the owner about the animal (we know each other reasonably well. I actually worked for him for a while) He told me that the skink had been dropped off at the shop with a sibling who had been in good enough shape to sell. This poor guy had visited a vet down the road and was making no improvement. I knew i had to bring this little guy home with me, so after two days, and a ridiculous sum of money, here he is. We named it Derp. This thing has the sweetest personality and is already looking better after a good meal, and a little time under the mister.

This is actually one of two skinks that i brought home this trip. Ill post some pics of the other as soon as i can

That jaw gets me every time I see it. Instantly think "HOW"

Thats some funky jaw tweakage,bit of tlc and im sure it will do fine in your capable hands

Derp.. very interesting name. Lol!

Poor thing! Glad you got him. Can't wait to see the new Halmahera.

Almost forgot photo credit for half of these goes to Mr jbolar.

Richard, he looks so bad that I was a little worried about him surviving the ten hour trip home. He looks great now, at least when compared to what he looked like when I first saw him.

Dakota, I'll have those halm photos up in the next few hours. Trying to soak green tree pythons right now, which is a huge pain

Oh god, poor guy! Glad you have him now! How much did you end up having to pay?

Sorry to hear or his/her ill health. Happy to her you'll be able to nurse it back to health! Congrats

So glad Derp is in your hands now! He is a cutie despite his jaw misalignment. So sad to see something so extreme happen, but hopefully he is on his way to a happier, healthier life!

I'm so glad you found Derp! He'll spend the rest of his life happy and cared for now. And I love his name!!

Oh my gosh, Derp is one of the cutest skinks I've ever seen!!!
Poor guy.
So glad he lives with you now.

Isn't he?! hes great. Hopefully he makes a full recovery. His eyes already look 100% better after using the mister a few times

Lea, he does have a great appetite. His energy level seems to be picking up to. Great little skink

Aww! What a cutie!

I hope you didn't pay for him?? I assume that the cost was vet bills and not paying the pet store, right? So glad he has a good home now!

Thanks Katrina. No I didn't compensate the pet store at all, just covered the last vet trip.

Valley Reptiles wrote:Thanks Katrina. No I didn't compensate the pet store at all, just covered the last vet trip.

That's great - I hate it when stores have sick animals and still try to make money off of them when nice people want to help!

they didn't want to sell him though.. it took what a few days and 2 trips to get them to okay the sale, the enclosure had big on the cage NFS due to the animals health. they didn't make back what they had spent on the animal + vet bills + care and feed. so they did what they thought was right as valley was confident in his ability to rehab the animal. they were trying to get it healthy but didn't quiet "know" how..

Yes, the owner had no intention to sell this animal at all. This particular establishment has a very strict "if it isn't perfect, it isn't for sale" policy. I know this from working there. I had to push quite a bit to get my hands on this guy. I honestly felt that, at least I knew what I was dealing with. So I should have a better chance of getting him healthy than they would have.

Glad it's in your capable hands! Congrats to you AND the skink!