BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Hello, all! I am the proud owner of two blue tongues. Snapdragon and Wade. I just picked up Wade yesterday, as a rescue. He was being gotten rid of because he was rubbing his nose in his tank. I researched a bit before I went to get him, and learned that it could be caused by a few different things. A too small hide, being wild caught, not feeling secure being three of the top ones I was able to find. I also learned that perhaps covering three sides of the tank might make him feel more comfortable, or maybe putting him in an opaque plastic container. An adequate hide could also be provided. But I am sure most of you know this, if you have experienced anything like this before. When I went to pick him up, I was frankly horrified at the condition he was being kept in. The people only gave him water for about 5 minutes a day since he would flip his flimsy water dish over. I doubt his tank had been cleaned in quite some time, it was absolutely filthy and reeked. I was told he was being fed maybe once a week, on hamburger meat and the occasional pinkie their snakes would not eat. When I got my first, I was told that they should not be fed red meat, but that could just be one person's opinion. The nose rubbing of poor Wade is really pretty bad. It looks absolutely horrible. I cleaned out his tank of the shavings, and put only paper towels down. I was told by a breeder in Texas to try swabbing his nose with betadine once a day, and then move him to Eco Earth bedding once his nose was mostly healed. I put a large plastic hide in there for him until his nose is better, as I have one which is rather rough and did not want him hurting himself on it. I also put a large, heavy water dish in the tank with him, so the poor thing can have water whenever he wants. Besides these two suggestions, is there anything else I can do to help this poor guy out? Thank you in advance! I am willing to try anything for this sweetheart.

Red meat is fine to feed. Offering water daily is fine as well, they don't drink all that often (it is just easier to use a sturdy water dish and have it available at all times).

Unless there is any infection, just keeping it clean will heal it. Betadine is great.

If you give enough space, hides and cover 3 sides you should have no issues. Nose rubbing is common and not a big deal, just keep it clean and watch for any redness or signs of infection. If it looks infected, you need to see a vet. Otherwise it should just take a bit of time.

I have not seen any infection, but will be keeping a sharp lookout. I am going to try and see what adequate hides and covering the sides of the tank do.

Welcome to the forum. Where are the required pictures?

I am terrible about getting pictures. But I promise I will do so soon. Especially as they are required! I am almost ashamed of posting pictures of poor Wade, as his face looks so bad.

Thankyou so much for taking him in! I have two rescue blues myself, I just don't understand how someone can treat such amazing lizards so poorly but luckily they are resilient little buggers! He sounds like he's in good hands, I think the steps you've taken so far are perfect, Im sure he'll heal up and be good as new in no time

Once I had actually seen him, there was really no way I was leaving without him. And keep in mind I am calling both of them "he" just as a general guess, without really knowing. There will never be any breeding, so I figured picking their genders wouldn't hurt either of them.

I fed Wade today. Twice, actually. He wants more, but I did not have anything defrosted, and figured that twice what my larger skink eats in a week was a bit much. My one skink, Snapdragon, will ONLY eat once a week, and generally not all of his food at that. He is rather spoiled, and would rather be tong-fed than have to eat out of his food dish. I love feeding him with the tongs, so do not mind. But if I try to feed him more than once a week, it all goes to waste and he glares at me like I'm trying to kill him or something. He is very good at the stink eye. So having a skink who wants to eat more and more is a novelty. Wade ALSO tong feeds quite well, which I was very happy about. Should I be trying to limit his food, or let him eat his fill since he was only getting fed as an afterthought at his previous home?

How big is he? If he's underweight, feed what he wants. If he starts getting a bit big you can worry about limiting his food. I usually offer large, healthy meals once or twice a week (usually once) and let them eat their fill. I do the same for any I get that are rehomed from less than ideal conditions. It's hard to say without seeing pictures but I assume he's a fairly reasonable weight, maybe a little on the skinny side.

Compared to my one, he is not nearly as well rounded. I do not believe Snapdragon is overweight, so was using the comparison to him to judge the new one. I am going to be getting pictures tonight, most assuredly, and I shall share them. He does not seem skeletal, but just thinner.

What species/subspecies are they? If Snapdragon is a Northern and Wade is an Indonesian, Wade's healthy weight will naturally be much slimmer than Snapdragon's. If they aren't the same type and you don't know what they are, the pics would help with that.

That, I can not tell you. The people I got them from (both second hand) only told me that they were blue tongue skinks. Wow. Second hand. Like I went to the Salvation Army and tried them on and decided to get them. Hehe. Anyway, here are a few pictures. Mostly of Wade's poor face. If anyone wants to take a guess on what kind they are, please go on ahead!
Wade:
http://s707.photobucket.com/user/Goosel ... sort=3&o=6
http://s707.photobucket.com/user/Goosel ... sort=3&o=3
http://s707.photobucket.com/user/Goosel ... sort=3&o=2
http://s707.photobucket.com/user/Goosel ... sort=3&o=1
http://s707.photobucket.com/user/Goosel ... sort=3&o=0

Snapdragon:
http://s707.photobucket.com/user/Goosel ... sort=3&o=4
http://s707.photobucket.com/user/Goosel ... sort=3&o=3
http://s707.photobucket.com/user/Goosel ... sort=3&o=2
http://s707.photobucket.com/user/Goosel ... sort=3&o=1
http://s707.photobucket.com/user/Goosel ... sort=3&o=0

I have none of them together, as I am keeping Wade in quarantine, until I get him back to health.

Wade is Irian Jaya.
Snapdragon looks to me like an Indo X IJ mix.

And wade almost looks like he is missing the tip of his nose!

I agree with Susann on the ID of Snapdragon, and Wade is a pretty standard IJ. Both of them look healthy weight-wise, but Wade's nose is definitely concerning.

That is one of the main reasons I could NOT leave him where he was, once I saw him. Apparently he was doing this with his previous owner, and they did not do too much to try and correct the issue before trying to get rid of him. My only hope is that I can get him somewhat back to normal. I was somewhat concerned that he did seem to be missing part of his nose.

Poor baby. I have a hard time just looking at the pictures!
I can't imagine that being just from him rubbing his nose; I wonder if something happened to it, some kind of accident.

So after seeing the extent of the damage, does anyone have any different suggestions for me on how to treat this and possibly get this under control?

I would suggest seeing a vet
I think the damage looks extensive enough that I would worry about infection. To be fair, I tend to run to the vet for even minor things, but in my opinion this would not classify as minor.

I have been in photo and text contact with a vet. He's the one who told me to put him on paper towels and use betadine on his nose. My da is also a vet tech, and I have some training in that area (although not in reptiles, if he were a horse or a cat or a bird...), so we are watching for infection very carefully. But if you think he needs to be actually seen and handled by a vet, I will try to find one in my area who sees reptiles.

Previous owner may have had mesh sides on enclosure,some lizards,though usually more flighty types often get damaged noses from banging into it or just trying to get through,only other thing i can think of is damage from a cage mate or something,hopefully now in your care u can prevent further damage and give it a chance to heal,thats the most important thing to do woth chronic nose rubbers,eliminate the cause so healing can take place

If you are confident enough with looking out for infection, and he's eating and acting OK, then hopefully you are fine with just keeping it clean.
Although, I do always suggest you find a vet that you are comfortable with before you absolutely need to see one. Because there is nothing worse than having an emergency, only to have to sit on the phone trying to find someone who will see your skink. (Unfortunately I've been there.) If you have a vet you like, s/he can suggest what to do, where to go, or what number to call, should you ever have an after-hours emergency.
So I don't think it would be all wrong to try to have him seen right now, but I do think that simply being in a better environment with someone who cares is way more than half the battle, and may even be all he needs.
But I think you can see my point.