help! pushed up scales on my bluey

[mb606587]

Keep your heat mat turned off. Honestly it's not necessary. You can create the proper temperatures with just a heat lamp. As I suspected, your skink has a mostly black belly with white checkering. I can now say with complete confidence that you have a Halmahera locale Indonesian BTS, which also requires the highest levels of humidity of any species. I'd recommend swapping out your Reptibark substrate for coconut fibre substrate, commonly called Eco Earth. Then add in liberal amounts of damp sphagnum moss. This mix will be much more effective at maintaining high humidity levels in your enclosure. You will most likely need to cover 3/4 of the screen top ventilation to keep the humidity from escaping. You NEED a good instrument to measure temperatures and a hygrometer to measure your humidity. As was mentioned, a heat gun is better than any thermometer and you want your basking rock to be between 100 degrees and 115 degrees with the opposite cool side temperature between 70-85 degrees. Humidity needs to remain over 80%. Those wounds do not look severe and will heal with some scarring. I'm going to link the caresheet for the HALMAHERA BTS HERE.

[peaches]

yes! i was able to find a vet but the soonest we can be seen is monday. i’ll apply the neosporin and watch him closely! and of course i will keep you updated!!
i’ll go get the ecoearth and refill the tank! (right now its a 50/50 mix of reptibark and reptisoil) i have some pieces of sphagnum broken up into the substrate and i also tuck some into his hides and open areas of the tank. since i have the exoterra large low tank the screen top is divided into 4 sections which are all taped off (except for where the light fixtures are).
i live in washington state and my room can get to about 60 degrees at night so should i also ordered a ceramic heat emitter that i would use on a temp controller? thats what the original purpose of the under the tank heater was mostly for night use.
and i am slightly confused as to how he would get a burn from the heat pad when ive actually never seen him burrow! i didnt know if juvenile bluelys didnt or if he just didnt like my substrate. it has only been 2 weeks so i didnt know if that came into play either.

[peaches]

like heres the tank as it is now. theres sphagnum moss inside both hides and in the substrate. the heat pad is under the middle of the tank kind of right below the long rock that isnt for basking. i think i should probably get a larger waterbowl and i might even keep the little one i already have and just put it on the hot side of the tank so it can evaporate. as of now i mist the tank at least twice a day but i might bump that up to 3-4 times. and i have a humidifer in my room that i sometimes run overnight. my boyfriend has a hygrometer that he doesnt need any more so i can use that in my tank to monitor it. and they temp gun will be here friday

[peaches]

also does your sphagnum moss dry out within a few days??? i thought it would last longer between soaks but it seems like mine is alway drying out

[Suzle87]

I don’t have much to add as everyone’s been so helpful here for you. Just wanted to say from what I know that belly is definitely the belly of a halmahera.
He’s so cute, makes me want more skinkbabies. Please keep us posted on his progress with lots of pictures. Hopefully he will be fine soon, stay positive and get the cutey to a good exotic vet.

[mb606587]

Yes the sphagnum moss needs to be sprayed everyday. And 60 degrees is too cold in the long term not to have supplementary heat. I would keep the heat pad off until at least the thermostat comes in and then use it at night when its cold just to keep temperatures in the 70-80 degree range. If you have an extra portable heater you can run it overnight in that room until then or move him to a warmer room in the house. Seems your exo terra was designed to maintain humidity so that will help. And one more thing, when your temp gun comes in, check to see if your current light is powerful enough. I haven't used halogen bulbs for quite some time so I could be wrong but I have a sneaking suspicion that your 25 watt isn't powerful enough. As I said a few times, 100-115 on the basking rock and the heat will help evaporate the moisture and create your humidity.

[peaches]

ok so i was gone all day visiting family and when i got home he had eaten all his food that i had put out (yay!) BUT when i saw him i noticed his scales are looking even worse :’(( after a bit of crying to my bf he called the animal hospital and we’re going to try to take him in tomorrow as an emergency visit. the clinic is about 30min away from my house plus whatever the wait time to be seen will be i’m worried about transporting him! how do yall do it? i have a nice big shoe box i was thinking of putting substrate in so he’d have some feeling of home. maybe a piece of fruit as a treat during the ride? he seems to realy love raspberries even if he’s mad at me he’ll it eat.
oh and here’s how it looks now... its spread across that strip on his back

[Janella]

Hi again, I am so sorry to hear that your skink is getting worse. It is definitely a good idea to get it in sooner than later. The vet your going to see, they do specialize in exotics right? Just wanting to make sure.

As for transport...there is several ways to do it. The key is keeping them warm. With mine I use a cat carrier with heating pads on the inside. Some people use boxes or even the white insillated coolers, with heating pads or warmers inside. You can purchase the hand/foot warmers that people use when it is cold outside and I know people have used those. If your car has heated seats and you don't have a way to warm your reptile, you can use that. Just place the box or whatever on top of the seat. Just make sure the seats are set on the lowest setting. If you don't have any heating sources, you can try warming a towel or blanket in the dryer for a few minutes and then wrapping your skink inside that. Then place the skink in a box.

I hope all that helped. I feel like I was rambling... anyways good luck and let us know how it goes.

[mb606587]

Yeah he definitely needs to see a vet if its spreading like that. It could be a bacterial infection. If so antibiotics will help. I put my guy in a shoebox with an old t shirt to burrow into.

[Janella]

How did it go today?

[peaches]

hi again!! sorry its been so long its been a little hectic and i totally forgot to post an update!
the vet says his back is probably a bacterial infection (burns and bacterial issues can sometimes look really similar!) and gave me a cream to wipe onto the scales. i also got a fecal test done and he has a parasite too! i cant remember exactly what it was called but she said it was a really common one to have and gave me an oral medication and a syringe to feed it to him with (such a tiny dose .02 mg omg) and another oral that only comes in two premeasured doses to give at the beginning and end of the treatment.
he also has to live on paper towels for the next two weeks because of all that! (when i got home today i actually freaked out because i thought he had somehow gotten out but actually he had burrowed under the paper towels lol)

[mb606587]

That is good news and thankfully you're treating for the parasites early before that potentially became an issue. With the proper medication and early intervention on your part, your skink should do well from this point forward.

[Janella]

Awe, I am glad you got it to the vet then. Parasites and skin infections are no fun. Hopefully your little one will be on the mend soon.

[peaches]

ok wow hi! it’s been awhile but i thought it might be good to do an update because if anyone else ends up facing a similar problem it might be good to see! so our first vet visit was on april 8th (thats when i was given the oral medications for parasites and the antibacterial cream for the bacterial infection in his back scales) and after our check up on april 19th the vet didnt feel like his back was looking as good as she thought it would so she gave me a injectable medication (im totally afraid of needles so there were a lot of tear filled injections) that he gets every 3 days. it’s been 11 days since that appointment and over that time the infected area on his back kind of plated up like one huge scab.

E6947453-70D2-4661-B58C-38C0171BE771.jpeg

and today as i was holding him in a soft cloth to give him his shot he wiggled around enough that the plate came off! i am seriously worried for this poor little guy but we have a vet appointment on friday and i will update ya’ll again

E748938B-BE37-4EA2-A915-10095FD9FDE5.jpeg

if anyone has had/seen this before i will take all the input i can!

[Janella]

Hey, thanks for the update. Try not to worry and just see what the vet says tomorrow. I am hoping the scan just fell off due to normal healing, just like you or i would. Injections aren't fun, but the just remember the medicine is helping. Let me know what the vet says tomorrow.

[peaches]

the vet says that the scales broke off really well!! we’re finished with injections so now i just have to keep rubbing this cream and soaking him to break down the flaky scales and in 2 weeks he’ll be back on substrate! he’s still really grumpy at me for giving him so much medicine so thats the only thing i really have to worry about right now! (now he likes to pee a minute into picking him smh)

[Janella]

Glad he is continuing to heal up so nicely. That is great. Giving medication can stress them. Just keep up with your skink loving and hopefully your little one will be trusting again soon.