BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

To start off, I purchased an indonesian blue tongue skink from LLLreptile around 2 months ago. When i purchased him/her(i’ll just refer to it as a him for now), he was in shed and due to that and the combined stress of moving to a new home i assumed he might not eat for a bit, but i continued to offer him food and such. After about a week and a half he slowly began eating, and then began eating voraciously, but only for about a week and a half. Then, he completely stopped eating. he became very sluggish and always had his eyes closed. i began to notice a small clicking noise when he breathed, which i assumed was a hint towards a respiratory infection. i took him to the vet, who confirmed the ri and prescribed fortaz for me to inject every 3 days, as well as for me to syringe feed him because he became extremely skinny. It had now been close to 3 weeks since i took him to the vet, and i am at a loss for what to do. He hasn’t gained much weight, he’s still very sluggish most of the time, and he still is breathing very heavily and makes the clicking noise. additionally, when i took him out of his enclosure to feed him today, one of his eyes was completely glazed over, his mouth was bleeding, and he had thrown up all over himself. he has also become quite aggressive because he now associates coming out of the tank with syringe feeding and injections. any tips for me to help this guy out?

for reference
he is currently in a 20 gallon tank, which i know is on the smaller end but he’s still a baby and i have plans to upgrade
he was on eco earth bedding but i recently switched him to paper towels to try and stay more sanitary to avoid infection risk
basking spot 98-100°F
cool end 80-85°F
humidity 60-80%

Did your vet take a fecal sample? More often than not these come in loaded with parasites, and the stress of importation and whatnot causes them to seriously manifest themselves.

They did not take a fecal sample, would these symptoms be characteristic of parasites? And what would treatment look like for parasites? Thank you

A skink that is not eating and failing rapidly is more than likely parasitic. Your vet will give you medication to treat. I cannot tell you how to treat as I have not had this issue.

splashy07 wrote:A skink that is not eating and failing rapidly is more than likely parasitic. Your vet will give you medication to treat. I cannot tell you how to treat as I have not had this issue.

Thank you, your reply is much appreciated. The vet is not open today but i’ll bring him in tomorrow and see what they can do.

Wishing you and your baby all the best. I hope your vet can help him.

Poor little guy. It sucks being sick. Just remember patience and keep telling your little guy your trying to make it better. Now if they just understood! Anyway, i would follow up with the vet and get a fecal checked asap. If they can do blood work, I would do that as well. Good luck

I feel the need to weigh in on this one:
I completely agree about the parasites, but it sounds like you have humidity problems as well. That's where I think the clicking noise and the eye problems are coming from. Keep an eye on the feet, too. These are the tell tale signs of humidity issues. I'm a little skeptical of humidity gauges and go more by the signs the animals are showing.
I'll bow out here and let everyone help you with suggestions to improve humidity in a 20 gallon. I also think the size of the enclosure is fine.

I also think perhaps the antibiotics given to help it fight off the RI have likely had an undesireable effect on the skink's gut bacteria and as a result undesireable bacteria and paracites have bloomed.

I second getting a reptile vet to do fecal floats to determine what paracites are present and at what level - will likely need paraciticidal meds to sort the GIT paracites out AND you will be well advised to ditch all the bedding the skink is currently on as it'll be full of paracite eggs and impossible to sterilize. All the other stuff in it's tank it has physical contact with will have to be sterilized thoroughly too.
Leaving the existing bedding in place will result in the skink continually being recolonized by GIT bacterial and will make it impossible to kill off the parasitic infestation. I know you likely don't want to hear this , but the bedding has to be ditched and not new deep fibrous / particulate bedding is good idea until the skink is clear of parasites. Be very careful with quarantining too as these parasites are highly communicable to other pet reptiles and animals in the household.
I'd have the skink on paper toweling while being treated for GIT parasites and changing this daily until the vet tells you the skink is clear of GIT paracites.

I'd advise against treatment without vet supervision.

Will be a good idea for the vet to prescribe antibiotics to treat the skink for secondary GIT bacterial infection , as it's very common for heavy parasite infections and compromised immune system to result in bad GIT bacteria infections.

Once the treatment is finished , probiotics ( designed for reptiles ) are a good idea in order to recolonize the GIT with beneficial bacteria. The vet can likely prescribe or advise on this.

Some HerpaBoost or ReptiBoost will help get some nutrition into the sick skink , and I'd keep it warm 24/7 while it's sick to help boost it's metabolism and immune system. I'd also hand feed it some live insects once per day ( BSFL 2nd istar are an excellent choice for this , as a crickets or roaches , the skink may require some coaxing to take food from the fingers , refer to this for techniques to assist feed a sick lizard - https://www.beardeddragon.org/forums/vi ... 8&t=235583 , be careful, if it's not been eating much for a long time , the sudden influx of protein can play havoc if the skinks kidneys are compromised, so small daily meals , even a couple of small meals each day are the order of the day ( and how I treat injured / sick rescued skinks that are brought to me ).
Stomach capacity of a juvenile lizard is typically 1ml to 4ml / 100g bodyweight, so I'd try to keep to about 1ml to 2ml / 100g bodyweight per meal for starters.

Weigh the skink religiously at the same time once per week , this will give you a handle on how it's travelling.

Good luck.

Which LLL did you get him from?