BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Hey all,

I'm not sure where exactly to post this.

I recently noticed a mark on my 2.5 year old blue tongued skinks upper front lip after he came out of hiding and shed.
At first it looked like a crescent mark, and may have darkened into a more discolored purplish tone. It seems to be indented compared to his other scales.

Ive included a few photo in a shared drive folder as well as one I took today (the first pick) where it almost looks like a layer of something is coming off of it. A scab maybe?
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1RMnvzmBZxDRV3umgavgfyOENJDpgRac8?usp=sharing

Either way i'm worried an not sure if it's getting better or worse. I cant tell if its a wound or something else, if he bonked his nose on something and scraped it up, or if this is some sort of mouth scale rott/bacterial infection.

The vet in my area is pricey so I wanted to see if anyone online had seen anything similar before going to the vet.

Please let me know if you have any information or advise on this.
Thanks!!

Hi Breadlord,

That definitely looks like a scale has been torn off. Skinks can be quite vigorous when rubbing themselves against rough surfaces during shed, and it looks like your friend may have gone a little hard. Alternatively, are there any potentially sharp surfaces your skink could have cut its face on? I would monitor it closely - main concern being keeping the wound clean (research reptile safe antiseptics, im not too sure what you could apply). I would imagine given time if it occurred during shed it will recover, im sure its not the first time this has happened to a skink and wont be the last. If it shows any signs of increased redness, swelling or mucus then definitely take your skink to a vet, but if you can keep the wound clean this shouldn't be an issue. Good luck.

It does look like the scale was scraped off. I would keep an eye on it, apply a triple antibiotic ointment to it, and go from there. If it gets worse then seek a vet. I have confidence it should heal just fine though as long as your skink doesn't rub it again on something.

Common occurrence. A little peroxide on a q tip will take care of it if you are worried about infection.