BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

kirra has these injuries on one part of his face and im really concerned about it being mouth rot. hes recovering from mites and i heard mites can cause mouth rot. Hes also on his horny phase and is extremely restless and glass surfing, not eating much so maybe these injuries are caused by him constantly rubbing his head against the glass?

it started with a small cut near his ear and today he now has some sort of bruise on his jaw.

Edit: I read that the bruising could be caused by falling onto hard surfaces but his enclosure isn’t very tall, like 16inches tall. The only thing he can climb on is the heat lamp cage. If the cage is the cause for him falling and injuring himself idk what to do to prevent it since I can’t remove the cage leaving the bulb exposed for him to burn himself.

hes in a sterile setup due to mites, paper towels, 1 resin log hide, PVC pipe and a water dish, thats about it.

Hi there,

I don't believe it's mouth rot as it appears the lining of his mouth is quite clean/not showing signs of inflammation. Has there been any other changes in behaviour or symptoms like build-up around the edges of his mouth? If you can sneak a peak while he's eating, I think the inflammation or redness would be fairly evident.

More than likely I would agree it could be abrasion from glass surfing or other furniture in the enclosure as you've suggested, though I would expect that to be more up around his snout. Is there any particularly rough prominences on the furniture in the enclosure that could have caused it? Also does the bulb cage also get very hot, is it possible that has burned him if he is able to reach it?

I usually get a peek in his mouth when he yawns and so far I don’t see any inflammation/redness. His behaviour hasn’t changed and no buildups.

His log hide and PVC pipe have some rough areas but he never rubs against them aggressively enough to cause any damage. The lamp cage doesn’t get hot, only the bottom does but he never really touches the bottom, he only goes up on the sides, I don’t think it’s at a temperature to quickly burn him though since I can put my hand on it for a while til it gets uncomfortably hot.

Hmmm maybe just keep monitoring and check the site to see if it subsides? Hopefully just a bit of redness from the restless activity.