Adult Northern toe injury

[Felmarg]

My Northern is finally starting to be active again after winter is ending so I took them out today to walk around in my sunroom. I found some very concerning damage on one of the front left toes and a patch on top of the foot. At first I thought maybe it was some dried wet dog food that he didn't clean off but now I'm thinking it is stuck shed. I didn't think he had shed recently but he has never been great with shedding. I haven't been handling him much for a few months because he has just been sleeping buried all the time. I give him a look over every time he sheds, but I'm worried I may have missed that he shed at all this time.

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I'm really worried and feeling very guilty for not noticing sooner. I can't get a vet appointment until Monday. I gave him a soak in the bath tub while I removed all the bedding from the enclosure and gave it a good cleaning. I normally use aspen bedding after experimenting with several kinds. I was worried that might be too dusty and dry so I have temporarily laid out paper towels instead. He doesn't seem to mind the toe at all and let me touch it as much as I wanted without complaining, but he has always been very tolerant. He turns 15 years old in May and I've had him since he was a baby and I was pretty young as well.

Can anyone help give suggestions for what I can do before I get to the vet and if it does look like stuck shed? I feel really awful about this. I can provide additional information or pictures if that would help. Thanks.

[splashy07]

First thing I'd do away with the aspen. Way too dry for anything but desert reptiles. May work for a while but long term use will cause problems such as this. Cypress mulch, repti bark or coco husk is a much better choice, I actually use a combination of the three most times. Northerns are tolerant of many different conditions, but extreme dryness will cause this.

[Felmarg]

Maybe I'm out of date on my information but I thought shaved aspen was generally recommended for Northerns? I appreciate the input though and I'm always looking to learn more. I do monitor the humidity in the enclosure and it is generally 40% to 50%, even in the winter. I think it's because I have a 13 x 9 in baking dish filled with water in there for drinking and bathing. I also have a humidifier nearby during the winter for plants.

I've tried other substrate materials in the 15 years I've had my skink but I haven't had good luck with much else besides shaved aspen. I used cypress mulch in the past but it seems pretty much impossible to find responsibly sourced cypress in the states. Zaphod didn't seem to like it as much either because it was hard to burrow in. I can't seem to find a good source here for coconut husk or reptibark. My enclosure is roughly 5' by 3' so I end up going through a ton of bedding, especially because Zaphod likes it deep to burrow.

Nevertheless, I will try to increase humidity during shedding from now on. I used to do that when Zaphod was a baby but I stopped when shedding became less frequent.

[splashy07]

Chewy has all of that, and shipped right to your door in two days or less. Aspen should not be used for any lizard that does not live in the desert. Fine for bearded dragons and many types of snakes, but not your common pet BTS's. What you read on the internet is not always accurate. Northerns are very tolerant of many conditions and husbandry errors, but long term use of aspen will give you problems. I used it myself when I first started keeping northerns and found it to cause breathing and shedding issues. Just not good, take it from a reptile keeper for 45+ years.