Red ring around toe

[bhubbard0918]

Hi Guys, brand new to the forums here, and this is my first skink. We have had him since November, and loved him the day we brought him home. He hasn't been giving us any problems whatsoever, but something caught our eye today. He started shedding this morning, and we noticed this little red ring going around his toe. Couldn't find pictures of anything like this around the internet and we don't know if we should be worried or not. I know that they sometimes have difficulty shedding their toe and tail skin, but this looks like something totally different. The picture quality isn't great, but if any of you have seen this before, or have some suggestions as to what it may be I would greatly appreciate some insight! Thanks!

[Susann]

What a cute little Merauke.
I'm not seeing anything red in the picture at all, nor anything that looks out of the ordinary. I would just make sure to check his toes every time you have him out and if anything looks swollen or more red then give him a good soak next time he sheds and rub the toes with a wet cloth to make sure all the shed is off.
If there is something red I would suspect he may need some more humidity in his tank. Meraukes are known to have issues with toe loss due to humidity being too low.
Either switch to a mulch or bark type substrate and spray the whole tank down as often as is necessary to keep it just slightly moist most of the time.

[Dood]

Deleted double post

[Dood]

I see the constriction on the last digit on his right hind.

I suspect he did not completey shed the skin off his toes last time which cut off blood flow and left a "ring mark" but he shed the old skin this time and you can see the red mark it left from falling off.

For future reference I'd follow Susann's advice and would soak his feet after he sheds and gently rub his toes to be certain all old skin is removed or the circulation can be cut off so the entire toe falls off

[Roarschak11]

This looks similar to what happened right before my hal lost a toe. X2 what Susann said.
Also Emu Oil is a life saver for Lizzie's with toe shed problems

[Sebastian]

+1 for emu oil.
When I had Oliver emu oil essentially saved him. His tail was *cracked* (with blood) from how dried out he was and how many layers of stuck shed he had when he came to me. Applications of emu oil every single day is what got those five layers of stuck shed off and helped him recover.

I can see it in your photo as well that there was constriction on that last toe. You don't mention if he shed this off yet so if you are unsure I would try to get a very very close look at that toe and make sure that the stuck shed has come off, if it hasn't he could loss the toe.