Respiratory infection? Please help!

[Dakota]

Looks good considering she was kept in lowered humidity. Did you get her as an large juvenile?

[Josephjensen81]

She was about 6 or 7 inches when I got her. She is now 21 inches and 550 grams.

[Susann]

She's a good looking Halmahera for sure.

I appreciate your confusion with the humidity requirements. My input on the reason for the misinformation out there as far as humidity goes is this: people experienced with BTS simply have not been keeping the Halmahera form of T.g.gigas long enough to start seeing issues. Until now. (And to be fair, some individual gigas seem to do fine with just 40% humidity.)
The importers seem to go through "phases" on what they are bringing in to the US; for the past year or two, it seems to be largely the Halmahera form of Indos. 80+% of the time we get new members here with a new BTS that they bought in a pet store or at an expo, the skinks have been Halmaheras. And rarely did the seller know they were selling a T.g.gigas even though they guaranteed that their skinks were supplied by a "breeder".
None-the-less, the articles written many years ago in the very reputable magazines were very likely written by people who did not themselves keep the high humidity-requiring skinks. Our Species specific Caresheet additions were created EXACTLY for that reason, so that people who have experience with keeping the different species successfully in different conditions can tell us what exactly it is they are doing; so others can see that, one number does not always fit everyone --someone in Phoenix, AZ may have to do things differently from someone in Tampa, FL.
...I just haven't been able to get the more experienced keepers to take the time to write more submissions... (Ehum... cough... hint, hint...)

Delilah may very well not have an R.I., but any time you start hearing sounds with breathing that are abnormal to your skink, it is a good idea to have them looked at by a professional. For the very reason that R.I. issues can go downhill so fast.
Prolonged and chronic low humidity can eventually cause an R.I., but if it's progressed to that point, you must address the R.I. as well as look into what in your husbandry needs to be fixed. Unlike us, most of the time a BTS gets an R.I. it is caused by husbandry being off rather than "catching" it from another reptile.
If you haven't already got a vet you are comfortable with to care for your reptiles, I think now would be as good a time as any to take care of that ...because, many of us have experienced emergencies at off-hours and not been able to get a hold of a vet who will see a reptile, and that is absolutely one of the most awful feelings in the world... let alone taking a sick BTS to a professional who you find does not seem to know much about them. So if you take her in and like the vet you see, I would suggest asking them for numbers to call with emergencies during the hours that their office is closed.

I know I tend to lean very far to the side of "better safe than sorry" and take my skinks in only to be told that they are fine; you are the one seeing what your skink is looking and acting like and thus the one to make the decision whether you think an expensive vet visit is needed or not. We can only tell you what we would do in your place from your descriptions if it were our skink. I'd personally see a vet to make sure nothing progresses past the point of being able to fix it with a simple quick antibiotic treatment. But that's just me --I have watched a skink die from Mystery Illness, what we now know is caused primarily by chronic low humidity-- so I may be extra sensitive as far as treating sick skinks go... and much too quick to rush my skinks to the vet. But I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Please do keep us updated on what you do. We are very interested in following how this goes. We're certainly hoping for the very best for Delilah!

[Josephjensen81]

I found 2 listings for reptile specialists in my town. One is on vacation and the other one couldn't get me in until 5:30pm tomorrow. Unfortunately Delilah looks horrible this morning. Her breathing sounds worse and her eyes are almost swelled shut. I'm sick to my stomach right now. The vet said they would try and have one of their techs or whatever they called them that has assisted the Vet with the reptiles call me to offer advice but I have to go to work right and I haven't heard a thing. Delilah sounded so much better yesterday and her eyes were clear. I've never had a sick animal before so I'm kinda freaking out.

[Susann]

So sorry. I know the feeling...

Do you have a smaller container you could keep her in where you could keep her warmer?

[Josephjensen81]

Well i took out the hide she loves most on the cool side so that she would spend most of her time on the warm side. The hide was 95 degrees when i left. I also put some moist spagnum moss in the hide to keep the humidity higher in there. I put some fresh water and food in there too. The vet tech person never called me. There is a locally owned pet shop here in town that has a really awesome knowledgeable reptile guy. He gets in at 1pm, so i'm gonna contact him.

[Josephjensen81]

So this morning Delilah's eyes were still swollen almost shut when i went to work. Then when i got home she had made a miraculous recovery. Her eyes were wide open, with just a little dried brown stuff around one of them, and her hissing sounded totally normal. Unfortunately i saw this only 45 minutes before her vet appointment so cancelling wasn't really an option.

When i got to the vet there wasn't much to look at except the dried crust on her left eye. He said there was a little build up in one of her nostrils but said overall she looked like "a healthy and happy skink." He said her heart and her breathing sounded healthy. He just recommended i put a digital thermometer in her tank that logs the high and low temperatures overnight to make sure it wasn't getting colder than i thought it was at night because i just use an infrared thermometer to check it.

Regarding the humidity, he said the 40% was just fine for her. I told him what you guys said. He said if i was really worried about it I could up it to 50% but he wouldn't recommend any higher than that. He also recommended some herpetelogical journals that i could research the archives of to find studies done on reptiles and habitats in the area of the world Delilah is from if i'm extremely concerned about it.

Anyway, thanks for the concern. Delilah appears to be back to normal today so i'm hopeful this issue is behind me. I'm encouraged by my experience in here to become an active member of the site. I really enjoyed chatting with you guys on here.

[Dakota]

Well, all I can say is good luck to you and your Halmahera. Welcome to the forum.

[alichamp]

Well at least you have peace of mind now having taken her to get checked out. I'm really glad you have found the forum helpful and encouraging I enjoyed this thread too. I guess just keep an eye on her and now you have information to make a decision about husbandry to give Delilah the best environment you can. I do hope you bump up the humidity a fair bit though closer to what the experienced keepers on the forum suggest as it would be sad to see an issue down the track.

You could of course run an experiment yourself and bump humidity up for a while to 60-80% and observe for yourself how she responds.

Delilah is lovely so thanks for sharing.

[Josephjensen81]

I'm gonna give her a humid hide so she can make the decision for herself whether she wants the high humidity or the 40%. Her eyes were a little swollen again this morning but cleared pretty well by noon and she's ate and drank like normal. She never has been a huge fan of moving around outside her hide, at least not while i'm there to see it, but i'd say her activity level is back to normal. She's gonna be fine. I think that I was just panicking because this is the first time i've had a sick animal. Thanks guys.

[Dakota]

That's relieving to hear you are giving her a humid hide. Hope she starts improving.

I thought I'd add my experience here:

A few weeks ago, I modified a few of my tubs where I could situate a heat lamp on top of them. To do this, I melted out a square on the top with a wood burner. I then melted some mesh over top so I can put the heat lamp on. So far, I've only done this with a Halmahera tub and a Merauke tub. Before melting out a large square on one side, the humidity never got below 80%; it felt quite like a sauna when you opened it. I never bothered to measure humidity afterwards, because I did not think it would alter it much — but, I was wrong. Turns out, the humidity got down to 55-60%. I tried spraying it daily, but it didn't help much. During this time period, the Halmahera had crust build up on her nostrils — almost to the point where they were barely open. The Merauke was unaffected. And note: until then, I've never had a problem with crust. I even rescued a Halmahera with a large amount of crust built up that went away. But anyways, I taped up the square I cut out, and there is no more crust. The crust wasn't significant at all (just on her nostril orifices) but it was there. I'm glad I caught it before it stressed her respiratory system too much.

[Josephjensen81]

Yeah, it's pretty silly that there is pretty much no info on Halmaheras out there. I figure the humid hide should solve the problem. That way she can choose what she needs. I'd love to take the people on here's word for it but it's like being stuck between a rock and a hard place when you have care sheets and a Vet that specializes in reptiles saying 40% and people in a forum who say they actually keep Halmaheras saying 80%.

I find it interesting that your Halmahera got sick so quickly from a drop to 60% but Delilah has lived the past 2 years with 40% and this is the first issue of any kind she has ever had.

Do you have pictures on here of your Halmaheras somewhere?

[Dakota]

Here are a few pictures:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=28196&p=471645&hilit=Vera#p469899

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=28593&p=472663&hilit=Vera#p472663

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=28025&p=468568&hilit=Maxx#p468568

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=28025&p=469062&hilit=Riley#p469062

[Josephjensen81]

Very cool!! That sick one you rescued eyes look very similar to what Delilah's eyes looked like the day i called the vet. Delilah's weren't quite as bad but similar. That must have been a hell of a shed! Delilah has never gotten that gray looking during a shed. She was missing a few toes when i got her as well and was infested with mites but otherwise healthy. Pathetic when you consider i paid a Northern price for her at Petco. I didn't even know what mites were when i bought her as i had never encountered them so i didn't even bother to look for such a thing. I didn't even notice them til a week later when they were crawling on me after i handled her. You did an amazing job getting that skink back to good health.

[Dakota]

Thank you. She is doing well now, but she has turned into quite a mean skink. Like, I walk by her cage, and she'll lunge to bite me. Kinda psychotic. But I still love her even if she has my death planned.

[Josephjensen81]

I'll have to get Delilah out and do a little photo shoot so you can see some better pics of her. I had a bunch on the internal storage of my old phone and when it died all the pictures went with it. I had all my pics of Delilah as a little 7 inch juvinile on there too. Such a bummer.

[Dakota]

And to dwell on your question about how our experiences differ:

From my understanding, most respiratory infections are secondary, like mouth rot — it is usually brought on by something, a catalyst of sort. I believe our experiences differ that yours has adjusted itself to the lowered humidity. If you take a native person of Halmahera to live in Arizona, they're obviously going to suffer some respiratory issues. Even people from Florida say they have a hard time breathing when they visit the Midwest. But someone that was raised in Arizona won't have much a problem; vice versa with the Halmahera native. Alice, the Halmahera in question, has been raised with high humidity all her life. She was imported as a very tiny baby similar to yours. This is why I think the 20% drop affected her more than it would your skink, because her body was not adjusted to lowered levels of humidity. The sudden stress caused a microflora imbalance to form a "crust" in her nose. Just a theory.

Something is causing these issues with your skink, unless it had caught the infection from another reptile. It could directly be humidity-related, could be a slight neglect of proper temperatures, or could just be as simple as stress from moving cages to jumpstart an imbalance. Who knows. But hopefully she finds good use of that humid hide.

[Josephjensen81]

Yeah who knows. Maybe if she hadn't decided to heal herself like Wolverine right before her Vet visit he would have been able to tell me.

Hey, quick question. What's the deal with all those Blue Tongue species listed below all your comments? And do the numbers represent anything? I've seen another user with something similar so now i'm curious.

[Dakota]

The first number represent how many males I have, the second number represents how many females I have, and third number represents how many unsexed skinks I have.

So 2.2.5 Merauke = 2 male, 2 female, 5 unsexed

[Josephjensen81]

*darn you got a lot of skinks. Do you keep any other reptiles.