BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

I woke up this morning and went to turn on Quigly's lights oly to see foamy bubbles coming out of his eyes. He hasn't and still doesn't seem to have any breathing troubles but foamy eyes is kind of a huge clue.

I am making an apptment, but anything I can do til I can get him in?

I feel like such a bad mom, he seemed fine yesterday, though I haven't been able to give him as much attention this last week.

***Edit***
Quigly has an Apptment now for 3:15 today.

Oh man! Keep us informed.. I hope the little guy is ok!

Ohh, Quigs! You're not a bad mom at all -- you caught the signs immediately and got him to the vet immediately! Let us know how it goes.

Good luck to you and Quigly. You are a great owner---bad owners don't get help! Keep us updated!

Thanks guys.

I'm just having a guilt fest because I've been too busy to pay him the attention he is used to the last week. We haven't had any outside trips for a few weeks as this is the first week of sun after 3 weeks of nothing but rain. I'm sure it's likely the humidity that has caused this, but how does one lower the humidity in the tank when the humidity in the house is a constant 70-80% like it has been. (3weeks of soaking rain + 1 week of sunny skies=Humidity so bad a fish could probably live out of water)

Vet time in 3 hours and 20 minutes.

I have never used this vet before, but he is the only reptile vet in about a 2 1/2 hour radius. I will be printing up the advice from the care sheet for what to look for in a good vet.

Does anyone have any other questions they suggest I ask?
I don't want someone who has no experience with BTS mucking about with him, and if I have to I will leave there and get an appt at the como zoo hospital where I know they deal with BTS, but they are 2 1/2 hours away.

I will let you all know what happens at the vet.

When I rushed into a clinic as an "emergency", I think the vet felt under a lot of pressure to just DO SOMETHING. The blood sample they took was botched and my skink was put on antibiotics that he likely didn't need. Maybe if I had kept my cool a little better, he wouldn't have had to go through so many visits and injections. So, try to stay calm. One thing that stuck out as odd to me with the first vet I saw was her comment about the color of his belly -- "he's a little pink" -- which she said may indicate sepsis. He's ALWAYS a little pink -- aren't most of them always a little pink? The second and third vets I saw didn't make such a comment after looking at the color of his belly; they were more familiar with BTS.

Iam sending wishes to the bubbly eye,s - poor sweet heart vets will listen to the chest ...keep us informed.

sincerly
Ian

Poor Quigs!
Is it possible to get a de-humidifier and put it near the cage, or at least in the same room?
Good luck with your vet, by the way,have you ever taken Quigs anywhere for just a regular check-up?
I think this is a really good learning experience for everyone with an animal, especially an exotic or Herp, to have a vet lined up that you trust before an emergency or illness happens. I
swear by getting an animal checked first thing, then I can get a vibe for the vet, whether they know what theyre doing or not, and also, you can get the good starting point of your skinks health.
I think Hijinks has some good points, and I am totally WOW'ed at the first vet commenting that he looked a little pink! Yes, from what I can tell, they are a bit pinkish or orangeish or even salmon coloured on their bellies and chins!
Bizarre that she thought that was sepsis! She obviously had no clue about Blueys.
Anyways, good luck with Quigs! I know you'll take the best care possible, because you are a good Skink mom!!!

Good luck quigly, i hope he gets better soon and it's not too serious. You are not a bad owner, you did just the right thing and getting a jump on it as soon as you could. Let us know how it goes.

OY! Quigs will not go to that vet again.

Top ten signs you found a bad BTS vet.

1. You walk in tell them it is a blue tongue skink, the paperwork says blue tongue skink, the tech picks up your skink jumps when the tongue comes out and says, "His tongue is BLUE! Is that normal for them?"

2. You begin telling the history of your skink and are interupted by the tech asking if she can take the skink to show it to the other techs who haven't seen one before either.

3. Before the vet enters the room you hear him in the back saying," Skink? Slinky Skink. That's a weird name for a lizard."

4. The vet begins his visit by telling you about the Ball python they had that died of pnumonia yesterday.

5. He has to be forced to listen to the chest cavity when the animal was brought in for a potential URI.

6. Begins talking about a cat that exibited similar symptoms as your skink.

7. Is the local Petco's vet.

8. Examines the eyes, prescribes an antibiotic hydrocortisone cream for them, and when reminded that the animal was brought in for a potential URI says, "Well, if you think we should I can mix up an oral antibiotic for you to give him, just in case."

9.Tells you that part of the problem maybe that the lizard didn't completely shed the cornial scale. (Yes I confirmed he thought the eyeball should shed too)

10. Finally listens to the chest cavity, after repeated requests, and says," It's hard to tell, we were holding him and he was struggling pretty hard."

11. When applying the eye ointment, he flips the swab around and begins using the wooden end to spread the cream around the eye, then is surprised when the lizard wriggles and the wood pokes it in the eye.

12.Your skink is repeatedly compared in likeness to a snake.

13. You have to explain that there are more than one species of BTS.

14. You have to eplain that he doesn't get crickets or meal worms ever because they are not really good for him, and then are told anyway that his crickets should be dusted with a mineral powder.

15. Wait didn't I say top 10 things. oops.

Anyway, after all of that I was able to have him listen to the chest and it seems it is not likely to be an URI, but an irritation of the eye. I have a triple antibiotic hydrocortisone cream to put in and around his eye and was told if I am still worried about a UTI in a few days call him up and he will just prescribe an oral antibiotic animal sight unseen.

Suffice it to say that vet will not be used again, though at least Quigs does seem better after the ointment was applied.

I will be keeping an eye on him, and if anything seems out of the ordinary I will get him up to the Zoo vet.

OHHHH, Dear Gods & Goddesses, are you kidding!?
Did all of that happen to you for real? If that really happened,
I would run screaming for the hills to the zoo vet 2 1/2 hours away ASAP!
I gotta say, all of this makes me wanna go to school to be a herp vet, because there appears to be little competition, albeit its a specialized field.

Me personally? I'd be scared of whatever that vet prescribed, (he was all too willing to give you anitbiotics, without knowing anything about the animal's bloodwork, fecal samples, anything!)
but you may not have a choice due to time of day, etc.
If you can, I'd see or at least contact a better vet ASAP. That vet sounds like he'd do more damage than good to poor Quigs! Yikes!
Good luck!

Yep, all of that and more. At least it only cost me $76 to find out I won't go there again.

As I said Quigs did seem much better after the ointment, and I will be changing bedding again as he seemed to do better when I had him on carefresh, I had switched him back to the reptibark as I had a big bag to use up. I will be tossing the bag and getting him carefresh again.

The ointment has seemed to help though if I see discharge again I will be getting him to the zoo ASAP.

As of now though his eyes are clear and I haven't seen anymore discharge either form the eyes or the nose. He doesn't seem to have any heavy breathing as I said in the first post, but this too will be watched carefully.

Thankfully, I am not a panicker when it comes to such things, and I know what to look for and right now I am not seriously worried.

Watch and wait is the course of action for now.

Hi Luce,

Respirtory infections are quite scary assuming it does have it.

The humidity shouldn't be a problem with your IJ being from a tropic zone / high humidity climate to begin with but wetness is. Definitely keep the temps up and provide a lot and I mean a lot of water.

You might've said this already but is your skink eating? Another thing - is there any fluid coming out of his mouth or nose?

Is there any drafts at all coming in from the AC to near by window? Does he have sufficent cover yet heat to keep his body in the mid 80's? Don't let him drop down at night at all - maintain constant temps in the mid 80s and higher in the "hot" side.

I'd like to hear any other symptoms you have noticed.

Good luck,

Andrew

Ugh - I just reread your thread. Foaming bubbles. You said he's better now and it might be something else. How is he now?

Andrew

He is eating, and seems pretty active, I haven't seen any more discharge.
We don't have an air conditioner, and there isn't a draft unless you can count kids running back and forth.

He seems better, and it may be just some irritation, the reptibark I decided to use up is rather dusty. He has been rubbing a bit but as I said the discharge was thick and foamy. He has a nice big water dish that is kept filled, and his warm end temps stay at about 110 cool end is usually a bit high at around 85 but it is a small tank until i can get his new home set up.

Only other symptoms he's had is the head rubbing, he hasn't scratched at himself at all, though I have now noticed a red bump on one of the scales on top of his head. Not sure what that might be from.

He was pretty fiesty when the vet was handleing him, and I think it wore him out as he has slept since we got back.

The treatment plan at the moment is to watch the temps, use the eye ointment, watch and wait.

I know I am very new at this but ...

my baby had an eye infection and I too removed all the reptibark from the enclosure. As you said it is very dusty. While I was using the antibiotic eye ointment I put my on papertowels so that nothing could get stuck to the eyes and compound the problem. We had great success. Best of luck with Quigs. Sorry to hear about your horrible Vet appointment. You'd think if they didn't have a clue they would at least refrain from making it so obvious.

I hope Quigs is feeling better. I'm amazed that a vet could honestly be that...well stupid. "His tongue is blue! Is that normal?" I can think of so many snappy comebacks for that one. I'm glad the bubbles seem to be clearing up.

I took Pryce to a local vet, the only one in Winnipeg, and I was terrified she was going to tell me B/S. Thankfully, she was pretty knowledgeable. Still, she also told me about dusting crickets even after I'd said they weren't healthy. @.@ How does a person get qualified to be a herp-vet if they know next-to-nothing about herps? *sigh* Well Quigs may not have had the best vet, but at least he has a great mom to take care of him.

Quigs seems much better today, still a small amount of discharge from the eyes and he is cranky and sleepy, though that could easily be attributed to the shed that is coming up very soon.

I think it may have just been the dust from the reptibark.

Continuing to watch and wait.

Sound like that vet should go on the CHANCERS list, looks like he made a good guess at the ointment, best of luck for a full recovery mate