It was all a big misunderstanding

[Hijinks]

I saw a different vet yesterday for Ping's re-check, a very experienced vet. He took Ping to another room to draw the blood, and a few minutes later he burst through the door excitedly saying "I couldn't get the sample, and I know what happened with the last one!"

He said it's very tough to get enough blood for a useful sample from such a small lizard. And as we all know, they tend to "let loose" when frightened. He said his first poke didn't yield enough blood, and Ping urinated while he was taking it. When he withdrew the needle, a few droplets of blood oozed out. He said he's pretty certain what happened was: whoever took the blood last time experienced the same thing (it's confirmed he did urinate last time too), but then used the needle to suck up the blood off the surface of his skin in order to get enough. So essentially the first blood sample was a tiny amount, tainted with urine and possibly feces. Totally worthless and inaccurate! I'm so happy this vet had the experience to recognize the forensics here, and the CONFIDENCE to tell me he wasn't able to get the blood. I am sure whoever took his blood the first time felt immense pressure to get enough for testing.

And so it looks like Ping doesn't have an infection. He doesn't have renal failure either. What he has is a paranoid owner, and some unfortunate luck.

The antibiotics he got (4 injections in all) have affected his digestion, and the increased veggies I was giving him probably didn't help. I'm seeing undigested greens in his poop, but I'm giving him Benebac. Even though he was probably very stressed, and getting injections, and being carted around to vets, and pooping out whole greens, he managed to grow an inch and put on 45 grams of weight in these two weeks!!

At what age do you all stop giving the higher protein "baby" diet and begin giving the veggie-heavy "adult" diet?

There is still no real explanation for the tremor I saw, but I haven't seen another, and the vet says he's physically fit. He told me to quit obsessing. I'll keep watching him closely, and giving him calcium. A great suggestion I got was to provide a dish with pure calcium powder (NOT calcium with d3 or other additional ingredients).

His eye doesn't look bad at all right now, and he's going to shed in the next few days, so hopefully we have reached the end of that ordeal too.

I feel like we starred in one of those crazy Munchausen by proxy episodes of Law & Order. Come on. Does this lizard look sick?

[SailleSkinklover]

Nope, he doesn't look sick at all, he just looks like a messy eater!

I am so glad you got a decent experienced vet and that there will be no more antibiotic injections! ( see, they can do more damage than good because they're over-prescribed/used improperly! And not just for animals!!!!)They can completely wipe out your healthy gut flora, and I don't know if you can even give a lizard yogurt, (its a dairy product, and they're not mammals, so how could they even break it down?) or even if Blueys have the same or similar gut flora to humans!

I'm glad your little Goomba-headed-Ping's OK. He's a cutelet! I hope you are able to keep this vet on as they sound like they know what they're doing.

[aggiegirl]

I'm so glad that the bloodwork was a "false alarm!" When in doubt, look at the skink! That sure looks like a healthy (hungry!) skink! I know you are resting better now! I think us newbies just worry a bit more than we should. Enjoy your skinky!

[AneesasMuse]

Wow! this is great news!! I'm so glad you found a good, qualified Vet and Ping is on the mend. He looks fabulous.. all messy and food in his face t'boot! Congratulations!

~Aminah

[Funda]

Thats great news mate!

And no he dsnt look like his sick, like come on.. look at him skull that food down!

f.C

[LittleFoot]

He doesn't look sick, just looks like he needs a bib. Glad everything is turning out ok.