dishay

I re-read this thread and wanted to clarify some things about my post:

My skink started vomiting before I took him to the vet. I always take new animals, reptile or otherwise, to the vet when I first get them. I took him to the only reptile vet anywhere near me, Dr. James Talbott. He told me blue tongues were some of his favorite reptiles and sent me home with the Reptiles Magazine caresheet (which I had already read in detail about a hundred times before the visit).

The dewormer and protein mix he gave my skink were not actual injections. They were given orally with a syringe. The protein mix was just a sort of nutrient powder mixed with water to try and boost my skink’s appetite. It didn’t work, and the skink vomited it all up that night.

I am headed to the vet at 3:30 today to get the paperwork. Admittedly, this was my first time going to this particular vet and you can’t really be sure that a new vet, particularly an exotic one, is perfect. However, he did specialize in reptiles and I think the only thing he could have possibly done to the skink to harm it was the dewormer. I’m not sure exactly what it was, but the paperwork will likely tell me. He did not give the skink antibiotics or a shot or anything.

I attached the only good photos of my skink I have left, as I deleted most of them in grief after he died (stupid!). Some quick notes: in the first photo he was on the (clean) hardwood floor for about five minutes total because I was seeing if maybe he would eat if he was out of his enclosure (silly I know, but I was trying). The raspberry is there because pieces of (clean, organic) raspberry was the only food he ever showed interest in. I thought something sweet might get him interested in food. They were not a staple and he only ever ate one (before he vomited the first time). In the second photo, he is on my friend’s shoulder, where he remained for about 30 seconds. I had her wash her hands with antibacterial soap before and after touching him. I recognize now that handling him at all was a mistake, but I strongly believe that nothing I did could have caused him to die that quickly because, as William himself said, blue tongues are hardy.