Skink refusing to eat

Hiya,
I have been pursuing vetinary advice on this matter, but as nothing seems to be working, I put my problem to you knowledgable group.

I have 2 female corucia living together, and one of them is flatly refusing to eat and has been for several weeks. She has always been skinnier than the other, but ate quite a lot when she first came to us. Since she passed a slug though, she has not eaten anything, bar a couple of nibbles of collard and a tiny quantity of boiled egg (not normal food, but I was trying to get some protein into her). Now though she wont eat anything and just turns away her head. My first concern was that the other, larger female was dominating her, as she didnt like her coming into contact and would move away if she got too close (which she tries to do often). Oddly though, the larger also doesnt seem to like her climbing on her. Because of this, I scattered many food spots around the cage, including near the spots where she usually rests, but she still wont eat - even if the other is well away at the other end of the cage. I have checked all temps and humidity and all is well - like I said, the other is huge and thriving, but the other seems to be wasting away. They have also lived together for several months at the store, and apparently came in together before that, so Im not sure why domination issues might be arising at this point.

So far, she has had a fecal (all clear), treatment for respiratory infection as they were sneezing when they arrived, and more recently a vitamin shot, as she has made no response to the Baytril. The new reptile vet (the other said that her weight was healthy?! Her weight has dropped from 450-340g, which convinced me that I had to get another vet) has also advised that I soak her in warm water with Reptoboost, and force-feed her a liquid food via a syringe. Im starting to get a bit depressed about this, as she obviously hates this process and Im worrying that the stress will kill her before whatever else is the problem. She certainly isnt as vigorous and lively as when we got her; she is quite listless, although she will put up an initial fight if we pick her up.

Does anyone have anything they can suggest? I have tried every fruit under the sun, squashes, organic babyfoods in pumpkin/apple/blackberry/banana/ sweet potato/carrot etc etc (she used to lick these up but wont even do that now), several greens and countless veggies, and still nothing. What could be the problem?

Try separating them. These are VERY social creatures with subtle interactions, just because they are not fighting doesn't mean they are getting along. I had a similar situation with a set of twins, one was thriving one was wasting. They should have gotten along until they were 5 or so, but as soon as I separated the problem twin things improved with him. I was amazed how fast he began eating and putting on weight. I would say have the thin female checked for parasites and then set her up in her own enclosure. Offer her yummy treats by hand, sometimes they eat better if you hand feed for a while. I like pumpkin, cooked yams, bananas, mango, papaya or any organic babyfood for encouraging eating. I use a dropper and try to encourage licking to get them to feed. Two females will not always get along, especially if they are Wild Caught (and they probably are if you got them from a pet store) they may be from different islands or groups or something. Again, I think there is a lot going on socially with this species that we do not have the ability to recognize and there may be more emotional stress between animals than we realize. If it is not parasites, it is probably stress. Good luck!

Kisha

Hi Kisha,
Thank you for the reply. She has already had a fecal exam for worms/parasites and it has come up clear (that was our first guess as well). The only thing that puzzles me is that they have lived together for months and months at the store - would these social issues still come up at this stage, even though they have lived together for so long? At any rate she is going to be separated today. Hopefully we will see some improvement. I will keep you posted!

Sherri at LCRC also suggested I try offering Pedialyte to one of my females who had a mild respiratory infection. Pedialyte is a children's fluid supplement in the U.S. -- I don't know if they have it in the U.K., or if it goes by a different name. She said the fruit-flavored one was generally well-received by her skinks. You offer it in a plastic syringe (no needle, of course), kind of squirted into side of the mouth.

Other than that, here are a few other possibilities:
1) a lot of them aren't eating (or eating well) this time of year, and it may have nothing to do with how well you are maintaining their temperature or humidity -- it may just be due to the short days.
2) a few of mine, when first acquired, wouldn't eat, and I attributed it to being in unfamiliar surroundings. They all came around after a few days of hand-feeding, though.
3) pregnant females often don't eat (or eat much) the later part of their pregnancies ('though if yours is losing weight, that probably isn't the problem...)
4) she could just be very old.

If everything else has been ruled out, all I can offer in the way of suggestions is to keep her a few degrees warmer than usual, keep the humidity as high as possible, offer a good basking spot with strong UVB light, and keep offering treats and Pedialyte by hand. Like I said to Sherri, a lot of reptiles will pull through with just a few extra degrees of heat and a good UVB basking light ('though, with these guys I wouldn't neglect the humidity as well).

Good luck! Sounds like you are a very devoted owner!

-- Celeste

Thank you for the suggestions, Celeste. Since the last post, she has been moved to her own cage away from the other female, and on the first day she ate a couple of bites of food (not while I was watching, but I put in several small piles of popular foods and some of the most popular [squash and sweet potato] were gone in the morning). She also drank quite a bit of water. I dont think we have pedialyte here, but I will check out the pharmacy tomorrow. My vet did give me Reptoboost, which contains glucose and electrolytes and is meant to be booster for sick and/or animals recently come out of hibernation. Its quite sweet-smelling and can be added to water - I have been adding it to her drinking water since she was separated. My vet has asked that she be bathed in it too, but she was so stressed by the last attempt to do that that Im holding off forcing her to bathe. Im hoping she will soak herself. She will not lick food off anything anymore - she used to when this first started.

The weird thing is that she ate quite a lot when we first got her, but its tailed off completely. I should mention that this behaviour coincided with the removal of a slug from the cage - we are pretty sure it was hers, and she was very aggressive during removal. It seems that after this she just hasnt rebuilt the bodyweight, and doesnt seem to want to. Could this have something to do with it?

Ive bumped up her temps a little, and she is spending more time in the warmer part of the cage (there is a hide there that she is using) - in the old cage she spent quite a lot of time at the bottom, which was rather cooler than 85F. Ive also been supplying some moderate nightime temperature. The other thing that seems feasible is that she might be old...we were told she was between 3 and 5 years (which obviously doesnt mean much without proof), but to be honest, she doesnt "look" old. I havent seen a picture of an old skink to be fair, but she is very smooth and generally looks in good shape - apart from the skinniness!

I will keep you guys updated - Im a bit more relieved today, as it was her last Baytril dose which means I dont have to catch and force-administer for the time being. Im hoping that this will give her time to settle...we'll see. Its so frustrating that she is so nervous of me - I cant feed her by hand at the moment without her taking off in fear (probably the course of medication didnt help). Thanks again so much for all the advice!