Crocodile Skink Rescue

I work at a vet clinic that specialized in exotics. A couple days ago, we had a gentleman bring in his juvenile rainbow boa because she hadn't eaten in several weeks and he thought she was constipated. Well, his boa was constipated- as well as severely dehydrated- but he also had a Crocodile Skink in with her (!!!). Apparently he'd grown tired of the skink because he "never saw her", and decided to try and tempt his snake with her. Both reptiles were in very poor condition due to some pretty serious husbandry mistakes. When told how much it would cost to treat his reptiles, he grabbed the skink and started waving her around like a toy and yelling at us (the staff), all while the poor thing was squeaking hysterically.

So, now one of my coworkers has a new rainbow boa, and I have a female (?) Muddy Eyed Crocodile Skink (T. novaeguineae).

Apparently this gentleman has never supplemented her with calcium or anything else. I had our reptile vet check her over, and he has her on a liquid calcium supplement (as well as a UVB light) and a dewormer. I've never owned a reptile before, but I really like them. I was hoping someone might be able to share some care tips, etc, to make this girlies' life a little easier.

Her current set up:
10g tank (an old fish tank I had on hand) 20"L x 10"W x 12.5"H
Hybroballs for drainage
Eco Earth/Plantation Soil/Jungle Bedding mixture substrate
Sphagnum moss
Multiple hides (crocodile skill, cave, cork flats, fake foliage)
UVB light
Red Heat Lamp (25 watt)
Small under tank heater
Large water dish

Current Perameters:
Warm side: 82F (digital probe)
Cool side: 70-72F (digital probe)
Humidity: 85-90% (digital)
Her current weight: 40g

According to my research, T. novaeguineae preferr a warm side of about 82F, a cool side of about 72F, as well as 80-90% humidity, so I think I am doing okay. I had a hard time keeping the warm side at a stable temperature until I added the under tank heater. The 25 watt bulb seems to really help to raise the humidity, as long as I keep the tank well-misted. I'm still having a bit of trouble getting the cool side stable.

My next plans are to upgrade her to a 18x18x18 Exoterra (or larger, depending on what I can find), as she is constantly climbing and I only put her in the 10g because I didn't expect her to use as much vertical space as she does. I thought they were more burrowers than arboreal, but she spends most of her time in the top half of her tank, not on the floor. I think she would enjoy having more room to climb. I am also planning on adding a custom waterfall background and live plants to the new set up. I'm also considering trying to find a male to pair her with- but that will be once she's cleared a health check.

Like I said, I've only had her for 3 days, but she hasn't eaten yet. Her previous "home" was a 15g tank with dry-as-dust Ecoearth, one single hide on the warm side, and a rainbow boa for company. I'm hoping her reluctance to eat is the result of culture shock! She is quite active, and doesn't seem very shy; she spends a lot of time watching me watching her. She does seem interested in food. I've offered her mealworms and silkworms, and she watches them quite avidly- but I haven't seen her eat any.

Anyways, if anyone had any suggestions to make her set up better (or how to stabilize that cool side!) please let me know!

I'll post some pictures once I figure out how :P

Some pictures:

Meet "Toothless" the Crocodile Skink:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ps9077f403.jpg

Her new home:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ps2867f481.png

Update:

Thanks to a fantastic series of websites, I raised her temps a bit.

Todays Parameters:
High Temp: 88F. I may have to change her tank a bit, as one spot on top of her log (about the side of two quarters) is reaching just under 90F.
Low Temp: 74.5F, but fluctuating. I think this fluctuation may be because my ambient room temperature fluctuates a fair bit. Still researching remedies! Also, apparently T. novaeguinea prefer low temps of just over 76F, so I have to find a way to lower that "basking" spot, but raise the low side.
Humidity: 82-85%

Offered one silkworm and four mealworms, but she had not eaten any. She is very active today; soaking in her pool, cruising around her tank, etc. She has not pooped in two days, though, which I take as meaning she has not eaten anything either. She has been clawing at the front glass of her terrarium, and rubbing her nose on it a fair bit.

I don't know much about them, but from what I understand, they do hide a lot. Most reptiles won't eat for a bit when they move to a new environment, so I wouldn't worry too much. I would try leaving some worms in a dish in with her overnight, and as long as your husbandry is good (and it sounds like you're reading a lot, so it probably is :)), she'll eat when she's ready. It would probably be a good idea to cover the back and sides of her tank with paper to help her feel more secure. And it looks like you might have a dial thermometer in there - just so you know, digital ones are MUCH more accurate. You can find a cheap, basic digital thermometer/hygrometer at Walmart for about $12. Also, you didn't mention a thermostat - thermostats are a must for under tank heaters, as they can get way too hot without a thermostat.

Good luck with her! She's very cute!

That's a dial hygrometer, not a thermometer, and it is just for quick reference during the day; I have a pretty good digital one I do spot checks with :) I'd never trust a dial thermometer; I have a digital thermometer with a probe that I use to check surface and substrate temperatures. At the clinic I've seen cheapie dial thermometers that were more than 20 degrees F off! And I do have a thermostat on the heat mat; the UTH is such a piece of crap though that I have it turned just a touch less than all the way up and it still does more or less nothing. I'm considering taking it out, especially since my substrate is so thick that I'm not sure it's doing much more than warming up the hydroballs lol

Covering the sides and back is a great idea: I'll do that right away! I've been leaving worms in her dish, and she does seem interested in them, especially once the lights go off, but so far none have disappeared. I guess I'll giver her more time.

Thank you so much for your suggestions. I do appreciate it, and I'm sure she will as well! She is a cutie. And so active! I was pretty sure I was getting a reptile I'd never see, but she is out almost all of the time which is a nice surprise.

She ate! I just watched her eat two mealworms! I'm so happy :D

Here she is by her food dish, just before she gobbled up two mealies:

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...psc0e6e2e1.png

She's so cute! I'm so glad she ate for you! I know it's been a few days - how is she doing?

This is awesome, and what a great job you and your team did in "correcting" (more like schooling, but in a nice and effective way - by rescuing the pets of) this neglectful owner.

What a cutie pie!! Excellent choice of name, I might add.

Unfortunately, those two mealies have been the only things she's eaten. She's been basking a lot- and they are not a basking species- and she has not passed any stool. I've tried offering her butterworms, waxworms and phoenix worms today; we'll see what she thinks overnight. I already tried guppies and shrimp in her waterdish (both bred by a friend of mine, not gross feeders) on a recommendation from another forum. She didn't eat them, either.

Someone suggestion using forceps, but she is so timid about anything new that I'm sure she wouldn't go for it. I did try dropping freshly-molted mealies right in front of her, and she ran away! Coward :/

I'm discussing with my vet whether to bring her in or not. We don't want to stress her out any more than she is, but I reweighed her yesterday and she's dropped pretty significantly (almost 8% of her total body weight). If she doesn't eat by Wednesday I'm probably going to bring her back in for x-rays, since that would be at least 14 days since she's had a good meal and apparently this species usually eats every 2-4 days. My vet is concerned that she may be impacted, and may have been since I got her. She seems less active the last two days, too. Usually she's up and about first thing in the morning and last thing at night, but I only saw her once yesterday, and not at all today (unless you count her snout, which is always poking out of her hide).

Gah. So frustrating!

So, Toothless still isn't eating. My vet decided to try 14 days of antibiotics, somewhat prophylactically as we're not sure what is wrong. She is so tiny that my vet is pretty sure nothing would show up even if we did take x-rays, and that if something is brewing in her system that the stress of being taped down (how they generally xray small lizards) would probably bring it to a head right quickly, and I agree. We did take a couple swabs that we sent out for C&S (culture and sensitivity) to see if they can find anything, but we are starting the Baytril right away in any case.

So she is on 0.04cc of Baytril (10mg/ml) once daily for 14 days. We may end up tube feeding her if she doesn't eat by the end of this week, or if she loses more weight than she already has. Giving oral medication to a tiny skink is not easy! Even the tiniest of insulin syringes (without needle) is too big! I'm terrified I'm going to cause her to aspirate. :tears: We decided against injections, as this vet has had a history of having the Baytril injections cause some serious tissue necrosis. Hopefully being handled daily for oral medication doesn't stress Toothless so much that she dies anyways!

She is still drinking and soaking lots, though, which is nice to see. I did give her 0.25cc of subcutaneous fluids tonight, as Baytril can be very hard on the kidneys, and we are considering continuing SQ fluid therapy for the duration of treatment. We could go up to 0.75cc, I think, but it seems so much to put in her tiny body! Plus it's very difficult to find a place to put SQ fluids on a reptile who is so, well, pokey!

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ps328faa5c.png

Is it considered spam if I keep posting here? If I'm posting too much, someone stop me.

Well, Toothless still isn't eating. We dewormed her again yesterday (Safe-Guard, 0.0075ml PO) as she did pass some live worms again, and she is on her 3rd day of antibiotics. She HATES the Baytril. She squeaks and struggles and makes a fuss. It's funny; she never offers to bite me, though, not even when I am forcing the nasty strawberry Baytril in her mouth. And it would be entirely understandable if she did. She does seem a lot brighter, though; the first day of Baytril she just kind of lay there while I mover her head about to get her jaw open. Today she was much, much feistier! I hope that this is a sign she is feeling better. Maybe her laid-back attitude was less her actual personality, and more just her not feeling well at all. We get that a lot at the clinic with cats; sweet gentle kitties that turn into fire-breathing dragons once they start feeling better.

She still isn't eating on her own, and she lost another 0.5g. Yesterday, upon veterinary advice, I started feeding her watered-down Hills Perscription A/D canned food. I only gave her 0.25ml, as she hasn't eaten for so long we don't want to overload her system. Today she took almost 0.5ml of the canned food slurry, with a few drops of warm water to wash it down. She seems to really like it; for the last 0.25ml she would actually take the syringe into her mouth voluntarily, instead of me having to oh-so-gently pry her mouth open. I'm going to leave a glob of the A/D in her enclosure overnight to see if she will eat it out of her dish; that would be much easier! If she will eat that, I think I'll try adding a few waxworms or phoenix worms in it, then slowly reducing the amount of A/D until it's just waxworms/phoenix worms/whatever.

Toothless is eating!

She has vastly improved. Today is her 10th day on Baytril, and she is feisty feisty feisty! She's been eating Phoenix worms for about four days, and has started having regular bowel movements. She is much more active. I didn't realize how "down" she was feeling until this week; this is a highly active skink! Before her treatment she was pretty active, but nowhere near where she is now. She wakes me up at night because she's always climbing all over her cage (and sometimes falling off lol).

She is refusing crickets and mealworms, but while I haven't seen her eat them, the phoenix worms are disappearing from her dish; anywhere from 3-10 a night. She is a very shy eater! since she is very under weight, I'm going to pick up some more waxworms this weekend and see if she would like to try them. I'm still giving her supplementary A/D cat food on veterinary advice; just because she is soooo thin and because I still have to stress her out for 4 more days by giving her the last of her Baytril. The vet is concerned that she will stop eating again, which she can't really afford. And, in fact, while the Baytril is always a struggle (I wish it came in Larvae & Worm flavour!), she quite likes the A/D. She won't eat it out of a dish, but she does lap it up off the syringe with no trouble at all. She will even approach the syringe in her enclosure to eat some! Clever skink.

I'm so so so happy! I was very scared that the stress of handling her every day for her medicine would be the last of her, especially since at first she seemed to be getting worse, not better. Instead it seems to have saved her life. Now I just have to finish off her course of antibiotics, deworm her one more time, and fatten her up a bit and we should be golden. I am feeling very optimistic!

New enclosure: $300
Veterinary exam and medications: $200
Food we tried: $50
A spunky skink no longer threatening to starve to death: PRICELESS! :D

Yayyy! Glad he's doing better :D great job


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That's awesome! Croc skinks are such a cool species, lucky for you that the rescue mission has been a success.

Update:

Toothless is doing well! She still goes on "hunger strikes" now and then- sometimes she'll go 4-6 days with out eating anything, but then on the last day she'll eat everything thing I give her and beg for more! She has gained all her lost weight back and is now a fat and happy skink (intermittent anorexia not withstanding). She is active and cruises around digging everything up.

IN FACT she laid an egg last week! She was digging digging digging under one of her hides, then stayed there for a week without leaving to eat. I got worried so I dug her out and... an egg! I wish I'd gotten a picture :(

She's been doing so well that now I'm thinking of picking up a boyfriend for her. I found someone with a confirmed WC male, but he's had a vet check, been dewormed and they've had him for 16 months regularly eating mealworms, crickets, phoenix worms and waxworms. They're looking for anew home for him. He looks fat and healthy. I'm planning on borrowing a friend's 10g tank to set up as his QT for 8 weeks or so, and have my eye on a 36" x 18" x 24" Exoterra for their honeymoon digs. Who knows- maybe there will be tiny little crocodile skinks in our future! :D

Here is the lady, relaxing in her bath:
http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...psee5b309e.png

Update:

I located her an adult wild caught male in November, and after his round of de-worming, acclimatization, finally eating and quarantine, I put them together in a planted 30x18x18 Exoterra. This week: an egg! Unfortunately Toothless laid it in her water dish :( I'm going ahead with incubation, anyways, just in case.

I'm a bird person, really, so I'm used to hard dry eggs. Reptile eggs are kind of gross! :P Here is the egg, before I marked the top and placed it in the incubation container:

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ps3bb0a153.png

This is such a neat thread :) thanks for keeping us updated. Can't wait to see when the egg hatches.