Blue tongue skink

[Cheesenugget]

So the Vet visit went well. Tootsie (my daughters named it since it was missing toes ) is a bit under weight, might be just starting an RI and has weak bones. As soon as my wife put Tootsie in the prepared tote for transport he pooped, I forgot to ask her if the Vet checked it so I will have to when she gets home from work. The Vet said its bones were weak and may have some issues due to that and gave us some Calcium Gluconate 167mg and we are to give 0.2ml orally once a day. She said that Skinks have very flexible joints and the fact that it raises its leg like it does isn't concerning in itself but the twitchy part is but feels the calcium and recomended UVB bulb will help with that. She doesn't think it will ever be 100% but should be able to live a good life and with proper care going forward should show less signs of issues. As far as the RI goes we now have Enrafloxacin Suspension 0.1ml orally once a day for 14 days. I wrote down everything we were doing and about its current cage and the one I'm building and was told we were doing a good job of rehabilitaing Tootsie. The only thing she questioned was the dog food and gave some suggestions for proper veggies which we already had on our feeding list. We were also told to feed every other day for a while to get its weight up to since it is underweight a bit but not too bad. My wife came home and cut up some butternut squash and collard greens and covered it in some wet dog food with some vitamins mixed in and Tootsie went nuts and ate great. On a slightly sadder note Tootsie will most likely be loosing a couple more toes that we were a bit too late to save, the damage was already done but the Vet said we did get all the stuck shed off of the toes. So it looks like paper towels for a bit longer till they fall off and heal. Well I think I got all the info I have. I will check with the wife when she gets home to see if I missed something and will update if needed. Thank you all for your info, help and concern.

That is good to hear.

I use dog food for mine too mainly because mine refuses salads (Like most blueys). Merrick used to be highly recommended and I loved it because it comes in pate and the ingredients had a lot of fruits and veggies mixed with the meat. Since Purina bought them out, I no longer find that particular formula so that is unfortunate. Blue Buffalo Chicken with Garden Vegetables is a good one. Try to go grain free and stay away from the gravy kind since that carries more water/less meat than the pate ones.

If it picks at its food or eats only what it wants, either reduce the portion or space out the feeding. It is very easy for these lizards to gain the weight but very hard to lose it once it is there.

You can also add snails in their diet which they love as that is what they naturally would eat in the wild. Don't use the ones from the garden as snails are common hosts to parasites. I buy canned snails meant for human consumption and with our seasoning from Amazon. For about $23, I get about 200 large snails. I would not waste money on the reptile brands canned snails. They are tiny, comes in very limited amount and they charge almost $5-6 a can. What a rip off.

Hornworms and black soldier fly larvae would be a great addition to his diet. They are high in calcium and hornworms are easy to chew and hydrates your lizard well. Wax worms are great to help gain weight on skinny lizards. Mulberry farm website always carry sales. I think they still have the buy 2 containers if hornworms get 1 free deal. They always add extra for you.