blue tongued skinks?

kala83 · 10-30-13, 03:18 AM

I saw some of these guys in pet stores and online and to be quite honest they perked my interest.

I wanted ro do some research before thinking of bringing anything in. lol and trust me it would be a while before i could do so anyway with my income but just curious and wanted to hear what other people had to say if anything at all.

Zoo Nanny · 10-30-13, 04:21 AM

I just lost my boy this summer. They are wonderful animals that are curious, aware, hardy and not too fast. There is a great deal of confusion on their proper care and most in this country do not live to 10 years old. Very few vets know enough about them if anything at all and many have never even seen one. Their internal organs are not like other lizards so trying to determine what was wrong with my guy was frustrating and an eye opening experience. Precious lived to be 17 one of the oldest I learned. If you should decide to get one of these amazing creatures call the exotic vets in your area first and see if any of them have blue tongues in their practice. With as much as I enjoyed having Precious live with us I will never take in another because of the lack of veterinary knowledge. Of the local vets and veterinary college near me none had dealt with a skink that was older, none were able to read and interpret an MRI, Ultrasound or blood levels. Even the zoo vets that I know and that helped consulting with Precious had seen or treated a skink with organ failure. Because they are so hardy they rarely get sick, are able to fight off simple ailments like RIs and are not seen for these at the vet. Hopefully as more of these animals live to an older age vets will learn more and be better able to treat them.

kala83 · 10-30-13, 10:50 AM

what you are mentioning here is one of the reasons why in vet tech school I was sort of seen as rebelious and a little bit of a pest I always pushed my class mates and teacher to. learn more on exotics and their care.

sadly I do feel my efforts were mostly in vain, when I went to school you were looked at as odd or weird if you never owned a cat or a dog, and most of our in class projects or demonstrations used cats or dogs, but even if you did not own one you were expected to have had one and know its health history so you could do in class homework.

I found it kind of insulting that they just assumed you owned a cat or dog, then or before without question. Yes most practices are mostly cat dog based but making this assumption all the time and not catering to those that do have exotic pets, with little to no places to go is really an issue I take personal in the field of work I want to go into.

Zoo Nanny · 10-30-13, 11:28 AM

Tufts is just under an hour from me and they have a wonderful exotics vet there now. She teaches and runs the exotics clinic. They took Precious for the students to study.