The OTHER Lizard

[MissLissa]

So, this is my other lizard, named "Toothless". She is a New Guinea Crocodile Skink (Tribolonotus novaeguineae). I've had her for about a year and a half, and she is a total pain in my butt. If a lizard can be a diva, then she is fits the bill. She is horrendously cute, though.

I ransomed her from a client at the vet clinic I used to work at. She's never really been perfectly healthy- she suffers fro recurrent pneumonia- but she's been doing better than ever this summer. My vet and I seem to finally have found the combination of drugs, supplements and husbandry to deal with her ongoing health issues. I'm very happy that she has been off ALL of her antibiotics, antifungals, and antiparasitics for four whole weeks so far! That is the best she has done pretty much ever. She has also increased in weight by 15% and is much more active and inquisitive.

Yay, Toothless!

 

[jannb]

She is very pretty. Thank you for sharing her with us.

 

[Decadancin]

Great job with all the effort! Hope she is out of the woods .

 

[absolutbill]

She's adorable! I remember reading about them in Reptiles magazine a few years ago and falling in love - they are just so cute! Here's hoping that she's finally on the mend for you!

 

[MissLissa]

She is still very thin. She currently weighs 35.6g, and she should be about 40-45g. Feeding her is a real challenge; she is extremely picky and goes off food very easily if she is disturbed AT ALL. We had to tubefeed her whenever she was on medication, as treatment was extremely stressful for her and she would stop eating. The last few weeks have been the first ones where she has been eating with any kind of regularity; I'm slowly increasing the amounts she is fed as she had been more or less slowly starving to death and I/my vet don't want to shock her system. She's currently eating 3-4 crickets or mealworms or large isopods 3 times a week, dusted with Ca daily, Ca/D3 weekly, and a multivitamin weekly under veterinary advice. Every week I've been increasing her food by 1 feeding, and 1 more item offered per feeding.

She lost a lot of weight with the last round of antibiotics; she was 2g away from euthanasia only a few weeks ago (my vet and I decided to euthanize if she reached =/< 31g, or if she did not increase in weight in 7 days, or if her health issues come back every again). So, she is pretty much palliative care at this point. She is one of those reptiles that I probably should have just euthanized when I got her. I just could never bring myself to do it- every time I'd say "this is the end", she'd rally and start eating. It's been an extremely frustrating few months, believe me, and we ended up consulting with several vets in Canada and the States, a couple zoos, and a handful of private breeders.

I really hope that she gets to have a good life being totally ignored except for mealtime now!