Rest in Peace, my little Cheese

[Skinkydinker]

My little Cheese :'(
He was fine for more than a month, until a few days ago.
He acted strange, not eating or anything. Yesterday he came and kept opening his mouth, showing his squashed tongue. I don't know what happened really. He started laying down with closed eyes, first in his water bowl, then on the ground. I tried to give him water but he didn't want to drink it. :-[
I took him out, putting him in a shoe box with a paper towel on the bottom. He barely moved, and opened his m outh a lot, and still refised to drink anything. He closed his eyes and opened his mouth and then fell down, and that was that. That was one of the worst 30 minutes of my life, and seeing him suffer was the worst. I will post pictures of him in memory :'(.
I hope he rests in peace along with his/her other 3 siblings. I am a terible owner. I thought she/he was ok but I was wrong. I don't know what was wrong though...:-[
I kept it warm and moist and he had water and food, maybe a mealworm bit him in the mouth...
There are 5 more perfect eggs again, and I'm not sure if I am going to keep them when they hatch.
R.I.P. Cheese. :'(:(:-[

[DragonBeards]

Words can't express my sorrow for you. However, you did everything you could, and you are certainly NOT a terrible owner. Sometimes things are just beyond our control, and there isn't anything you can do to stop it. I sure do hope you keep the 5 perfect eggs, if you're skinks are breeding, do you not think you are doing something right? Heres hoping you get more babies in the future!

[HayleySnakes]

I'm so sorry! The baby stage is the hardest, and where most die, especially lizards. Good luck with your eggies.

[Skinkydinker]

Thanks guys, but I'm still staring at the empty tank and its terrible! I can't believe i lose 4 poor little skinks.... :(

[sammer021486]

Thanks guys, but I'm still staring at the empty tank and its terrible! I can't believe i lose 4 poor little skinks.... :(

I am so sorry for your loss, you can not give up though.

When I lost my youngest crestie I really beat myself up. I blamed myself for being gone for 4 days and not making sure that he had plenty of care while I was gone, but he did have the proper care based on the instructions I gave to my brother. My land lord had cranked the heat up causing the tanks, food, and water dish all to dry out much faster then they should of and my brother not knowing continued to care for them just as instructed.

Some times it just happens, you feel horrible, but have to understand that you did everything possible to provide a good environment for your skinks.

[MrsWTownsend]

Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry Skinky!

Now you know you are not a terrible owner! We all need to put our heads together and figure out what is going on here~ maybe we can figure this out together once and for all. Didn't you say the pet store kept a baby or two as well? How is that going for them?

[RabidReptile]

I'm so sorry to hear about your skink! :'( I completely understand how you feel but I really don't think you're a terrible reptile keeper! It's so sad to watch animals suffer--not too long ago, Al was acting very strange and I thought for sure he was going to die.

Sometimes things like this happens and there's nothing you can do about it. Don't blame yourself! I'm sure you did everything you could for little Cheese and I hope the new eggs hatch out to be healthy, thriving skinks.

[Skinkydinker]

Thanks guys. I'm pretty sure that the petstore grew up my adult skinks since babies. All their babies stay alive, and they pretty much take the same care of them as I do. Except they have mulch, which I used to use but stopped when a baby ate it and died. Thje baby I gave them got sold in 2 days.

[MrsWTownsend]

if it were me, I would go and talk to them about their set up and care in detail~ temps, diet, moisture, substrate, everything. Maybe there is some little detail(s) they have to offer that can help you.

[Skinkydinker]

Yesterday the woner of the shop (the one who takes care of the skinks) said that I need to keep the earth wet and the lgith on with crickets and there are no heat pads needed...I don't know what went wrong, I did everything every care sheet and person said to.

[GTPs better half]

Sorry to hear Skinky. Don't think that you're a terrible owner. Think of it as a learning curve and do some more research, ask questions and see if there is anything you could change. I have to say it sounds as if Cheese might of possibly had an RI with the mouth open that much. One thing is don't try and force them to drink. The first thing if it were RI is raise the temps. There are other things to do for RI, besides a trip to the vet, but most people don't have a nebulizer. It could be something like parasites you didn't know about. Keep your head up, we've all experienced these problems at one time or another.

[Skinkydinker]

Thanks everyone...

[snakesRus]

I am so sorry. :'(

[DavidD]

My condolences

[Skinkydinker]

Thanks :(...