The mouth rot disease in blue skink reptiles can become very dangerous if not treated in time. Most of the time, we tend to ignore the physical symptoms of these bacterial infections which in long run develop into full fled diseases. The most common symptoms of mouth rot in young lizards include reddening the sides of the mouth and the bleeding of gums of the reptile. The disease is not only very prominent but also very painful for your skink lizard. The mouth gets inflamed, red spots are appearing in the mouth and the lizard is not able to eat or drink anything. As a result, the weight and overall health of the skink starts falling and within no time, your pet is in serious trouble.
The mouth rot disease is easier to deal with at early stages; therefore, it is very important that you inspect your lizard’s mouth and surrounding areas on regular bases. Make sure that there is no redness or inflammation and that your pets’ intake of food etc. is not being irregular for a long time. Apart from this, it is your duty to ensure that your pet has the right amount of heat and light exposure on daily bases. Bacterial infections like these can also be the result of unclean cage and surrounding area of your lizard, which can be a ground for bacterial growth in most cases.
Therefore, you need to clean the cage of your lizard at least once a week, ensuring that a fresh layer of soil is added to the cage to reduce the chances of any kind of viral or bacterial infections. Once you are sure that your Skink is suffering from mouth rot disease, you need to act fast. Take your lizard to a good vet and tell him the entire history of your pet so that he can prescribe medicines accordingly. In most cases, a one percent silver sulfadiazine ointment is used to cure the redness and inflammation in the mouth. While suffering from mouth rot, your lizard must not be given very juicy food items like tomato juice, cat food or even mangos. Instead, feed it with more solid foods like leafy vegetables, strawberries, raspberries etc.
Along with this, use slightly warm water to clean the outer surface of the mouth with a soft wet towel. Your blue tongue skink is in a lot of pain while suffering from mouth rot disease, so be gentle to it and try to feed it with your own hands so that it does not take in very large pieces that can aggravate the pain.
