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Posted by Sherri on April 14, 2003 at 07:31:11:
In Reply to: Question about posted by icequeen on April 13, 2003 at 23:55:56:
First of all, thank you for your very thoughtful & concerned post. Anyone with a heart & compassion doesn't want to see any animal languishing in the conditions you described but for Prehensile-Tailed skinks this is particuarly disturbing given their struggle to survive in the wild. If, what the pet store told you is true about the skink being a recent import, then they have broken the law. In June of 2001, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) voted to stop the import of Corucia Zebrata from the Solomon Islands. I believe it actually went into effect September, 2001. Regardless of whether this pet store told you the truth or not, (often times they say something like that to absolve themselves of any blame as to the condition of certain animals), it is incomprehensible that they cannot know how valued PTS' are......
Prehensiles are very difficult to keep under 'normal' conditions but when their health is such as you described then it really is an uphill battle that takes a tremendous amount of time, patience & absolute dedication with no guarantee that the skink will even survive. In saying that, I still believe it is worth every effort to try. I have a PTS that a pet store gave my husband a little over a year ago. (some pet stores still have re-deeming qualities & compassion) She is very much like the skink you seen & is missing 9 toes but is doing very well now. The dry skin you mentioned is due to improper humidity & environment which also has to do with the toes. What happens is that when the PTS molts & they are kept too dry, they retain little ringlets of skin around the toes that begin to act like a tourniquet & will actually cut off the blood supply, thus the loss of toes. This can also lead to dry gangrene that if not kept in check will continually spread to the remaining toes. (this is very tough to get rid of!) My little one had to undergo extensive antibiotic therapy, rehydration as many times a day as I could do & soakings 3-4 times a day.
If you do wind up going to get him/her, I will be more detailed & help you as much as I can as everyone else on the forum will. Perhaps you might also consider telling us where you are from & maybe someone from the CCA ( Corucia Conservation Alliance) might be close in proximity & can intervene or Brian from the South Florida Corucia Research Center can point you in the right direction.
Thank you for caring!
Sherri
