A vet nurse has utilised a crafty technique to save the life of an injured blue tongue lizard
A vet nurse has utilised a crafty technique to keep the jaw of this native Australian reptile stationary following an attack.
QLD News
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A VET nurse has devised a crafty way to save the life of a blue tongue lizard.
Dubbed ‘Billy Bob’ by a volunteer with the North Queensland Wildlife Care group, the skink has been sporting a paperclip as a brace after being the victim of a suspected dog attack.
Trish Prendergast, 41, said Billy Bob was brought to her for treatment after he was found on the side of the road near Balgal beach, outside of Townsville in mid-August.
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“He had a small puncture wound above his left eye and I noticed blood on the left side of his mouth, yet it was closed,” she said.
“When I looked underneath his jaw, I could see a hole under his chin.
“I used some cotton tips to open his mouth and noticed his jaw was in two places.”
Miss Prendergast said after discovering the lizard’s mandibular symphysis was broken – the small, fragile bone that holds the two sides of the jaw together – she devised the single paperclip splint, which was then held on with some special glue and surgical tape.
As the fragile bone can be easily rebroken while healing, Billy Bob has been eating a slurry of food while recovering in her care, she said.
Miss Prendergast, who is also the reptile co-ordinator for NQ Wildlife Care, said the more than 30cm-long male was looking much better following pain relief and antibiotics.
Billy Bob should be able to be released back into the bush following a check-up at the James Cook University Veterinary Emergency Care and Teaching Hospital on Friday.
“The splint will fall off when he sheds his skin,” Miss Prendergast said.
