|
Q:
|
MBD in crested HELP
|
|
In Relation To:
Kyrah's Colony
|
|
|
Ok I dropped Geiko off at that hacks office (only Rep Vet locally) this morning at 6am. I called and called till I got a response. They sent me home saying that it would be awhile. The vet office called and said there X-ray machine was down but they suspected it was MBD!! I'm heart broken!!!! My poor Geiko! I don't want to lose her!!! can some one please help me!?
all they told me when I picked her up was calcium, UVB light, and TLC. The reason I sent her in was all her limbs are shacking when she walks, and she looks thinner than ever!!!! she doesn't jump as much as the others, understandable. Yesterday I fed everyone crickets, Geiko loves the hunt, she will hide behind her tree and pounce on the crickets, but she just flopped around tryin to chase them. I picked her up and managed to hand feed her one cricket but thats all she would eat. Her CGD only had a small portian missing out of it. Dude I'm so upset I'm crying! I feel like this is my fault for the lttle time i fed her babyfood! it was like only a week, but Petco was only feeding them Babyfood!
Ok I know I'm rabbling, just very upset! CAN ANYONE PLEASE HELP ME? WHAT DO I DO ABOUT MBD? IS IT CURABLE? WILL SHE BE NORMAL AGAIN? IS SHE IN PAIN? please help a rookie out. I have so many questions.
And I wil not be buying anymore pets from petco!!!!
Attached Photos:
|
|
Author Comment
|
8/19/2009 3:22:10 PM
|
|
hupababy83
|
Oh yeah and the vet said to add heat to her tank, I thought 72 to 82 degrees was ideal for cresteds and any hotter would stress them out!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Member Comment
|
8/19/2009 4:21:31 PM
|
|
Aimee
|
|
holy moly, that's way off.
where do you live?
ok - from the first pic I'd say MBD is possible, but not advanced. if she's shaking it could certainly be vitamin and mineral deficiency from baby food at petco (unlikely from her single week on BF with you).
you said she's really skinny - do you have a current pic, from the top down, with emphasis on her hips/tail?
also, has she been tested for parasites?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Member Comment
|
8/19/2009 4:22:43 PM
|
|
Aimee
|
|
oh, and hey, for the best crestie advice EVER, pangaea has a forum site that's excellent with a lot of experts
MBD itself is not usually fatal, from what I understand, as long as it's stopped early. however, there can be internal complications associated with MBD
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Member Comment
|
8/19/2009 4:23:37 PM
|
|
iashia
|
it really stressed me out to hear this. i know how your feeling, except when my lizard got sick, i couldnt take him in, and a few days later, he died. i want to help you as much as possible. i found a website taht gave a good amout of treatment information:
Treatment will depend on the severity of the disease. Simply adding more calcium to the diet is not enough.
The diet must be corrected immediately. Herbivores should be encouraged to eat plants that are nutrient-dense and rich in calcium, such as dandelions, alfalfa, squash, cabbage, kale, bok choy, okra, sprouts, collard greens, etc.
Carnivores should be fed whole captive-bred prey. The vet may also suggest a calcium supplement that can be dusted onto the food (e.g. Nutrobal). It is important to discuss with your vet what your pet’s ideal diet consists of.
The husbandry of the reptile’s environment should be improved as well. If one is not present already, a UV bulb should be added to the vivarium. Proper temperature gradients should be maintained, as well as regular light and dark cycles. Ensure that your pet’s enclosure is large enough to move around in and exercise.
For severe cases, further treatment may be necessary. Animals with soft jaws may have to be force fed with baby food and calcium supplement. This requires gentle handling so as to avoid fractures and stress anorexia. Calcium injections are given to reptiles with severe muscle tremors that indicate hypocalcaemia (e.g. dangerously low levels of calcium in the blood).
I really want geiko to get better. if theres anything i can do to help, support, research, anything, i will help
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Author Comment
|
8/19/2009 4:51:07 PM
|
|
hupababy83
|
she was tested for parisites on August 4th, came back negative. you can see her pics on my new blog NEW PHOTO's. I can take more when i get home from work tonight. she has no lumps or curvature of the spine, only thing funny looking was her leg. I just took her out and she ate some CGD of my finger. she really lathargic and she keeps close to her light, but on the cool side of her tank. her limbs are real shaky! ooooooh I'll take her out and try to post a video on youtube of it.! why the hell didn't I try to do that earlier, but it will have to wait till 2morro. i put her back in with the rest of the Gecko Girls and they seem to have missed her. they all cuddle at the top of their tank with Geiko on top. I have the Rapashy Calcium with low D3 on its way. should be here 2morro. I have REP-CAL calcium with D3 for my uromatsyx and snakes and a multivitamin from REP-CAL can i use this until the Rapashy comes in? i was dusting the crickets with the calcium with D3 till i was told D3 was bad for them. Sorry you guys, I'm a rookie at this and these are my first Cresteds. I bought books and read up on the net but everything was "do this" and i did it, then someone said "don't do that" so I stopped, then everyone else said "don't stop that" I WAS CONFUSED!!! now Geiko paying the price!
Here are some pics of her, not the best quality but all i have right now
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff63/hupababy83/Babys033.jpg
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff63/hupababy83/Babys035.jpg
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff63/hupababy83/Babys038.jpg
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff63/hupababy83/kodakmoments015.jpg this one is of her leg the day i first noticed. Nothing seemed wrong when i had her out 2-3 hours before!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Member Comment
|
8/19/2009 4:56:30 PM
|
|
Aimee
|
|
hmmm I wouldn't feed the D3 stuff at all if you're getting the correct Ca tomorrow.
IMO, I'm also with Kate - keep her in her own cage. especially if she has an injury or might be ill, she really needs a small, quiet space where you can watch her closely. I'd give her plenty of places to hide, but put her in a CK for now all by herself. even if you don't see them fighting, that doesn't mean they aren't. also, if she's kept quieter it will help her heal, you know?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Member Comment
|
8/19/2009 5:45:03 PM
|
|
TVR
|
|
Is that her in the first picture? She doesnt look thin there.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Member Comment
|
8/19/2009 6:49:36 PM
|
|
Sparkle
|
|
According to the caresheet on Pangea (http://www.pangeareptile.com/id52.htm) they alternate dusting crickets with calcium powder WITH and without D3. So I think it would be OK to give her a little bit of the D3 stuff. The main thing is to not give them too much D3... From the temperature part of the care sheet: Temperatures for crested geckos should be maintained between 72 and 80 degrees for most of the year. At temperatures of 85 degrees or warmer, crested geckos will become stressed, which could lead to illness or death.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Member Comment
|
8/19/2009 7:07:41 PM
|
|
Sparkle
|
I found another interesting thread about MBD on Pangea: http://www.pangeareptile.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1802
She may be suffering from some kind of genetic disorder. If you think about it, you've been feeding all three geckos the same thing, and giving them all the same care....therefore all three of them should have MBD, if it was in fact the babyfood that is the problem. But the other two are fine, you only have ONE sick gecko. So it may not be anything you've done at all... She could have just been inbred or have something wrong with her from the beginning, and it's only showing now... It sucks, poor little thing, but it's not your fault either way.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Accepted Answer
|
8/19/2009 8:28:38 PM
|
|
Krestie Kate
|
|
If your feeding crickets more than once a week then yes dust with the low levels of d3 if your feeding crickets only once a week then dust without d3. You should stop the crickets for now and focus only on her eatting crested gecko diet. How often are you giving crickets? They shouldn't really be getting more that 3 times a week and I think thats too much. There fruitivores so they need a high fruit diet bugs only being a treat. It's possible that shes losing weight due to stress from a micro fracture in her leg due to MBD.Stress from you handling her and so on could cause the weight loss. The vets info would be good if it wasn't so broad. He gave you that info thinking that it would pertain to any herp. Lack of UVB is a common problem in herps but being a nocturtal animal there bodies don't need it. Some people put uv lights on top of breeding females cages just in case. There no evidence that this hurts or helps the animal. My guys all hide from the UV(plant lights) in there cages. Gawd knows if the light is ever hitting them. I would start feeding her the e-fit just to be safe. Also feed it to the rest of your cresties.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Member Comment
|
8/19/2009 8:37:11 PM
|
|
Krestie Kate
|
Rep-cal makes a calcium powder with out D3. Thats what I use for all my geckos. All of my females have a bottle cap of calcium sitting out so they can lick from it when they need it. I also add extra calcium without D3 to my breeders food during breeding months. Matt Parks made a seperate thread on the calcium issue.
http://www.pangeareptile.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24680
To best explain it you only need to dust crickets with D3 if your feeding crickets more than once a week to make up for the fact that there loseing nutrition from the gecko diet every time you replace a meal with bugs.
To skip all this crap an confusion I just don't feed bugs. Crested geckos don't need bugs what so ever. Yeah there nice to give here and there my guys are lucky to get roaches once a month. It's alot better than playing around with there diet and trying to figure out the amounts of calcium.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Member Comment
|
8/20/2009 7:58:59 AM
|
|
Sparkle
|
Thanks for the great link, Kate! Very interesting reading. I myself use the Repashy Calcium Plus All-in-One to dust the crickets with. After reading the article, however, I will cut down on the number of crickets I feed per week.
Still, back to Geiko, diet alone doesn't necessarily explain why she is sick and the others are not... Unless the other two geckos were "bullying" her without Betty realizing it, and keeping her from food. That's certainly a possibility, and I would agree with you and others who suggested she be kept separate from the others for a while.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Member Comment
|
8/20/2009 10:50:31 AM
|
|
TVR
|
|
The diet is the most likely problem. She was at Petco before she bought her so who knows what they fed her.
They can start showing MBD at different times even when fed the same diet so it's no way to tell just by looking at the other geckos. Each gecko will be different.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Member Comment
|
8/20/2009 11:09:16 AM
|
|
TVR
|
I didnt see where Matt said only use d3 when feeding more than once. Was it in that post?
I only use calcium with d3, they need the d3 in their diet.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Member Comment
|
8/20/2009 12:53:44 PM
|
|
Sparkle
|
|
Good point Eric, they may not have been related...Petco buys from wholesalers so who knows where they came from...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Member Comment
|
8/20/2009 1:40:16 PM
|
|
TVR
|
|
Since Betty is from CA it would be Alan Repashy that supplies them. So they should at least be healthy until Petco gets them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Author Comment
|
8/20/2009 3:59:15 PM
|
|
hupababy83
|
|
Since i fed her off my finger yesterday the shakyness or walking tremors as i call them have stopped. I now wonder if they were caused by hunger. I fed her .05 ml of CGD with calcium and low D3 mixed in today from a serenge and she gobbled it up. really starting to think the Hack just looked up crested illnesses and grabbed one out of a hat! still going to treat her and the rest of the Gecko Girls as if the have MBD just to be safe though. How often should i be feeding her with the serenge and how much????? I keep a bowl of CGD in her tank at all times!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Member Comment
|
8/20/2009 7:55:28 PM
|
|
TVR
|
|
The vet was probably right about the MBD. The leg does look like it and the shaking can be caused by calcium problems. That will be stressful for the gecko and the pictures do look like she has been eating well so I would just stay with the bowl in her tank.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Member Comment
|
8/20/2009 8:23:32 PM
|
|
Geckofactor
|
|
I'd be willing to bet she ate something that was too large if it just had a shaky leg and it's worn off now. Bearded dragons do the same thing if they get a slight impaction and I've seen numerous vets misdiagnose that as mbd. Oddly enough raising the temp would help that also and the leg shakign woudl stop once the item is digested completely and passed so if the gecko peeped lately and then the shaking stopped that was most likely it. I never had any crested geckos do it but I've had leos do it and beardies. Anyways keep an eye on it and if that vet is a "hack" stop using them there's got to be an alternative even super small towns usually have atleast two vets.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Member Comment
|
8/24/2009 7:48:32 PM
|
|
Aimee
|
|
dude, Arcata is TINY. I'm surprised there's one exotic vet there.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Member Comment
|
1/17/2011 6:56:04 AM
|
|
abi21491
|
|
This question has had no activity for 14 days and will be closed by an administrator unless the original poster takes action.
Recommended Action: Points awarded
An administrator will select responses and assign points at their discretion.
Original poster, please close this question out and assign points. If you have any further information in the resolution of your problem, please post it here so that others may learn from it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You are not logged in. If you would like to participate (it's free!), you must log
in, or Become a Member!
|
|
|
|
Most Popular Tags
Ball
,
Ballpython
,
Bci
,
Behavior
,
Boa
,
Breeding
,
Buying
,
Caging
,
Care
,
Chondro
,
Cornsnake
,
Crested
,
Crestedgecko
,
Eggs
,
Feeders
,
Feeding
,
Feedingproblems
,
Gecko
,
General
,
Genetics
,
GTP
,
Health
,
Heating
,
Humidity
,
Identification
,
Illness
,
Incubation
,
Infection
,
Leopardgecko
,
Mites
,
Morelia
,
Morph
,
Morphs
,
Parasites
,
Python
,
Regius
,
Respiratory
,
Shedding
,
Snake
,
Substrate
|
Latest Questions
|
|
|
|
points:150
|
|
|
|
points:100
|
|
|
|
points:250
|
|
|
|
points:100
|
|
|
|
points:250
|
More Questions
|
|
|
Latest Answers
|
|
|
|
points:250
|
|
|
|
points:150
|
|
|
|
points:100
|
More Answers
|
|
|