Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Yesterday, a friend called me up and told me he was having problems with his beardie.He has had the beardie for a month and has had a great appetite. This is a small beardie and when it was purchased I would guess ( based on size) that it was no more than 5 weeks old. He said that his hind legs weren't moving right and I told him that I wanted to take a look at it.
I met with him today and his beardie is not well at all. When I coaxed it to move, the rear legs were stretched out straight and its front legs were folded in. It would crawl by pulling its weight with its folded in front legs and the back legs would stay completely straight.Unbelievably though, the little bugger had alot of energy and he is still eating well!
He said that when he got it a month ago it was fine and that it has developed this handicapp over the last couple weeks.
At first, I thought of sand impaction causing partial rear leg paralysis, but that would not explain the front legs. So i asked him if he was using calcium powders and UVA/UVB bulb for fear of MBD. He said he is using both flourescent with uva/uvb and is also using ReptoCal by tetra.
I told him for now, take it off the sand and use paper towel only, use Repcal with D3 and be ready to take it to the vet.
What do yall think? MBD? I haven't ever had experience with MBD with any of my animals but I am aware of the symptoms. Is MBD even reversable? If all he can do is stabilize the animals current state, it will not be a good life for the animal. I dunno where the fate of this animal lays but I would like all of yalls take on this? A big thanks ahead of time for your responses!!!!
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3.2 leopards( 3 tremper albinos,1 high yellow, 1 tang)1.0 African fattail,0.1 pink toe tarantula,1.0 jungle/diamond carpet python,1.0 albino sonoran gopher,2 eastern painted turtles,0.1 sun conure, leo eggs incubating with one eastern box turtle egg,55 gallon brackish tank, and one ten gallon freshwater, and two chihuahuas......and thats all!

sounds like he is impacted from eating too large of a prey item.. if it was MBD it would not happen overnight that quickly.. you would see signs of swollen joints, disfigured toes and what not, and low energy and such. Of course it is always possible he does have MBD as well if the proper environement was not setup.. but my guess it would be eating too large of a crix or worm.

brandon
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Dragons by Nature

if you need to find one in your area post where you live and im sure someone knows one

>>sounds like he is impacted from eating too large of a prey item.. if it was MBD it would not happen overnight that quickly.. you would see signs of swollen joints, disfigured toes and what not, and low energy and such. Of course it is always possible he does have MBD as well if the proper environement was not setup.. but my guess it would be eating too large of a crix or worm.
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>>brandon
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>> Dragons by Nature
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reiko
photos

The only reason I am asking is that I had heard that when there is impaction that it usually only causes rear leg paralysis. Does it restrict movement in the front aswell? See, I agree with you on MBD not developing as fast as his beardies symptoms had, but we still have to take into account that maybe the pet store that he got it from a month ago didn't supplement from the start. And if I am right on his age at purchase ( 6 weeks tops) he would be 10 weeks old now and only having the supplements the last past 4 weeks. Hmmmm....maybe you are right, even at 10 weeks, it would possibly be too sudden for MBD. At any rate, I e-mailed him the URL to all of these posts and he is reading them. Thank you Dragonsbynature and a many thanks to the rest of you!!!!!!!
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3.2 leopards( 3 tremper albinos,1 high yellow, 1 tang)1.0 African fattail,0.1 pink toe tarantula,1.0 jungle/diamond carpet python,1.0 albino sonoran gopher,2 eastern painted turtles,0.1 sun conure, leo eggs incubating with one eastern box turtle egg,55 gallon brackish tank, and one ten gallon freshwater, and two chihuahuas......and thats all!

I don't know if MBD can be reversed or not. My girl Marissa had MBD as a youngster. The damage was done by the time we bought her, as she has permanent joint damage. But her quality of life is just as good (if not better from being babied) than my other beardies. She walks on her bent wrists, but she can really motor when she wants to and is now very healthy. So, even if they can't reverse it I don't think it should keep them from having a happy life.