Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone,

I have been very lucky in that all of my leos have always been very healthy and I have never had any serious illnesses to deal with. Tonight I went in to do my nightly feeding and checkups, and I noticed that one of my May hatchlings is having trouble with her front legs. It seems like they are too weak to hold her up and she just kind of scoots her front end around. I have noticed during the last week or so that she is usually resting when I check on her, and I don't usually bug my gex too much when I feed them so I haven't actually witnessed her movements in a week or so. She is such a nice and fat little gecko, and besides this recent problem seems perfectly healthy. There isn't any heavy cage furniture in her box that could hurt her. So is this MBD? I've read about the rubbery jaws and tremors and such, but what about this? She gets dusted crickets, and her cage mate is doing great. What do you think? And don't worry, I am calling the vet in the morning.

Thanks!

Sounds like it may be.
The other signs are usally later along in the development.
In extreme cases, the spine ends up curving.

Here's a pic of a girl I had with MBD. She made a good recovery cause we treated her quickly. Unfortuenately one of her wrists is still a little twisted and her front leg bone is a little curved. But she's a happy girl =3 Nice an fat now.

The first one is what my little one's legs look like. They haven't started rolling under her yet like the second picture shows. How did your vet treat her?

What I do is disolve Ca in water and administer this directly to the leo as if feeding supplementally. Dab a bit on the nose and let it lick the sollution off. Do this until you start to see improvement. This should be in a couple of days since you just discovered it. If you have Ca with D3 use this.

Dust the food at EVERY feeding for a while. You will need to use mealies most likely or crix on tweezers.

Please explain what your supplementation process was prior to discovering this problem.
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Steven
Royal Gold Reptiles
Offspring available now from LV Patternless Albino stock for '03 and '04.
Working towards Bell Patternless Albinos for '05.

Normally, I dust crickets every other night. A couple of weeks ago I went out of town and my brother was taking care of my critters. He spilled my jar of cricket dust, and the pet store I get it from hasn't gotten anymore in so everyone's crix have been undusted for 2-3 weeks. I thought MBD happened over a longer period of time than that though. If I do what you say with something like the Rep-Cal phosphorus-free supplement, will that work alright? Also, how thick should I make it? Should I still take her into the vet? I love my critters, but I hate that I have to pay $40 for someone to tell me stuff I already know, and then pay for meds on top of that. Thanks a lot for your help!

Hmmm, depending on the age of the gecko, 2-3 weeks could be enough time for early stages to set in.

You do not make a paste, but make the water a milky consistency. Any Ca should work just fine.
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Steven
Royal Gold Reptiles
Offspring available now from LV Patternless Albino stock for '03 and '04.
Working towards Bell Patternless Albinos for '05.