Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, im a new dragon fan, i have a male and two females, the second female, a juvenile, i bought it a week ago from a pet shop who has her in very bad conditions, the animal was eating only mealworms and no sun for two months, it appear pretty healthy when i adquire it and started heavy feeding and sun basking but yesterday her left arm semms like dead, she cant move it, she has mouth root and a broken jaw, but all this appear from one day to another!!! she hasnt ate anything strange but crickets, zoophobas and greens, please can anybody tell me how can i save her??? today she looks even worst.
thanks
Dimitris
Mexico

Get her to a vet to get checked out and take a fresh fecal with you. Sounds like she's got multiple problems that are going to have to be dealt with one by one. Most important, keep her away from your other dragons, 90 day quarentine on this one.

Sean
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Heart Mountain Herps

Yeah, I'd say vet immediately. I bet the broken jaw is from MBD which makes bones very weak and easily breakable.

Good luck!
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Rob Talkington

First of all thank you all for your help, i´ve also done my reserch dictionary in hand (my english aint that rich) and i also belive it to be metabolic bone desease, unfortunatly here in mexico i´m on my own in herps matters, vets have no studies or even a clue on herps, i am "the crazy guy that have snakes" in town, i have veterinary friends that will help me administrate the calcium, but i have a question, do you think her jaw wil recover? and how can i fed her if i cant open her mouth?
thanks, i owe you a bottle of tequila some day.

>>First of all thank you all for your help, i´ve also done my reserch dictionary in hand (my english aint that rich) and i also belive it to be metabolic bone desease, unfortunatly here in mexico i´m on my own in herps matters, vets have no studies or even a clue on herps, i am "the crazy guy that have snakes" in town, i have veterinary friends that will help me administrate the calcium, but i have a question, do you think her jaw wil recover? and how can i fed her if i cant open her mouth?
>>thanks, i owe you a bottle of tequila some day.

Well I'll take ya' up on that bottle if I'm ever your way!

If I were to guess I would think her jaw would heal just fine if there were way to keep it somewhat stable. Honestly I can't really tell anything without seeing it, even then I'd only be guessing.

I don't think you can feed her without opening her mouth but you can mash her food up into a liquid consistency so she doesn't have to put any pressure on her jaw. In fact, if her jaw does not heal right that may be how she'll have to eat for the rest of her life anyway.

With regards to the Calcium I would go to the site below and print out the info. regarding what type and how much to give.

If her jaw looks horrible and you have a really bad feeling her quality of life will not be very good you might want to think about euthenasia. If you think she might eventually be okay then definitely give her a shot at life. Just focus on what you think would be the best thing for her.

MBD Info

I hope she ends up being okay. Good luck with her!
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Rob Talkington