A few weeks ago I posted a topic "Front Leg Paralysis" because my tegu wasn't using his front legs, had kinks in his tail & had a decreased appetite. We thought this could either be Metabolic Bone Disease or an intestinal blockage. After getting a few more opinions, it seemed MBD, or more specifically, a Vitamin D3 deficiency was hurting our tegu!
First off, we are not new to reptiles or negligent (i hope not!) owners. The Tegu is 16 inches total body length, six or seven without the tail in a 60 gallon breeder. He has two strip lights and a screw-in UV light all with 5.0 % UVB (the 310 wavelength). He eats dusted crickets, superworms, mealworms, earthworms, pinkies and small fuzzies, Wellness catfood (the expensive brand!), hard-boiled unfertilied eggs just sometimes, mango, and plain nonfat yogurt.
So it's not like this tegu is deprived of calcium or phosphorus to build strong bones! We concluded it MUST be a D3 deficiency because at one reptile convention, we bought him a huge cork log as a hidespace, which he loved - too much! To the point that he was always in this huge log and not out basking as much as he should have been. This non-basking continued for about a month. Also, our tegu probably tripled in mass in the two months we had him before this MBD problem began.
Both Agama International and a local (and awesome) reptile specialty store Regal Reptiles lent us their best opinions and how to go about treating our Tegu. I called several vets claimins to handle "exotics (NOT herp specialists) and they were of no help. This is why, although I love my Tegu and would do anything for him, I don't need some small-town vet telling me "I dunno what's wrong with him" after emptying out my wallet. Which HAS happened in the past!
Anyways...enough about lack of HERP vets! Regal Reptiles was most helpful...over 5 people looked at our tegu for an opinion, and one person told us his jaw was a little soft - definately some type of MBD! Everyone agreed however, that it was strange his front legs weren't working since MBD usually shows up in the back legs!
THE HEALING PROCESS
[Some of the techniques we used could really stress a tegu out - however, we used our techniques with care and because we knew he may not survive to live a happy life without them. Always consider the amount of stress you are putting on your pet before deciding to do something!]
We treated our tegu by exposing him to a lot of UVA and UVB(once or twice overnight!) with UV bulbs, and, since he wasn't eating, made a liquid diet of yogurt, Wellness Cat Food, superworm guts, cricket guts, and supplement powder (Chameleon dust has high levels of calcium & lower levels of phosphorus and we used herptivite as well as a few drops of Electrod3ize). Since he shied away from "hard" foods such as pinkies and chasing crickets, we fed this liquid diet through a syringe (no needle obviously! these can be purchased in the "old people" section of a CVS, Walgreens, or Brooks pharmacy) fitted with a kitten or puppy nipple stretched on the end to soften the end of the syringe for his hurt jaw.
This really seemed to help our tegu get enough nutrients to heal and grow and regain strength. After about 2 weeks of not using his front legs, the tegu showed interest in pinkies. around 2 1/2 weeks, we began letting him swim in the bathtub. Just like people who need to regain muscular strength without putting pressure on their bones, this swimming encouraged the tegu to use his front legs by his second swim.
Now it is one full month after the tegu stopped using his front legs, and, while he has a few kink in his tail, he is walking more and more on his front legs (although he gets tired sometimes and pushes himself along by his back legs as before). He is too strong to hand feed with the syringe and thrashes his tail around when before he would limply but reluctantly eat from it. In the tub, he enthusiastically uses all four legs, and really works those arms! he has a great appetite and I really believe that he will return to normal, save for the few kinks in his tail!
I know this post is rambling, but I hope it may help a lizard with a similar problem. Remember to use judgement and...give your tegu a little time and a chance to recover!
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Melissa and Corny
