Reptile & Amphibian Forums

about a year ago i adopted a 3 year old northern bts she had been kept in a 10 gallon tank with a monkey tail and feed only pinkys she also had no uvb. she has two humps in ger back one large by her front legs and a smaller one at her hind legs her bones where also increadably week and would shake. given her history i asumed her deformitys where due to MBD and treated her for that extra calium and a 7.0 uvb(wich i have found works in hualting the deseasein bearded dragons). now she is in good health a little thin due to post hibernation pickness and stress from climate change but shes doing alot better than she was when i got her. but recently somebody in a reptile chat room told me that blue toungs dont get mbd and it had to be something else and i just stressed her out by treating her for something she dosent have. if anyone has any info on the subject it would help i have pics i just dont know how to post them.
thanks

Metabolic Bone Disease / Calcium Deficiency
Baby Blue-tongued Skinks have a very rapid growth rate, leaving them susceptible to calcium deficiency, which can lead to metabolic bone disease. Symptoms include softening of the jaw bone, spinal deformities, and rear leg paralysis (often resulting in the loss of mobility). Affected skinks will sometimes lay flat with their legs sticking straight out, moving with movements that resemble that of a sea turtle on land. Involuntary twitching, shivering, or shaking of the limbs has also been witnessed in some affected specimens. If your skink shows these symptoms, a visit to the vet may be in order. Most lizards require more than just extra calcium for proper calcium absorption. A calcium/phosphorus ratio of 1-2/1 with adequate amounts of vitamin D3 will allow for the proper absorption of calcium, and will prevent having to treat your skink for metabolic bone disease in the future. This is easy to accomplish with a varied diet and regular use of a phosphorus free calcium supplement with added vitamin D3. If your supplement does not contain vitamin D3 then you should incorporate full spectrum lighting in your skink's enclosure, and allow your skink regular access direct sunlight to enable it to synthesize its own vitamin D3. Many calcium supplements contain added phosphorus in the proper ratio, but should be avoided. These supplements do not take into account the actual diet that is being eaten by the lizard, and are actually formulated to give the proper calcium/phosphorus ratio only when eaten by themselves as the meal, and not as a supplement, and I do not recommend trying that. Blue-tongued Skinks get more than enough phosphorus from the actual food they eat in their diet, which in combination with the supplemented phosphorus, creates an imbalance resulting in the inability to absorb their calcium. So remember to make sure that your calcium supplementation is phosphorus free.

Spinal Deformities
On occasion I have seen Blue-tongued Skinks with spinal deformities. Spinal deformities do not always share the same causal factors. So before you come to any conclusions you must weigh all of the factors, or you could make matters even worse. One thing that you can count on is that these things do not just randomly happen, they are almost always, either directly or indirectly, the result of improper husbandry.

Metabolic bone disease can cause serious spinal deformities and often proves fatal if not treated properly. Young skinks that are still in the growing process need extra calcium in order for their bones to properly develop. Because of this, they are the most susceptible to this condition. I have seen this occur in baby skinks that were given calcium supplements that contained added phosphorous (added phosphorous cancels out the positive affects of the calcium). With proper and timely treatment physical manifestations, such as spinal deformities, can generally be arrested, but not reversed.

Often spinal deformities in new-born neonate blue-tongues are incorrectly attributed to metabolic bone disease, but are actually thought, by the author, to be the result of what happens when gravid females are not given access to adequate basking temperatures. I have a friend who purchased a large, obviously gravid, blue-tongue from one of the big pet store chains. This large female was an imported Irian Jaya Blue-tongue that had been kept at room temperature for her two-month stay at the pet store. She gave birth to 10 baby skinks 1 day after she was brought home. These babies had spines that appeared to be too large for their bodies, causing many of them to be contorted into little C shapes that were twisted so that the rear ventral region was facing up. There were a couple of these little skinks whose bodies looked like inchworms, causing them to tip over onto their sides each time they attempted to move. The others were able to use their front legs to crawl in circles. Three of the babies died shortly after birth, and the remaining seven were given to me in hopes that I could keep them alive. Most Vets do not give a very optimistic prognosis for babies born with these deformities, and freezing them was recommended as the best alternative. However, my wife was able to keep 4 of the original 7 alive by hand feeding and watering them every day. It was not long till most of them were eating on their own, although they still were hardly mobile. In time as they grew, their bodies seemed to accommodate their spinal deformities, allowing them to straighten out. Two of them appeared almost normal, having only curly tail tips as a reminder of their previous disability, while the others had wavy spines of various degrees. Although many people suggested that we put them down, these baby skinks fought hard to live, and have all been adopted out to good homes. I mention this situation as an example of what can be avoided by simply providing a proper basking site for gravid females.

I have also seen spinal deformities result in skinks that try to climb up one of the corners of their glass cage, forcing their mid-body into an L shape. When skinks stay in this kind of an unnatural position for long periods of time, on a regular basis, spinal deformities may result. This behaviour is usually caused by something lacking in the skink's environment causing it to attempt an escape. It could be due to improper temperatures, or the skink may be feeling vulnerable, causing it to seek adequate shelter. Skinks do not understand glass as a solid object, which is why some "unhappy" specimens keep climbing up the same corner over and over. If your skink does this, try to find out what is wrong with the enclosure, and you may also want to consider a custom cage with solid walls.

Because of the previous circumstances that your skink was forced to live under, you should not rule out the posibility that your shink may have had abcesses from old injurys that healed over on the surface, causing lumps and bumps that resemble MBD. Are the bumps still there? It is really hard to do this sort of thing online, and I normally avoid it. I am just giving you a few posibilities. One thing that I do know is that your skink's former keeper should be forced to live in a small cage with a pissed off hyppo, while being fed only hot dogs. See how he/she likes it.

I compleatly agree with your comment about her former owner. and she is by the way now in a 2'x3'enclosure all to herself plus gets at least 10 hours a week in an outdoor enclosure. to answer your question about her bumps yes they are still compleatly visible her largest one stands at least a half inch higher than the rest of her body. wich after watching my nephew hold her i have a feeling is an old injury.because frightning as it is the woman who owned her also did day care. so the bumps could easly come from a small child handling her wrong.
thank you for all the info,
cindy

actually I was thinking possible old PTS injuries. They generally really hate other lizards being put in the same tank with them, and they have a real serious bite. Something to consider.