front legs shake & slightly swollen

[MelissaDiane]

In July I bought my first female Gecko. I noticed last night she didn't seem to be walking right. So today I put her on my table with a paper towel & her front legs shake & seem slightly swollen. I have a calcium w/D3 dish in her cage at all times. She is well taken care of....this shouldn't be happening. I've read everything on Geckos that I could have. I think its MBD. I feel so sick inside. I really love her a lot & this is so sad to see her like this. I did put some calcium on my finger for her to lick off & she did a little bit. I give my crickets that cricket drink with calcium. I just don't know what to do. I think I have a vet in my area I can go to. This is Sobe in my picture. She was fine then.

 

[MelissaDiane]

In July I bought my first female Gecko. I noticed last night she didn't seem to be walking right. So today I put her on my table with a paper towel & her front legs shake & seem slightly swollen. I have a calcium w/D3 dish in her cage at all times. She is well taken care of....this shouldn't be happening. I've read everything on Geckos that I could have. I think its MBD. I feel so sick inside. I really love her a lot & this is so sad to see her like this. I did put some calcium on my finger for her to lick off & she did a little bit. I give my crickets that cricket drink with calcium. I just don't know what to do. I think I have a vet in my area I can go to. This is Sobe in my picture. She was fine then.

Here is a photo of Sobe

 

[Amber7399]

i would take her to the vet!. you offer calcium at all times, yea? and are dusting her food? :main_huh: maybe just check the expiration date on the calcium??

I'm very sorry, and hope you are able to get her back to good health

 

[MelissaDiane]

In her main calcium dish I was using ReptoCal (includes Calcium & Vit D3). I was dusting her food with Reptivite without d3. When I looked at the back of the ReptoCal it said min calcium 27% with a max of 35%. I am now thinking that ReptoCal is more of a Powdered nutritional supplemental. I do have Jurassi Cal which is a Calcium Supplement (100% pure). I wasn't using that because it didn't have the D3 in it. Everything I have contains some calcium. Plus I was giving them Phoenix worms. My concern is that I have another female in with her & I have a new male juvinile that I got a few weeks ago (he's in his own cage). I do have a vet appointment for tomorrow night. I did get her out & put some pure calcium on my finger & gently nudged her nose & that caused her to lick it.

 

[Grinning Geckos]

What are the temps like? Marcia could go much more in depth then I could, but in short - if the temps are too high it can cause the gecko to develop MBD very rapidly. You should be measuring surface temps, not the air, and they really shouldn't be any higher than 95. Between 90 - 94 is ideal on the hot side.

 

[MelissaDiane]

I didn't know that about the temps with MBD, but my warm side of the tank is always at 89 to 92. So it shouldn't be that. This just doesn't make sense at all. Hopefully the vet I will be seeing tonight is knowledgable with Gecko's. Thanks for the info.

 

[MelissaDiane]

I took her to the vet. He did an x-ray and sure enough there is an area on her back bone that is showing MBD. Fortunately, the front legs are not showing damage to the bone. He gave her a shot of calcium & told me to use an UVB light. I somewhat argued this but who knows. So I have one on top of the cage now. Ron Tremper mentions in his book that this hasn't been a proven fact yet. He says its good as in the wild they may get some UV rays by laying their heads outside the cave or even laying out under the sun in some cases. So its worth a shot. Also, the supplements I was using & the gut loading of my feeding insects is good. So the only thing we could think of is one of them must be expired & is no good. I have rep cal coming in the mail! My pet stores just don't have the good stuff. After her shot she started to improve. She actually went up to her upper level! Hopefully she will be okay.

 

[fallen_angel]

Well I sent you an e-mail but it sounds like you are doing everything you can thus far, and I'm sure Sobe will be okay with time. It very well could have been not enough Calcium in the original supplement; but then again, you were also gutloading the crickets with calcium and feeding phoenix worms. So she should have been getting enough.. is there a date on the bottle of calcium that you were using so you can verify if it was outdated or not?

You can use the Jurrasi-Cal even though it doesn't contain D3, that is a very good product. I forgot to mention that, but we were using that one for awhile. It's actually a good one to put into the cage and leave in at all times. The D3 isn't supposed to be offered all of the time, although there has never been any proof that too much D3 hurts leopard geckos. At any rate, not having D3 all of the time definitely won't hurt them either.

Best wishes to you and her having a full and speedy recovery!! You'll be in our thoughts/prayers.

 

[LeapinLizards]

I really hope your gecko makes it through. I do however want to caution you with the UVB light. When I first starting keeping geckos, I had one almost die on me because I changed her light to a UVB light (not knowing it was UVB at the time). Her body wasn't able to process it, she became lethargic, stopped eating entirely, and her coloring turned from yellow to brownish.

Most vets assume leopard geckos need the UVB rays to process vitamins and minerals, because a lot of other desert dwelling reptiles do. Leopard geckos require ground heat instead...belly heat.

Just watch her closely, I almost lost mine to the UVB light, and I would hate to see that happen to yours!

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

Some geckos have problems metabolizing calcium. The parathyroid gland controls this, and I just think that somethimes they have thyroid problems. My recommendation is to get some liquid calcium (NeoCalglucon) from your vet, and give her about 0.2 mls a day for a few weeks. UV light will not help your gecko much since leos are nocturnal and their skin does not assimilate UV rays into Vit.D.

 

[MelissaDiane]

I took a poop specimen into the vet today. I have two females together so I am not 100% sure it was Sobe's but I took it in anyway. It came back positive for hook worm eggs. The vet does not feel that has anything to do with the MBD. So now they both go in for a shot on Wednesday night. I have to wash everything with soap & water & the vet feels that the moist hide could have been the cause. I use coco fiber & I don't change it. I just keep making it moist. Sometimes Daisy poops in there as she thinks she's a cat & needs a litter box So there is going to be some changes made.

I use reptile carpet (that can't be cleaned very well) so that is coming out & paper towels are going in as I can remove them & through them away. I will put moist paper towels in their moist hide & change those every day. The bare esentials are going back in until all of this mess is resolved.

Sobe licked some calcium off my finger again tonight (I got good stuff now). She then walked (crawled) over to her calcium dish & licked some out of there again too Her front legs still shake & she gets tired quickly. I really hope she pulls through this. I will watch the UVB light too. I check my Geckos every day.

Gizmo seems okay - he's in his own cage & is upstairs so I hope he is fine. So far so good.

Thanks guys for your words of wisdom. I've only had geckos since July & Sobe was my first.

 

[fallen_angel]

Awww that's horrible about the hook worm eggs, but at least they are getting treatment. I hope your girls have a fast recovery; I am sure that Sobe will pull through with her MBD just fine. Best of luck to you both :heart:

 

[rcobourn]

I don't use it, but I was under the impression that reptile carpet can go right in the washing machine... thus they sell it in pairs, so you have a clean one handy.