Hatchling Rainwater albino with MBD, shedding issues

[SA Leopards]

A) Health/History
- How often do you handle your leo
Almost never
- Is your leo acting any different today? If so how does he/she normally act which differs from now.
Don't know, only had her for 2 weeks
- Has he/she had any problems in the past, if so please describe.
First time issue with me
B) Fecals
- Describe (look any different than normal)
Normal
- When was the last time he/she went
about 2 days ago
C) Problem
- Please briefly describe the problem and how long it has been going on
I noticed problems about 3 days ago whilst doing the monthly weigh. She had shed stuck all over her eyes, I removed it via warm water gently rolling it off. I only removed the skin from her head as I didn't want to affect her shedding routine too much
Housing:
A) Enclosure
- Size
tub
- Type (ex. glass tank)
plastic
- Type of substrate
paper towel
- Hides, how many, what kind
3, one cold hide and the humidity and other hide on the warm side
B) Heating
- Heat source
uth
- Cage temps (hot side, cool side)
as is desired
- Method of regulating heat source
thermostat
- What are you using to measure your temps
thermometer
- Do you have any lights (describe)
no
C) Cage mates
- How many (males, females)
none, I separate all my hatchlings
- Describe health, or previous problems
when I got her she seemed fine
Describe Diet:
A) Typical diet
- What you're feeding (how often, how much)
small mealworms as much as she wants
- How are you feeding (hand fed, left in dish, ect)
left in dish
B) Supplements (describe how often)
- What vitamin/minerals are you using (list brands)
exoterra vitamins and calcium (w/o D3)
- What are you gut loading food with
gut load and fresh veggies

Jeeze, that is quit an extensive list?! :main_laugh: Anyway, I recently got her along with several other adult leos in a swap with D. Scabra and some albino brown house snakes. I had to drive about 5 hours to get them so I did not get a chance to give her a good look over seeing that I had to get on the road again (you don't want to drive at night in SA)

Anyway, the guy I got them from was keeping them on sand, mixed calcium with water as their calcium supply, no heat and mealworms as their food. The adults looked fine when I got them into their individual vivs.

But the baby is giving me issues. She was eating like a ok (about 4 mealworms a day) till Thursday, she was shedding so I attributed the loss of apatite to that. With their monthly weigh I noticed she had shed stuck on her eye, I removed only the shed from her head and then I recognized possible MBD. So she is getting the slurry to help fix that. But I am worried now about her incomplete shed, what she did not get off became very dry and is difficult to remove (I only managed to remove the she from her feet, tummy and 2 of her legs) and I am scared if I try to take it all off she may drop her tail from the stress.

So my question is: can I leave the pieces of shedding on her for now till I get her a bit stronger? I've pulled MBD rescues through before, but none this small, so I am careful with her. Also can anyone with experience with such an case give me any tips.

Also, she is apparently close to 5 months but is only about 3 to 3 and a half inches long, so she is still very small.

Any help will be appreciated!

Regards
Arno

 

[acpart]

Here are some things to try:
--you can make her a sauna sort of thing by putting warm water in the humidity hide and, if you can get her to go in there, covering it lightly so it gets steamy.
--you can gradually take bits of the shed off a little at a time so she doesn't get too stressed
--sometimes soaking in about 1/2" of water in the sink helps loosen shed stuck to toes
--you mention you're using calcium without D3. If there's no D3 in the vitamins, make sure she has a source so she can metabolize the calcium (as I imagine you're aware).
--you could ask a reptile vet about calcium injections if it looks like she needs that.

Good luck with her.

Aliza

 

[electrofelt]

I have an adult gecko with MBD that needs help shedding everytime she sheds, especially around her legs where the MBD has caused distortion. I usually let her soak in warm water for about 15minutes to soften the skin, and then I let her crawl around on a towel on the floor. Usually once she is on the towel, the friction helps to get the skin off. I like doing it this way because then my gecko is in charge of how "hard" she wants to pull at the skin, and the towel does not have enough friction to pull at any skin that is not ready to come off. So you could try this, and there is not a lot of physical contact so hopefully it wouldn't stress her out very much.

If the skin still does not come off, you can try to lightly rub at the skin with a Q-tip while she is in the bath. That is how I normally remove the shed skin from my gecko's toes (which is very stubborn and never wants to come off). I also remember reading somewhere that you can dab mineral oil on stubborn shed skin to keep it moist and usually the gecko will do the rest, although I have never tried this method so I do not have any experience with it. I do know that mineral oil is edible and can be used to treat impaction in geckos, so hypothetically this method could work.

Hope this helps and your gecko grows out of the MBD issues and gets the stubborn shed skin off. Good luck!

 

[SA Leopards]

Thanx for the help! I forgot to add that her slurry has D3 and I dust her mealworms in D3 also. Her legs have stiffened up nicely (its crazy how quickly they bounce back?!), but I am still having problems with patches of shed, not a lot, but small patches that just does not want to come off, irrespective of soaking, towels and "sauna-ing".

Do you think that skin will come of with her next shed?

 

[fl_orchidslave]

You can try moving the humid hide to the warm side, so it's a bit steamy when she begins to shed. Maybe it will all come off. Occasionally I see a little patch of shed left on top of a gecko's head, and if it doesn't rub off easily, I leave it for next shed. Those little spots can be a raw sore if scraped off and it does no harm to leave it. Glad her little bones are straightening out! Sounds like you got on it while the problem could be corrected