MBD due to congenital defect

[Grinning Geckos]

Here's Mr. Nobody, one of my guys that hatched late last year. At hatching, he seemed pretty normal (from what I can remember). He was given dusted food, and had a calcium dish just like all the other babies.

The first pic is at hatching. You can see he limbs are straight and sturdy. No problems at the wrist.

The second picture is two weeks later. His limbs still look good. At this point, the only thing I notice is he's not as vigorous an eater as the others. He's falling behind in weight, in comparison to another gecko that hatched the same day.

 

[Grinning Geckos]

This is at a month old. A few days earlier, I had noticed that he was rolling on his front feet in an odd manner. I thought he may be injured. After snapping some photos, I saw the bow in the legs. In the first 3 shots, you can see both the bow and the way he's rolling on the foot. You can also see the effects of him not thriving. Again, he's had ample access to both food and calcium. At this age, he's 1/2 the size of another gecko hatched on the same day.

After coming to the forum, and getting a few "maybe"s, I checked his jaw. It gave way very slightly when squeezed. That's when treatment for MBD started. He was on the treatment for about 2 weeks, and has had a greatly increase amount of D3 in his diet since. Instead of plain calcium in his dish, he gets 1/4 plain 3/4 +D3.

It took about a month for his jaw to firm up. Since the change in his supplements, there hasn't been any further problems with MBD.

The last picture is him now. His growth is stunted, he hovers around 40g. You can see that his limbs appear straight now, and he no longer rolls on his front feet (that went away about the same time his jaw firmed up).


This is really only helpful in recognizing a congenital metabolic defect. I couldn't tell you how quickly MBD would onset in a normal gecko with a lack of calcium in the diet ... nor do I wish to find out. What I can say for sure is, it doesn't happen over night, or even in a week. It must take MONTHS to see the sort of damage we see in some of those poor geckos posted in the forums.

 

[PaulSage]

Shanti, thanks for posting this. He's a cute little fella. Marcia and I were talking about how some breeders just cull babies as soon as they notice anything wrong with them. It's cool to see other people not just giving up on them right away.

Someone else was telling me that they had one or two babies that developed MBD symptoms almost immediately after hatching despite receiving the same care as their other geckos. I remember suggesting that perhaps some of them are just born pre-disposed to MBD and for whatever reason they can't process or assimilate (I don't know what the right word is) calcium at the normal rate.

I love this "learning" stuff, but it would be nice if some of the lessons and reminders didn't fuck so many geckos.

 

[nwheat]

I love this "learning" stuff, but it would be nice if some of the lessons and reminders didn't fuck so many geckos.

Exactly my thoughts, Paul!

I had a couple of babies this year - clutchmates - that each developed a crooked back leg (on opposite sides). This happened when they were just a couple of weeks old. They looked perfect at hatching and were given dusted food and a dish of calcium just like everyone else. After giving liquid calcium the damage stopped and the defects are now hardly noticeable. Hopefully, I'll be able to find a good pet-only home for them.

I had a couple of issues with this in the very beginning of the season last year as well (Paul, I think we may have discussed this kinda late in the evening at the party in Texas - I can't quite remember :drunk but now I'm wondering about temps for last year's geckos. It was very early in the year and I only had a few hatchlings at the time - no way of knowing now, I guess. I will certainly be monitoring temps more diligently.