Rescued Gecko with Metabolic Bone Disease

[JennyBeen]

Today my fiance' and I adopted a gecko, habitat, supplies and all for $20. He was part of a reptile adoption program, and was described to us as having MBD, but that he was very active, tame, and healthy otherwise with the disease only affecting his front left leg (he walks on the elbow bit, rather than with his claws).

He has come with numerous calcium supplements, as well as a UV light and UTH.

I had read everything possible about geckos up until this point, but very little about caring for guys with MBD. From my understanding, geckos don't need UV lights, as the belly heat was most important from the UTH. But is this different for MBD afflicted geckos?

He really does seem wonderfully healthy, bright eyes, sweet, happy cricket hunter, etc. Here you'll find a photo of him; the habitat is everything he came with.

The substrate is the sand decorated mat...there is no loose substrate, for the record. You can see his little head poking out from behind the white mealworm dish, but he really isn't very shy and is happily crawling about the aquarium. We handled him at the store, but I'll give him a few days of peace to settle in before bothering him again.

Anyway, I'd love some suggestions on care/if the light is necessary, or if we're good with just the calcium d3 supplement and UTH. Thanks everyone!

 

[Matt_pole]

I might be wrong but it looks like that dish is to tall for him to access

 

[laurahlove]

Can we see a full picture of the tank and a full picture of him please?

Sent from my LG-P769 using Tapatalk

 

[JennyBeen]

A) Health/History
- How often do you handle your leo: We've just had him a few hours, so no routine yet. He is very tame though, so I expect he will be handled frequently.
- Is your leo acting any different today? If so how does he/she normally act which differs from now.: Just got him/unknown
- Has he/she had any problems in the past, if so please describe.: Metabolic Bone Disease prior to our adoption
B) Fecals
- Describe (look any different than normal): None yet
- When was the last time he/she went: Unsure
C) Problem
- Please briefly describe the problem and how long it has been going on: We were told he has MBD upon his adoption this afternoon. He is otherwise very healthy.

Housing:
A) Enclosure
- Size: 10 Gallon
- Type: Glass tank
- Type of substrate: Reptile desert carpet (no loose bits)
- Hides, how many, what kind: 3, moist cool, cool, warm
B) Heating
- Heat source: UTH, was given UVA light but not set up (and won't, unless recommended)
- Cage temps (hot side, cool side): 77 cool, 87 warm
- Method of regulating heat source: Thermometer ? Is only one one side of the tank.
- What are you using to measure your temps: See above
- Do you have any lights (describe): Not planned
C) Cage mates
- How many (males, females): None
- Describe health, or previous problems: None

Describe Diet:
A) Typical diet
- What you're feeding (how often, how much): Had been eating crickets and mealworms (free feeding both)
- How are you feeding (hand fed, left in dish, ect): Loose crickets have been removed, mealworms are in dish, though I prefer to hand feed to know how much he's eating
B) Supplements (describe how often)
- What vitamin/minerals are you using (list brands): Repti-Calcium with Vitamin D3, were given Fluker's cricket calcium and gut load as well for insects
- What are you gut loading food with: Will probably use the Fluker's until it's gone. Then will use carrots and sweet potato (mealworms)

He is able to access the worms in the white container, though as I mentioned, once they are gone I prefer to hand feed every other day to know exactly how much he is eating.

Hope this helps, and sorry it's a bit delayed.

 

[indyana]

Okay, going to ramble a bit here, so prepare for the long post. XD Feel free to ask for clarification on anything.

Many vets recommend UVB treatment for reptiles with MBD, even leopard geckos. I do not see a problem with putting the light on a timer and letting it run during the day so long as he has shaded hides where he can escape the light. I, in fact, use UVB lighting on my adult noctural geckos with no issue.

For the heat, you need to be monitoring the floor surface temperature directly over the UTH, not the air temperature. The best way to do this is with an instant-read temp gun, but in a pinch, you can use a digital thermometer with a probe and lie the probe flat on the floor. Usually, you will need a thermostat with a temperature-monitoring probe to hook up to the UTH to keep the floor from overheating (hot spots can get into the 100s without a thermostat). The idea is to get the UTH regulated so that the floor surface temperature on the hot spot is around 90 F.

The Repti Calcium with D3 is a great start for dusting, but I would also recommend including a multivitamin supplement. I have to strongly recommend Repashy Calcium Plus here. It's an all-in-one dusting supplement that has multivitamin, calcium, and D3 in it, and I used to to recooperate my own rescue. If you'd rather not waste the Repti Calcium though, you can buy a separate multivitamin like Rep-Cal Herptivite or Exo Terra Multi Vitamin and then alternate dusting with calcium+D3 and the multivitamin.

And, finally, a little dish with a bit of pure calcium (no D3/phosphorus) left in the cage all the time will give your gecko the opportunity to take in more calcium as needed.

 

[indyana]

Oh, and forgot to include my absolute favorite link for gutloading ideas for bugs. Think beyond the carrots when you have the opportunity!
Much Ado About Chameleons: The Anatomy of Gut-Loading | Ingredients & Nutritional Info

 

[JennyBeen]

Indyana, thank you! Don't apologize for the long post, it's exactly what I was hoping for.

We will be going to a reptile specialty store in the next few days anyway to pick up some mealworms (he still has a few in his dish, but obviously we'll need some on hand), so I will look into picking up a multi-vitamin for alternate dusting, as well as a calcium without d3. Out of curiosity, why is it that the type with the d3 shouldn't be readily accessible? Since it's all I had, he's had a bottle cap full of this in with him, and he did go to it and take a few mouth fulls.

I will look into the Repashy Calcium Plus in the future, but will probably use up the numerous calcium with d3 powders I have first (seems silly that he has two bottles of these, nearly new that came with him that could have prevented his MBD!) and will simply get the multi-vitamin in the meantime. I plan on getting a pair of female geckos in the next month or so (we were going to the pet store to pick up a 20 gallon tank for them!) so I'm sure it won't go to waste by any means.

I am pleased about the uva light that it won't just sit and rot/take up space. I don't know how spiffy it is with a timer or anything, but I can certainly put it on a few hours during the day while I'm home. I doubt I'd actually pay for one on my own, but I'm glad the free one can be used. Will this heat up his tank even more though? While it's on, should I unplug his UTH?

As for his temperatures, I have a thermometer laying right on the floor of the warm side in the middle, and it has stayed at a steady 92. I've felt the whole area with my hand, and it feels quite consistent. This is a new UTH, as the one he came with had been not-so-gently ripped off, and the warmth was not at all well evenly distributed. It wasn't worth the risk for me.

And finally, thanks for the gutloading article! I do want to ensure my geckos get nutritious bugs, so will do my best to make this happen.

Thanks again for all your help! It is so appreciated. I'm very happy with "Mardu" so far. He has a great attitude, and his floppy arm doesn't seem to bother him a bit! I'll make sure the poor little thing never is in danger of MBD again!

 

[indyana]

D3 isn't water soluble and can build up in dangerous quantities if too much is consumed. While a gecko would have to eat quite a bit of powder to overdose on D3, most keepers do not risk the possibility and use calcium without D3 in the cage. The symptoms of too much D3 are the same as the symptoms from too little calcium, so it's important to be certain they don't get too much. It should be fine to keep the calcium with D3 in there for a little while until you can pick up some without D3; I doubt he could eat too much in that short a time.

Just to be clear, is this a fluorescent UVB bulb? That's the type that's usually used to treat MBD, and fluorescent bulbs emit very little heat. If this is instead some sort of heat-emitting basking bulb with UVA, that's pretty useless for treating MBD and you should not use it. It should be written somewhere on the bulb, but if it's an incandescent light bulb, it is not a UVB.

Sounds like the setup is good, so all it's going to take now is time and good nutrition. He'll probably end up with a few bendy/kinked areas leftover, but everything should certainly get less floppy as the months go on. I hope you'll post updates once in a while and let us know how Mardu is doing! And, of course, feel free to post any more questions.

 

[JennyBeen]

So after checking the bulb, there is a large flat one semi-attached that has no words or anything on it, and then another bulb that is iridescent, I'm guessing just to simulate day light. Admittedly, the whole lamp + plug feels very shakey and loose, even when I tried to screw it in to turn it on...it doesn't seem functional, unfortunately.

I think we'll forgo the light for now, but I do plan on attending a reptile convention in the next month or so. I'll check out their pricing then and see if we can find one for Mardu .

Otherwise, he's still doing great! I will say, while we got the Repashy supplement (it doesn't SAY it has D3 anywhere on the front, but on the back it says it contains Vitamin D...is that a different kind?) and have left a small dish of this in there with him, whenever he has had access to the Repti-calcium with D3, he immediately goes over and laps it up and seems to prefer worms dusted in this over those dusted in the Repashy. I wonder if it's just a flavor thing?