Rescued Beardie - Bad case of MBD

I run an animal rescue, mostly dogs, and because of that I peruse the FB groups keeping an eye on people giving away/selling animals. Well, I came across someone asking for help because her neighbor was tired of taking care of a beardie and he was going to quit feeding it and let it go outside to die. I watched the thread and no one was stepping up to take the poor guy so I volunteered. I figured that I already have one at home so I pretty much know what I'm doing and I can at least get the guy to safety and then go from there.

FF a couple days and I pick him up. He's got advanced MBD and is so malnourished that I want to find the apartment that this owner lives in and beat him about the head and shoulders. He was apparently keeping him in a tank with three or four other beardies and my little guy was being picked on relentlessly. The owner was hand feeding him for a while but got tired of doing that.

Anyway, I've consulted with a local reptile rescue in my area and they were very helpful on how to feed him and get him rehydrated and everything, which I'm very thankful for. Now I'm going to check with you guys to see if any of you have any tips.

I've named him Stimpy and he's so friendly, just like my other guy, York. He was being fed some kind of meat substance, pellets, and some kind of vitamin powder that needed to be mixed with water and fed to him with a syringe when I got him. I haven't given him any of that, but for the first week gave him organic butternut squash baby food and wax worms that I cut so they oozed so when I fed them to him he could taste them and would eat. Since then I've been introducing greens (which he loves), whole wax worms that he has to hunt himself, and today I gave him some small crickets that he had to chase around. He's not very good with his aim but it makes him move which I think is good for him. He's definitely a lot more active now than when I first brought him home. And, yes, I know under normal circumstances wax worms aren't an all the time food, but I think it'll be OK if Stimpy has several or more for a while because he's so thin.

I have him in a smallish tank right now with a basking light and a Reptisun 10.0 UVB light. He's about 16" long and weighs about 160 grams. He hasn't gained any weight yet since he's been here but he looks better and his body is not as flat as it was. He's much more interested in the things that go on in the house, and we go outside and walk around for a few minutes each day so he can get some natural sunlight and he loves that. He also has his head up a lot more and in the last day or so has started glass dancing.

However, one of his front arms is permanently curled, but his back legs are good. He's got a very pronounced lump at the base of his tail, a very pronounced underbite, and he seems to be missing his teeth. I have no idea how old he is, but I do know he should weigh a lot more than he does. I don't know if the MBD is too far along to stop or reverse, but I'm hoping someone has some pointers for anything I can do to help Stimpy along and to get healthier.

As soon as I figure out how to post pictures I'll do that.

http://i.imgur.com/jqJdgap.jpg

Poor guy . I don't understand how people can neglect their pets!!!! Very sad, but I'm glad he has a good home.

I don't either, destiny1998. Unfortunately, it seems that it doesn't matter what kind of animal it is there's someone out there that's going to mistreat it.

I was wondering if anyone knows if there's some kind of vitamin or supplement I should be giving Stimpy.

Wow, poor little guy. That's so nice of you to take Stimpy in + give him some good care. He does look pretty sick, aside from the obvious deformity you can see it in his eyes. And to think that living in Fl, all the owner had to do was give him a bit more food, calcium powder and get him in the sun a few times a week to prevent his horrible disfigurement.

Anyway, it sounds like he's feeling a little better, but there is nothing that can reverse it. A vet might prescribe liquid calcium , but the powdered may be sufficient as long as he's getting UVB from the sun. Make the bulk of his insect diet small to medium crickets [ it's good that he tried to chase them ! But don't offer too many at first, just a few ] rather than waxworms, and if he likes greens that's a real plus. You can shake the crix up in a jar to stun them, they will be dizzy + easier for him to catch and you can coat them with the calcium powder at the same time. You can dust lightly with a multi vitamin 1-2X a week, but a light coating is the key.

Hydration is very important, so offer water via eyedropper or syringe for a drink or see if he'll drink in a bath,which should be supervised, short [ 5-10 min. tops ] and shallow. Then pat him dry gently and put him back where he can warm up + dry completely. Keep up the good work !

AHBD Thank you so much for the reply.

I've been giving him water via syringe, and he does drink when I give him a bath. I think he drinks a lot, but I'm comparing him to York, who's healthy. He does seem to like his bath and he likes cuddle time after the bath.

Good tip on shaking the crickets! I actually had to catch the crickets for him after a while and feed them to him because he just couldn't catch enough of them. I was really surprised that he eats greens, but maybe it's just because he's so hungry. York is really picky, but so far Stimpy eats pretty much anything I put in front of him.

Is there any particular multivitamin and calcium supplement that you recommend? There are so many out there.

The reptile rescue here told me that we wouldn't be able to reverse his MBD because it's just too advanced, but maybe we can stop its progression. They also said that he may only have a few months. If he only makes it another few months, it won't be for lack of love and care.

You're welcome. You can get some Rep-cal calcium with D-3 and Herptivite but use them very lightly. The calcium just 2-3 X a week, the vitamins 1-2X at the most. His body is not used to all these things so in his condition it's best to introduce everything slowly. Since he eats greens he will actually get alot of nutrients from those as well.

Thank you so much! I'm going to get some now.

I rescued Zeek while he was suffering from a pretty bad case of MBD. Not only that but he was dropped several times by children at the house of horrors, shattering several bones in the process. He's back to health, and the only sign he ever suffered from MBD is his tail. Accepting the responsibility that someone else obviously couldn't handle is a noble act.

Thumbs way up on the Reptisun 10.0 bulb! That's really the only way to go for a beardie. During his MBD nursing time I stayed away from any fruits or veggies with moderate to high oxalate content. Oxalates are a chemical that bind with calcium, essentially removing it from their diet. I know a few different berries contain enough, as well as grapes, plums, figs, and kiwi. For veggies you have spinach, okra, beets, celery, summer squash (butternut is a winter squash), parsley, and collards. I know there are more, so it's something possibly worth a read.

Extensive list of oxalte rich foods. http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html

Thank you, Zeek for the information. There are a few things that I didn't know were good for them to eat every day so I'm going to head to the local organic store to pick some new stuff up for Stimpy and York.

Stimpy seems to like everything he's introduced to, but York is still a picky jerk.

Also, thank you for saving your Zeek.

My husband and I found two beardies off craigslist about 6 months ago, one is a german giant we named dakota, the other was a pastel named fred, we were new to beardies but still noticed that fred wasn't...... right. He was shaky, stuck in a U shape, and could only walk in a circle. We had to hand feed him because he couldn't seem to grab anything on his own. After doing a lot of research and book buying, we found out that it was because of mbd. We gave him a new reptisun 10.0 uvb light, raised our own pheniox worms (which are loaded with calcium) and took him outside for an hour on every sunny day, happy to say he is now straight, can walk a straight line, can Bob his head, eat insects on his own, and when he shed a few weeks ago ended up having the most beautiful purple bars..... and we found out fred is a girl. Ha ha!

This makes me tear up... poor little baby. Thank you so much for stepping up and caring for him! Keep us updated <3