Arm Injury, Not Sure What To Do

I bought my baby Mufasa 9/17/17, I do not know how old he is (I do not even know if he is actually male). I weighed him about 1-2 weeks ago and he was 22 G, I believe he is about 7”, but it is hard to judge. I noticed this morning that he was limping, his does not bare much weight on his right arm. I think he may have injured his arm, loves jumping off and onto to things, he often times will attempt great leaps. I do not see any wounds or swelling, but his arm is noticeably limp. Last night when I was feeding him supper, he urated and there was a reddish tinge, I thought it may have been a small amount of stool mixed in, but now I am not sure. He has regular bowel movements every morning (even today) they seem normal, but I cannot day for sure. He eats anywhere from 15-40 dubia roaches twice daily, I have been offering carrots and yellow squash (he does not eat much if any at all). Mufasa did not eat this morning, I asked my sister to go over and try again a couple hours later and he still did not eat. I am calling an exotic pet vet to see about his arm, but thought I would put this information out since people here tend to know more than vets in my area.

While I wait for an appointment I am making sure he has fresh vegetables, warm and quiet environment. He seems very stressed. We have had family staying with us and my nieces and nephews adore him, I think this has been too much for him.

Hi there, sorry to hear about Mufasa's injury. When you say he jumps a lot [ as babies do ] is this in or out of the tank ? A jump from a bed to a hard floor like tile or wood could hurt him. Does have a mesh hammock ? Some beardies snag their nails + try to get free and twist/sprain their leg in the process.Pics of Mufasa as well as his set up will be helpful, here's how to post :
https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ Then use the XIMG to upload them

For feeding, you might squish an insect until the guts come out, then rub it lightly on his snout. Sometimes just the taste on their snout will get a feeding response.

He jumps inside and outside of the tank, he will get as close as he can to the floor or desired location, then jump, and they are usually harder than carpet surfaces. I try catch him or assist, but he is quick, and I think he may like the challenge as he will hop off of me and come back and do it again.
I do not use his mesh hammock, I read about them on previous posts and decided being a baby is risky enough lol.


I am at work right now, my sisters sent me one photo but his body is twisted away, I do have a video, but I cannot not upload onto the site.


This is the most current picture I have right now, it is pretty much the same as it is now, the only difference is his log and rock are now on the opposite sides. Also, I now use an inferred gun instead of probes (he kept laying on the probes) Also the gun I found is way more accurate.

Am I jumping the gun with a vet appointment? I do not see swelling, he will run, but he limps. I am wondering if rest and warmth will help?

I am not too worried about his eating, he has only missed breakfast, he has done this before, he usually goes back to normal by dinner time.

For now it would be good to turn his log on to it's side so he can't jump from such a height and no more outside jumping . He may , hopefully, have just a sprain [ which is very painful itself ] but they can break bones like that.

Is there anything I can do to help him? I came home and he just wants to lay on my chest, it is heartbreaking to know he is in pain.

It's good that he can run....he will probably heal up fine if you don't let him hurt it again. Keep the climbing area on it's side,low to the ground until he's better.

His arm and hand look like they are swelling, I will keep an eye on it to see if it worsens or improves. I did place his branch on it’s side, it is approx 7.5-8” from the ground, this still seems too high, I may remove entirely.

Yeah, some swelling there. And you can take the log out if you like and replace it with a rolled up towel.

I think a visit to a vet to have it Xrayed will be a very good idea. If it's just a soft tissues injury it will come good more than likely by itself, unless there is a dislocation in the wrist or elbow, a vet will need to attend to that.

if it's broken , it will need resetting and probably a metal pin made to hold the bone while it mends and cast to immobilize the arm.

Remove all opportunities to climb, leap/ jump / fall for now.

The vet visit will be beneficial even if it's not broken , as you will know what you are dealing with and he will likely be sent home with pain relief and anti-inflamatories.

Thank you, the earliest appt with the reptile specialist is 10/25.

Mufasa seeing the vet about 2 1/2 weeks ago, they took an x-ray and she said that there didn’t appear to be a fracture, but it cannot be rolled out due to the difficulty of x-raying him. The vet said that it appears to be soft tissue and he has low bone density he. She gave me liquid calcium with dosing instructions of .02 ml twice a day for two weeks then once a day for two weeks then 2 to 3 times a week for one week. I am now on the once a day for two weeks and I am still giving him is dusted bags with calcium five days a week and multivitamin three days a week. My question is, Mufasa’s Arm is still swollen, he has no lamp and appears to be moving normally. Should the swelling have gone down by now? If he is not limping does that mean he is not in pain? Is there anything I can do for the swelling? I changed his set up so that he would not jump, I did have him on my arm one evening when I was getting ready to feed him and he jumped off of me and I was not able to catch him, that was about a 3 to 4 foot drop. After him jumping off of me, he still was not limping. Again he seems to be moving fine, he is eating normally, has a normal bowel movement almost every day, he is still gaining weight, he still seems alert with some spunk and he is just begun to shed again. Does any of this sound like the cause for concern?

I do not see swelling in any other joint.

He runs after his dubia roaches with enthusiasm and no limp

He appears to put normal pressure on his hand.

I have been reading a little bit about gout, I have seen this with humans but not sure what it is like for bearded dragons. I am thinking about cutting back his multivitamin to once a week, but I would rather not do this if it is not necessary since he already has low bone density you I’m afraid that he might have metabolic bone disease. I don’t believe he really eat his vegetables, lately I have been offering yellow squash. I missed him and give him water via a dropper, he drinks willingly and I can tell when he’s done since he just stops. Giving him his liquid calcium is easier than giving a child medication, he is actually quite eager to take it from the dosing syringe. Aside from Dubia roaches the only other food I offer is crickets; however I only do this when he runs out of roaches as I do not like handling crickets.

I am also wondering if he is too skinny, I really don’t think he’s too skinny but I can see his ribs at times so I’m wondering if that may indicate malnutrition or some sort of deficiency? I weighed him yesterday morning and he was at 32 or 34 g, I was going to weigh him again this morning to make sure I read it right yesterday, but I started feeding him first so when I weighed him it was Contradicting of yesterday’s weight (he weight at 38 g after finishing breakfast).

Financially things are semi tight, if it is likely gout would be OK to wait until next Friday to take him to a vet? If this is something that I should do right away then of course I will find a way to do so. I was reading that black cherry extract is good for gout, is there a particular brand or something I should know about purchasing this? Would it hurt to give it to him not knowing for sure if it is gout?

It's good that he drinks willingly, keep that up for his whole life. They drink less as they get older, but it should always be offered.' I don't know if your vet seems competent to deal with gout and I doubt that's what it is. The Xray was a waste, the vet couldn't tell if it was broken or not [ as most vets can't read xrays on a tiny baby ] so they charged you for nothing. If it was a tiny break it seems to be healing on it's own now.

Anyway, as long as he's walking on it, that's great. You would need to do a fine needle aspiration to determine if it's gout....I just don't know if the vet could do it without hurting Mufasa further. And please don't take chances with letting him sit on your arm. There was already an injury there and it could really break now of you aren't careful and allow him to jump like that.

The cherry extract can be bought at a health food store or some grocery stores. If he truly does have gout, which I doubt, Allopurinol would be the med. used to treat it.

Thank you for your quick reply, I will continue to watch and make sure it does not worsen. I have actually started to measure the swelling so I can tell if it worsens, as sometimes it is hard for me to tell with just my looking at it. I will also continue to research vets within driving distance for future reference. I don’t mind this vet, the information that she has given me seems to fall in line with the research I have done, but I am always suspicious as to whether or not vets in this area have dealt much with bearded dragons. The vet that I take my ferret (Kevin) to, is one I know I would never take Mufasa to, they have a bearded dragon in their lobby and everything about the set up seems to be wrong!

Hello,

So sorry they couldn't determine anything from the x-rays! Mufasa isn't limping though,
even after his jump off of you?
How close are your UVB lights to him?
It is definitely a very odd looking swelling to me. Can you take some more pictures of
his entire body, showing his hands/feet, etc more so I can see if anything else appears
to be off? Gout creeps up & many times you can't really tell until there is significant
swelling.
Which multivitamin are you using, what brand?

Tracie

Sorry for the long delay! I took more pictures, but he was not enthused as he is shedding!

He is not limping at all, he moves just like he did before the injury, he still jumps and runs when the opportunity is available. I had his set-up so he could not jump; however, he began getting depressed and did not want to be in his tank. I was unsure what to do, have him be down and depressed or give him the opportunity to jump. After awhile, I put his set-up back the way likes it and he became more alert and active, of course he also began jumping off his branch (about 14" or so). I could have another x-ray, but I do not want to spend the money at this point, unless necessary. He spends most of his time on his branch, does not hide unless he is on my bed, then he will bury himself under my bedspread and fall asleep lol. He has a wonderful personality, he seems to like people especially kids (probably because they are smaller).

I measured distances, he currently is in a 40 gal breeder tank, it is approx. 17" ht, he can get within 3-6" of UVB, just depends where he is sitting. I use a 24" ReptiSun T8 10.0 tube. I am building him an oak home and will be switching him to ReptiSun T5 HO 10.0 tube.

He eats an avg 40 bugs twice daily, sometimes he will eat another 20ish if I can feed him a third time. He last weighed about 44 grams (1 week ago), he was about 8-10 when I first got him Sept 17th. I dust with Fluker's Repta Calcium w/ d3 and phos free 5 days a week (dust each feeding) and I use Rep-Cal Herptivite w/ beta carotene multivitamins advanced formulation with each feeding session three days per week. He is still on his liquid calcium from the vet, .02ml once daily (Med-Calionate). I offer yellow squash, but he does not really eat it yet. I mist him and give him water from a dropper. His bowel movements are almost every morning, sometimes he has another at night if he did not have one the day before. they seem normal (big!!), he always has urate and water mixed in, never too runny or hard.

I am at a loss, he acts normal, but his right arm does not look normal. I felt his arm and he does not pull away, flinch, or freeze. He lets me pet his head, neck, back, tail, chin, and extremities, I have not tried his belly. He typically does not act afraid of me, unless I am clumsy and move too fast. He seems to have some sort of a bond with me,when something scares him outside his tank he runs to me no matter how far away I am. I keep him in my bedroom and allow him to run anywhere except the closet. Everyday, I worry something is wrong and only presenting a symptom in his arm, but then with everything explained above, I wonder if I am being too paranoid. People are so much easier in this way, I just want him to say mommy this is how I feel!!!


Here are pictures, I had a tough time getting since he wants to be left alone to bask.


This was the best picture I could get of his left arm.







I am pretty sure my teenage neice has the same look most days.

I dust with calcium 5 days per week, dusting each meal in a day. I dust with multivitamin 3 days per week, dusting each meal.