First rescue (sorta??). 10 year old with MBD. Need advice.

I am in NO way a professional rescuer or whatnot and I’m not sure how much this really counts as a “rescue”. But my older sibling has been too mentally ill to care for his beardie for quite some time now. I used to help out in the bare minimum, then stopped completely because I didn’t want to enable his bad habits and have him learn the responsibility. But now I’ve realized it’s just too much on him and karson (that’s her name). She goes without food most days of the week, and the poop is too disgusting for him to clean up without panicking. We’ve come to an agreement that I will take over, he says temporarily until he gets his act together but I’m preparing for permanently, in case he never does.

She has an appetite for greens/veggies and any bugs you put in front of her. She can walk just fine and doesn’t seem to have any paralysis. What I’m worried about is her lips and her twitchyness. She doesn’t have the huge underbite/hanging open jaw you see on the worst cases. But her lips are kinda puffy and her jaw does seem a bit weak. On top of that her legs twitch sometimes. I know it may not seem like a bunch but I’m sure she has some MBD. I’ll post pictures when I can.

I will be dusting both her greens and bugs with calcium. Lighting wise she’s under a 100w bulb for heating and Reptisun 10.0 for Uvb, that may need to be replaced. But is there any stronger uvb bulbs that I could get her? And vitamins/supplements I could give her? We have a bottle of this liquid calcium that my sibling bought to try and help her but I’m not sure if it’s good as a substitute for medicine/etc.

I cannot currently get her to a vet, I’m a broke teenager and my dad hates paying for anything other than their food. I’m gonna be looking for a part time job to have on top of school to hopefully take care of that but I need to know anything else I can do NOW. Thanks!

Here’s some pictures. She’s had a bath since I’ve posted. First two are from before the bath, last one is after


And to avoid misunderstandings, she does not live in a shoe box lol. She’s in the box for those first two because I needed to clean out her cage.

Hi. She actually doesn't look too bad. I would get a reptisun 10.0 55 or Arcadia 12% d3. What are the temperature and how do you take them? Liquid calcium is good and I use he's pollen instead of vitamins. It helps with her immune system and she can have it everyday. I sprinkle the greens with it.

destiny1998":prff3q3y said:

Hi. She actually doesn't look too bad. I would get a reptisun 10.0 55 or Arcadia 12% d3. What are the temperature and how do you take them? Liquid calcium is good and I use he's pollen instead of vitamins. It helps with her immune system and she can have it everyday. I sprinkle the greens with it.

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Hi, thanks for the response! I was think about getting something like another reptisun. I initially thought the ones we get are good when I realized that the ones that people recommend are the large tube ones, not the mini compact ones. Will be replacing immediately!

She currently does not have any thermometers in her cage. Until I can order some, I’m going to borrow the cool side thermometer from my own lizard Felix’s cage. They are digital thermometers with probes, actually recommended to me by someone on the site. Since it’s late at my time and her lamps will be turned off soon, I’ll have to take the temp in the morning. Her lighting set up is the same as Felix’s, so if I had to give an on the spot estimate, itd be around 103F. They both have 40 gallon tanks with basking spots 6-7 inches from the lamps, but I won’t say anything for sure until I get the exact reading.

Hello,

Karson doesn't look too bad! She probably is a bit weak but you should be able to pull her
out of it fairly quickly then. The Reptisun 10 tube bulbs are good. It will need to be mounted
underneath of the screen around 6-8 inches from her. They do degrade so you will need to
replace it every 6-8 months.
What brand of liquid calcium do you have?
It sounds like she is in good hands now & should recover nicely for you! She will be much
happier now. Let us know how she is progressing.

Tracie

It’s a relief to me and my sibling that she isn’t too far off. He still loves karson, the responsibility is just too much with everything he has going on right now.

I’m gonna see to ordering those bulbs soon. They’re a little cheaper on amazon, I just hope they don’t break in the mail. I’ll need to find a way to mount them underneath the screen but it shouldn’t be too hard. I’m going to be replacing Felix’s too, should I get them both the same one? Or get Karson one stronger than Felix’s since Felix isn’t sick?

Also, the liquid calcium is some Fluker’s brand stuff we picked up at petsmart. I think it was my moms idea to get it so it might help karson. Only issue is it’s a bit difficult to get her to take it.

Well I take back what I said about them being cheaper on amazon. Maybe by a few dollars but it’s still gonna cost a lot for both the bulbs and the proper hoods. But eh! I’ll figure it out. Always extra housework I could do to earn it, plus I’m still working on getting that part time job. It’ll be worth their health.

Also, Karson is doing good at the moment. She hasn’t moved very much since this morning but she might be sleepy still. (Brother usually turns on her lights at 6-7. Whenever he wakes up for school.) it doesn’t give her a lot of time to sleep. I’m gonna go to Target soon to pick up more greens for their salad, then I’ll see how much she eats today.

Also, my brother bought this “lizard salad dressing” stuff for her? I advised him not to but he did anyways and I’m not sure if it’s safe. It honestly just looks like blended strawberries.