Issues with Ted

Ok so my wife recently got a baby beardie name Ted. He was really small when we got him and as he grew although slowly he got a swollen wrist and he wasn't standing tall. He's 39 grams and slowly growing now. He has trouble walking and isn't very active. Here's an outline.

Basking temps are 98 to 105
Uv is an 18 inch t8 zoomed I believe and he sits about 10 inches from it. Also gets outside sun when weather permits.
Food is dubias and greens although it's a pain to get him to eat the greens, but he loves his roaches.
Daily allopurinol to help what the vet thinks is gout.
Daily flukers reptiboost.
Viv is a 40 gal but it's big for him since he's so small, guess at age is 6 months.
Daily calcium dusting on the roaches.

When he walks it's mostly dragging his rear with the front and he's always down on his belly. Always twitches during movements​ and doesn't move much. Poops daily with solid digested stools and white urates. Seems happy enough just with very limited motion. Now he's got a couple other swollen limbs and his tail is slightly zigzag at the joints. Can't do a blood draw due to size. If there is anything you guys can think of that will help the little man do better would really help. Please ask any needed questions. The vet x-rayed him and saw no sign of mbd as of about a month ago. Thanks!

It's good that there was no sign of MBD on the x-ray. A blood test could reveal gout but if he's too small that's out for now. A vet may be able to remove and test some fluid from the swollen area to look for uric acid crystals but that's up to them (just a thought on my part). How long have his limbs been swollen? Can you post some photos of him? You can upload photos here https://www.beardeddragon.org/useruploads/ and post them to your thread using the XIMG button.

Your basking temps are good. Do you have some temps down around 75-80 or so on the other side to create a nice gradient? The T8 is a bit too far away, especially if you don't have a reflector. You may want to consider upgrading to a 22'' T5 UVB light which would provide excellent UVB exposure at 10'' (but you'd want areas further away and in shade to create gradients).

Yes he does have the gradient to about 75 degrees. Limbs have been swollen for about 2 months. The allopurinol seemed to be helping at first but seems to have stalled.

Wow yes those do look quite swollen. Certainly not shed related and looks like gout. I'm sorry to hear the allopurinol isn't helping. It's tough to reduce their protein intake at such a young age but did you discuss a diet change shifting more toward veges with your vet?

Yeah the vet recommended that as well but it's hard since he won't eat them. I've recently resorted to waiting until he's gaping under his lamp and try to toss finely chopped collards into his mouth and sometimes it works lol. He won't have berries or baby food either.

Maybe a mix of
https://www.store.repashy.com/veggie-burger-12-oz.-340g-3-4-lb-jar.html
and
https://www.store.repashy.com/grub-pie-reptile-6-oz-170g-jar.html

and slowly increase the proportion of VeggieBurger mix to GrubPie mix as he becomes accustomed to it.... ???

Just ordered​ both on Amazon prime. At this point I'll try anything

Just got the new uv bulb setup, 22 inch t5 reptisun 10.0.

Hello,

Oh geez, poor thing I am so sorry he has gout at that age!
Has his dose been adjusted with any weight gain & do you know what his dosage is & what the strength of the solution is? Allopurinol should help, so something definitely needs to be adjusted. I have a feeling the protein is keeping his uric acid levels up.
I think that the T5 Reptisun tube should help greatly for him. Which calcium do you use for him?
Roaches are very high in protein so maybe as suggested, taper down on those, going with some silkworms & butterworms or phoenix/calcium worms. Those are lower in purines than roaches are.
Alfalfa meal is excellent for helping lower uric acid levels, as is Black cherry or tart cherry juice extract.
Which greens do you offer him, you mentioned he doesn't eat them though?
Extra daily fluids will help too. He does have a great look to him, his eyes are alert.
You can do it, he is young so try adjusting the diet. He can still get protein, but you just need to get him on a lower purine diet to help the kidneys.

Tracie

My wife says: I do multivitamins one feeding once or twice a week. I do calcium on days when I don't do vitamins. I'm going to start dusting with the D3 calcium but I need to know how often with and without D3 for Ted's condition. I do benebac about 3-4 times a week.


We offer him any acceptable greens we can. It was bok choy last week and now it's kale and cilantro. He's still a picky eater although he did eat 4 baby hornworms yesterday.