MBD Help

Hi everyone, I came on here the other day about my girl Meeko who had swelling in her front arms.. Took her to the vet for X-rays and found that the bones in her front toes and back ankles are losing a little of their density, but nothing extremely bad.. Vet said it’s early stages of MBD as the bones that were affected weren’t that bad and she wasn’t exhibiting any other symptoms, and other than that she was healthy. She sent us home with two weeks worth anti-inflammatories, antibiotics, and liquid calcium (all orally). Vet said I won’t be noticing any differences until the first week of meds is over with, and I’m currently on day 5 and I feel like she’s getting worse instead of better.
Yesterday I noticed her back legs were shaking slightly while I was holding her, and she just looks really bad in general.. Her beard is always black, she’s lost her appetite, and when she’s not outside of her tank she’s just really lethargic. When she is out of her tank she’s moving around quite a bit, but I can see that she’s starting to have issues walking too which wasn’t happening before she was at the vet just a few days ago. Maybe It’s just because I didn’t see it before (I was gone on vacation for 3 weeks and someone else was caring for her), but I’m losing my mind over it.
I addressed the issue that caused the MBD, I have a reptisun 10 t8 tube that I just replaced with a new one last week that she can get 7 inches from but for the first month that I had her (I’ve had her for 6 months) it was up far too high and in addition to that she has always tried to stay away from the calcium dusted crickets I gave her, she was still getting calcium but now I know it wasn’t nearly enough and feel absolutely terrible about it. She was also under a compact UVB bulb for who knows how long at the store I got her from, as she was as a year old when I got her.
Since she stopped eating her crickets and greens I’ve been giving her squash baby food mixed with calcium dust through a syringe along with water the same way, and yesterday I started giving her strawberry soy yogurt through the syringe as well in case the antibiotics are making her feel the way she’s feeling.
Her meds that she’s been dosed with are .17ml of calcium once a day, .25ml of baytril once a day, and the anti-inflammatory is pre dosed and I have to give that to her every other day.
Basically, I wanna know if I should be concerned that it seems like she’s getting worse or if I just have to wait a little bit for stuff to start working? I feel awful as it is that she got MBD and seeing her look so bad is making me lose sleep at night. All of my lights and temps are correct, basking temps stay around 100F and all the lights stay on from 8am-9pm.. like I said, the UVB was the t8 tube the entire time that I’ve had her, was just up too high for the first month or so that I got her (tank is 2ft high and I stupidly mounted it right at the top). She had her first vet visit 3 months after I got her and was given a clean bill of health, including fecal, only issue was that her right front leg was slightly swollen which we now know was likely the MBD. Any advice or suggestions is appreciated.

Hello,

I am sorry to hear about your girl, that is rough. They recover very slowly from metabolic
bone disease, depending on the severity.
I agree with giving the liquid calcium, due to the weakening of the bones. What did the
vet prescribe the Baytril for, was there an infection present? If not, she doesn't need the
Baytril at all. That's what is likely causing her to do worse, it's hard on the kidneys. Maybe
you should discontinue the Baytril right now to see if that makes any difference. Which anti-
inflammatory is she on?
Are you getting extra oral fluids into her right now?
I would continue support feeding her right now, since her appetite is reduced. Is she losing
weight or not? If she is dehydrated that could be part of the reason her balance is off.
It sounds like you have the UVB lighting all sorted out now. Hopefully that will help her out.
Has the swelling increased any?
Try to keep her tank around 80 overnight to help boost her immune system. Let us know how
she is doing.

Tracie

Thanks for the reply; the vet didn’t actually say what the baytril was for, I’m thinking it was more as a precautionary thing just in case it’s an infection causing everything, which at this point I doubt, but I guess anytbing it possible. I only did the X-ray at our visit, and vet told me if she doesn’t improve to come back and do a blood test. The anti inflammatory is called Metacam. I’m still bathing her regularly and misting her every day in addition to giving her water through the syringe. I was going to order some Phoenix worms to start her on but the vet told me to wait until the 2 weeks was up as she dosed according to her weight.