bayoupig5
Sub-Adult Member
Apologies for the long post. It has been a rough night so far and to compound the issue I just lost Akasha to an unknown illness about 5 weeks ago, and now things do not look great for Littlefoot.
Littlefoot is 10.4 years old, and this year had been tough as after 2 weeks of being awake from brumation she laid her first clutch of eggs. She then proceeded to lay 4 more clutches with the last one happening about 4 weeks ago.
I honestly thought I was going to lose her after the last clutch, as she had lost about 50 to 70 grams during the whole egg laying season. She was so skeletal looking, and so tired, she just laid in one spot for 4 days, but she bounced back.
During this whole egg laying process I had upped her calcium dosage to 6 days per week, with a multi 1 day per week. I was also much more generous with the calcium than a small dusting to ensure her stores were being replenished. I used Zoomed calcium with D3 more in Feb, March, and April, but gave her regular Zoomed calcium May, June and now as I have Littlefoot outside about 2 to 3 times a week depending on the weather.
I had to assist feed Littlefoot a lot during egg laying as she just was never hungry enough on her own. She got Repashy veggie burger, beardie buffet, grub pie, and a mixture of slurry veggies and dubias, phoenix and supers. She finally seemed to have stopped egg production and had recently gained about 25 grams and was looking really well. Today was bug day and I was so happy to see that she ate 15 supers and 4 phoenix worms on her own..... and then....
About 10 pm tonight I heard a snap, or crack sound and my dogs were barking at my front door, no one was there, but while walking by Littlefoot's viv I saw she was wide awake 1 hour after her lights were out. I went to pick her up and she almost bent herself in half backwards, gaping, legs stretched and shaky. I put her down and she seemed ok for a bit. I picked her up once more and again this happened. I was completely terrified. Then she had one last episode where she actually flipped herself over. I righted her, placed her on a fleece, covered her, and placed two rolled towels on either side of her. I stroked her head and after about 15 minutes and she finally seemed to fall asleep.
It is now midnight and she seems to be settled...I am not, really not tired after that adreniline rush. I will see if I can get her to a vet tomorrow (Sunday), but there may not be a reptile vet available. I doubt there is little I can do.
Is there anyway this could be MBD? She has been on vits and calcium since day 1, and I consciously gave her much more calcium than required over the last 4 months. She has always had high quality UVB tubes (Reptisun and the last 3 years Arcadia). The UVB is mounted to the inside of the viv, has a reflector and is within 15 inches of the basking spot and 16 inches everywhere else (Arcadia 12%). Basking area is black slate and ranges from 100F to 104F with temp gun. UVB is new and was replaced June of 2022.
I am really worried for her, she already had trouble walking with her previous septic arthritis in 2018, and even though the sepsis healed her walking ability got worse over the years and she became a little unstable. Given that the walking and stability has been off for a while I am now thinking this seizure is just the end to something neurologically wrong with her.
Any thoughts?, gonna check on her once more and try to sleep tonight.
Littlefoot is 10.4 years old, and this year had been tough as after 2 weeks of being awake from brumation she laid her first clutch of eggs. She then proceeded to lay 4 more clutches with the last one happening about 4 weeks ago.
I honestly thought I was going to lose her after the last clutch, as she had lost about 50 to 70 grams during the whole egg laying season. She was so skeletal looking, and so tired, she just laid in one spot for 4 days, but she bounced back.
During this whole egg laying process I had upped her calcium dosage to 6 days per week, with a multi 1 day per week. I was also much more generous with the calcium than a small dusting to ensure her stores were being replenished. I used Zoomed calcium with D3 more in Feb, March, and April, but gave her regular Zoomed calcium May, June and now as I have Littlefoot outside about 2 to 3 times a week depending on the weather.
I had to assist feed Littlefoot a lot during egg laying as she just was never hungry enough on her own. She got Repashy veggie burger, beardie buffet, grub pie, and a mixture of slurry veggies and dubias, phoenix and supers. She finally seemed to have stopped egg production and had recently gained about 25 grams and was looking really well. Today was bug day and I was so happy to see that she ate 15 supers and 4 phoenix worms on her own..... and then....
About 10 pm tonight I heard a snap, or crack sound and my dogs were barking at my front door, no one was there, but while walking by Littlefoot's viv I saw she was wide awake 1 hour after her lights were out. I went to pick her up and she almost bent herself in half backwards, gaping, legs stretched and shaky. I put her down and she seemed ok for a bit. I picked her up once more and again this happened. I was completely terrified. Then she had one last episode where she actually flipped herself over. I righted her, placed her on a fleece, covered her, and placed two rolled towels on either side of her. I stroked her head and after about 15 minutes and she finally seemed to fall asleep.
It is now midnight and she seems to be settled...I am not, really not tired after that adreniline rush. I will see if I can get her to a vet tomorrow (Sunday), but there may not be a reptile vet available. I doubt there is little I can do.
Is there anyway this could be MBD? She has been on vits and calcium since day 1, and I consciously gave her much more calcium than required over the last 4 months. She has always had high quality UVB tubes (Reptisun and the last 3 years Arcadia). The UVB is mounted to the inside of the viv, has a reflector and is within 15 inches of the basking spot and 16 inches everywhere else (Arcadia 12%). Basking area is black slate and ranges from 100F to 104F with temp gun. UVB is new and was replaced June of 2022.
I am really worried for her, she already had trouble walking with her previous septic arthritis in 2018, and even though the sepsis healed her walking ability got worse over the years and she became a little unstable. Given that the walking and stability has been off for a while I am now thinking this seizure is just the end to something neurologically wrong with her.
Any thoughts?, gonna check on her once more and try to sleep tonight.