BeardieHelp!
Member
Hello,
I took my Beardie in for a visit to the vet, as she's been spending more and more time in her hide, eating less and pooping less often, and it's really worrying me. She looks normal otherwise and does have better days here and there.
The vet told me as follows (please forgive me if this is worded incorrectly, I'm not familiar with these terms):
When I inquired on brumation, the vet said that it was controversial whether brumation even exists or not in the field of herpetology, and because so, they lean towards no.
I feel the culprit is my Vitamin D3 infused Repta Calcium we've been feeding her working in tandem with her UVB lighting, perhaps making her absorb too much calcium (excess Vitamin D3)? Maybe her liver's having trouble processing all this calcium and/or Vitamin D3?
For context, I'm new to Beardie ownership, and I adopted her around April of this year. Her setup was rather poor, so we were in a bit of a scramble to improve her conditions as soon as possible, and we just kept hearing how important Calcium was with Vitamin D3 over and over, so getting the Vitamin D3-infused calcium powder felt like a no-brainer. Now I'm looking into hypercalcemia, and it's looking like the excess Vitamin D3 might be the culprit.
The vets advice of adding MORE calcium to her diet when she already has too much because she might be trying to develop eggs at 8 years old just doesn't feel right. I'm posting for a second opinion before I relent and give her the calcium or cut back on calcium for a week or so and switch to regular calcium powder.
I just want her to be happy and healthy!
I've attached the full bloodwork and x-ray below if anyone wants to take a look.
Thanks in advance for your help!
I took my Beardie in for a visit to the vet, as she's been spending more and more time in her hide, eating less and pooping less often, and it's really worrying me. She looks normal otherwise and does have better days here and there.
The vet told me as follows (please forgive me if this is worded incorrectly, I'm not familiar with these terms):
- Beardie has a 6-1 Calcium-Phosphorus ratio
- Beardie has 1 elevated liver enzyme, not the other
- Beardie's white blood cell count is a little low
When I inquired on brumation, the vet said that it was controversial whether brumation even exists or not in the field of herpetology, and because so, they lean towards no.
I feel the culprit is my Vitamin D3 infused Repta Calcium we've been feeding her working in tandem with her UVB lighting, perhaps making her absorb too much calcium (excess Vitamin D3)? Maybe her liver's having trouble processing all this calcium and/or Vitamin D3?
For context, I'm new to Beardie ownership, and I adopted her around April of this year. Her setup was rather poor, so we were in a bit of a scramble to improve her conditions as soon as possible, and we just kept hearing how important Calcium was with Vitamin D3 over and over, so getting the Vitamin D3-infused calcium powder felt like a no-brainer. Now I'm looking into hypercalcemia, and it's looking like the excess Vitamin D3 might be the culprit.
The vets advice of adding MORE calcium to her diet when she already has too much because she might be trying to develop eggs at 8 years old just doesn't feel right. I'm posting for a second opinion before I relent and give her the calcium or cut back on calcium for a week or so and switch to regular calcium powder.
I just want her to be happy and healthy!
I've attached the full bloodwork and x-ray below if anyone wants to take a look.
Thanks in advance for your help!