Chronic limp

[pogvitt]

My 18 month old male beardie seems to periodically have trouble with his left foreleg - every 4-5 weeks he goes lame and isn't able to support weight on his foot. It usually resolves within a few days, and I'm doubtful that a vet could offer any treatments other than surgery. There is no obvious injury to his leg, it is not swollen and has good muscle tone. I'm just wondering of anyone else has experienced anything like this.

 

[BadCon]

Are any of the joints swollen? Could be gout. Without any noticeable swelling, its hard to tell what it could be. The fact he can't support his weight is a bit distressing. How is his lighting setup? What kind of UVB bulb are you using? Does he get supplemented calcium in his diet?

 

[pogvitt]

He has a repti-glo 10.0 (4 months old) and gets 4-5 hours a week natural sunlight. He also gets his crickets and worms dusted with a 1:1:1 mix of calcium, calcium + D3, and vitamins. He is in otherwise in good shape, and he allows me to manipulate his foreleg without protest - I would assume that if it was sore, he would object to me palpating his limb. :?

I'm definitely going to do some reading about gout, thanks for the suggestion :study:

 

[BadCon]

Trust me, they'll let you do all sorts of terrible things to them without protest. So the limb could very well be injured, but he wouldn't necessarily object to you messing with it. Honestly, it sounds like gout. Gout comes on suddenly and dissipates over a period of a few days. A broken or sprained limb wouldn't keep coming back like that. The only other possibility would be the early stages of metabolic bone disease, but there are other symptoms and they usually persist once they represent themselves. I'd put good money on gout. Good news is it can be treated with diet, and it sounds like you caught it early. I wish you're little guy luck!