We've had this little dragon for 2 months now in 36"x18"x18" terrarium. He has been eating about 15 crickets a day all dusted with Rep-Cal calcium with D3. About 2 weeks ago we noticed his feet beginning to swell. After a few more days his little toes became all but useless (soft, limp) and his right rear ankle really became swollen. His legs will shake (tremors) when he's trying to walk, but not just hanging out. He obviously hasn't been his normal active self, and its clear the poor thing has been suffering since this became apparent.
We have switched his UVB light from a coil bulb to a 24W Reptisun 10.0 T5 (on top of the screen lid) about 6 days ago. Hopefully issues with too little UVB are over. We have a 90W halogen PAR-38 bulb for a basking light. Max temp right under the bulb reads 115 deg. We only have the one Exo-Terra basking rock in with him for now since he was having trouble walking let along climbing anything. Most of the time he's hanging out where it's closer to 100 deg. Nighttime temps are in the mid-70's (no lights - have a CHE).
Any advice or suggestions on how to help the little guy heal up now and what his eventual best case recovery might be? His appetite seems to have improved - up over 20 crickets each of the last two days. Was this likely due solely to not enough or bad UVB or were we giving too much calcium dusting? We have started to only dust the 10-15 crickets he eats in the morning. If this is due to too much calcium would it be wise to forgo the calcium all together for a time?
Thanks.
We have switched his UVB light from a coil bulb to a 24W Reptisun 10.0 T5 (on top of the screen lid) about 6 days ago. Hopefully issues with too little UVB are over. We have a 90W halogen PAR-38 bulb for a basking light. Max temp right under the bulb reads 115 deg. We only have the one Exo-Terra basking rock in with him for now since he was having trouble walking let along climbing anything. Most of the time he's hanging out where it's closer to 100 deg. Nighttime temps are in the mid-70's (no lights - have a CHE).
Any advice or suggestions on how to help the little guy heal up now and what his eventual best case recovery might be? His appetite seems to have improved - up over 20 crickets each of the last two days. Was this likely due solely to not enough or bad UVB or were we giving too much calcium dusting? We have started to only dust the 10-15 crickets he eats in the morning. If this is due to too much calcium would it be wise to forgo the calcium all together for a time?
Thanks.