Im new here and im worried.

[Mojorisin3381]

Thx again, just the kind of people ive been looking for.

So far this morning she is kind of lathargic. It took her about 15 minutes before she came out of her bed.
Shes basking for now. Im going to let her warm up for a bit, feed her and take her outside in the sun. Hopefully the bulb will be here Sun. or mon.

 

[Loganator]

Yes, The people on this site are like a family. Although I do not post often, I spend hours a day just reading all the posts and gleaning all the info I can. My Izzy is a very happy dragon because if it. I learned early on, that I can rely much more on the bd.org family for accurate info than I can the "reptile specialists" at the local pet stores. Welcome to the family!

I will be following this thread and praying for your little girl. Hopefully, she will begin to feel better once you get the UVB bulb.

 

[Mojorisin3381]

Im glad to announce that she ate just fine and is currently running about her enclosure!

The trembling has subsided.
What I am thinking is... is that when she sheds she slows down her eating ofc. Which means she isnt getting as much calcium as normal, which makes the fact that she doesnt have uvb that much more prevelant and the symptons beign to show. Im suggesting this because she seems normal now but has done this through both sheddings that we have had her for. When her appetite returns to normal, so does her symptoms. Do you guys think this is possible? Or am I just rambling

We are getting ready to go outside, im sure that will lift her spirits even more.

 

[diamc]

wow, ty , let me see if i can give you all your answeres.

Ok, yes we can partition the tank. I thought that might be an issue. When we first got Stewie.. aka the bigger one... Lois was very dominant. She constantly bobbed her head at him and would run and jump on his back. She would race and eat crickets as fast as she could while making sure he wasnt touching them untill she was done. After about A week, that changed and stewie kind of took over while Lois became the submissive one. So I started to feed her seperately. She eats really well. She eats about 45 small crickets a day and she enjoys greens, mainly bok choy is her fav.But she doesnt go nuts on them yet, greens are kind of new.

Stewie on the other hand just eats soooo much. He will eat 20 to 30 crickets per setting AND he will eat greens everytime they are offered. I think thats why there is such a size diff, I dont think Lois is small for her age, I think Stewie is big for his, but than again, idk, thats why im here. I will def try and see if she will eat even more.

Yes, we have ordered a light and will get it on them as soon as possible.
So can you get rid of the disease or is it something they just live with? I understand that it can kill them and/or decrease their lifespan quite a bit. But if I fix things ASAP and take care of her well, will she be ok ?

As for calcium... it doesnt say anything about d3 but does say that its phosphorus free. We dont currently give any other vitamins.. suggestion?

Tank temps....I use a Lumiscope touchless. The highest point they can reach registers 115 and their normal lazy spots are90 to 105. We have offered them several elevations to the light to help them be more comfortable. The enclosure is over 4 ft long so they can completely get away from the heat lamp if they feel the need to do so.

Let me know if I missed anything.

From the description you gave... sounds like you have hit the nail on the head. And it is heartbreaking, I dont think ive cried this many times
in a day.. for a very long time lol. It def gives me hope to hear that you have gone through it and you baby is still loving life.
I really thought I researched everything properly and that i wasnt going to be one of those people who hurt thier babies by being dumb ;/
I do know that as much as I care for them im def willing to learn and make things right.
Thx to everyone, this community seems great and thx for the welcome.

Hi again. I do think that partitioning the tank would be a good idea. It's very common for one beardie to do better than the other when housed together as there always has to be a "dominant one." Before I found this forum, I also had two together, the one that was doing the twitching and another that was growing & eating much more than Gizmo. Once the early symptoms of MBD http://hubpages.com/hub/Metabolic_Bone_Disease subsided with the proper UVB, Gizmo still didn't eat as much as the other one and when members here told me what signs of stress to look for that there was a dominance issues, I saw every sign. This is what I was I saw when I took a closer look: Gizmo was much darker in color when in his tank, when taken out, his colors got much brighter, when it was feeding time, he would move away from the other beardie since she was darting around chasing crickets, he would lay on the bottom of the tank with his eyes partially closed but his eyes were wide open & brighter when out of the tank, he had "stress marks" on his beard & belly when in the tank which disappeared when we had him out. These are just a few things I can think of off the top of my head that I observed. Once we separated them, I couldn't believe the change in his attitude, he was basking more, brighter in color all the top, much more active, his appetite tripled and he put on weight. So, these are some things for you to watch for and it sounds like Stewie is eating about twice as much as Lois right now. Do you know what sex each of them is for sure yet?

The info link I posted above will explain MBD very thoroughly. Since Lois is still quite young, the symptoms will hopefully disappear once you get the proper UVB and it more than likely will. That's good that the calcium is phosphorus-free but you need to use some that contains D3 which you can read about here and this is the brand that most of us use: http://www.petmountain.com/product/reptile-supplements/105551/rep-cal-ultrafine-powder-calcium-with-vitamin-d3.html

I'm not familiar with the Lumiscope touchless, is that a human thermometer or an infrared temperature gun? The temp of 115 is a little too high, it shouldn't be any higher than 110 anywhere in their tank. Are you bathing them? That helps with shedding and since babies can get dehydrated very quickly (which can also cause lethargy), it's a good idea to bathe at least 3 to 4 times a wk for about 15 to 20 min each time.

I just read your latest update. Great that Lois is running around. It does make sense that when she is shedding, she eats less so isn't getting as much calcium. Since she doesn't have a UVB right now, she's not able to process the calcium and UVB aids the production of vitamin D3 which is essential in digesting calcium. So, it's imperative that the calcium contains D3 and that a UVB light is used since they work together. Another way to get calcium into her is to add a pinch to a little water or diluted Pedialyte, put drops on her nose with a plastic medicine dropper for her to lick off. May take a few minutes, but she should get the idea.

If you have any other questions, please let us know. :wink:

 

[Mojorisin3381]

Thx so much, The thermometer is a human thermometer but its a gun so you dont have to touch the child.
Our nearest pet store is a pretty good drive.. about 70 miles, but we made the trip today, they only had 18 in. reptisun uvb tubes so we got that one and ordered a 48 in one off of the web link that was given to me earlier.
I also picked up a calcium that specifically says d3 non phosphorus. and a multivitamin... after looking at your links.. thats exactly what I bought

As for the temps... ty , I will back the lamp off a bit.

And baths.. yea, they get a bath at least every other night. They love it and its about the only way I can get Lois to drink. She hates the dropper, but she will take things like water droplets and baby food off of my finger. Here in the last few days when Ive had trouble getting her to eat I bought some squash and mixed it with calcium, she ate a little that way.

Since we have put this smaller bulb in.. I mean its only been a few hours now but they are both just so hyper. Im feeling pretty confident that she will be just fine! Plus she got to go outside in the sun for like..2 hours this morning so that shouldve helped.

Thx for all of your help!

 

[dna14]

Welcome and I'm glad to hear Lois was doing better as of a couple days ago. Any updates? Pictures?

 

[Mojorisin3381]

Actually Lois is doing wonderful now, with the exception of shes mad at me right now. We have had some major flooding today and they went without power for a little while ;/. Shes basking at the moment, she cant stay mad

Other than that, Id say she is fine. Hopefully she will make it through her next shed without these troubles.