Steve is a chunky male that is 4 years old. He recently topped moving his back legs which worried me. I took him to my vet who specializes in reptiles. We had blood work x rays the whole works done. I am at a loss for what this could be. He is alert he poops normal and has normal urates he just cannot really move his back legs and whinces in pain when you touch him. He has reptisun 10.0 24 inch bulbs that I change every 6 months as well as a 125watt solar glow mvb changed at the same time.he has only tile with grout in his cage. Not anything that could lead to impaction. His basking temps are 108-95. His cool side is 80. He gets fed arugala as a staple and gets dubias and supers as a feed insects. Everything he eats gets dusted with repcal and herpivite. I will post his blood work and x rays. The vet said he has good bone density and no signs of mbd. His poops also look normal. Will post a picture as we. Please help me. He is getting worse. I orderes cherry extract incase this is gout related but he has no swelling of joints and front mobility is perfect.
https://ibb.co/hdPBrKw Results from vet.
She seemed to be very concerned and definitely was knowledgable. I just don't know what's going on everything I read seems to be different
Sorry your dragon is having some trouble!
The uric acid levels are moderate at 10 essentially so too high really. At those levels, you
will start to see renal issues. What has the vet said the next step for him is?
Do you have any pictures we could see of him, along with your tank setup for us?
Actually, having trouble with the back legs is one of the earlier signs of gout development,
so that is a great start getting him on the cherry extract. Did the vet suggest any gout
medication?
The Solarglo MVB is a pretty good bulb, actually. How far is that light from him? Using the
Reptisun 10 tube in combination with the Solarglo MVB is fine.
I would decrease or cut out his dubias to a minimum with a few supers. Since Steve is 4
years old, he doesn't need a lot of protein but minimal. You could try out some crickets, or
silkworms or hornworms for a lower protein intake.
Here is his setup and a picture of my mr Steve. She did mention it could be gout but he has no symptoms In front limbs and 0 swelling. I've been giving him water 10ml a day via syringe and I'm going to start puree veggies and butternut squash with his vitamins as he won't eat them on anything but supers right now
Ok, he doesn't look bad at all. I can't see any swelling on or around the joints. He may just
be dehydrated a bit. There might be a slight bit of puffiness, but hardly any.
Hopefully the cherry juice will help out for him, too.
How often do you give the repcal & herptivite for him? Since he is an adult, I would
recommend giving the herptivite just once weekly & the repcal 2-3 times weekly since
the herptivite does have some calcium in it. Do you have the repcal with or without the
D3?
Sometimes oversupplementation can lead to pseudo gout symptoms but with some
tweaking of husbandry & feeding can usually be reversed without too much trouble.
Hi there, I hope your boy can get better. I just wanted to mention that you should cut the supplements way back now, just lightly 2 times a week at most for a while. Beardies can get too much D3 that can damage their organs. It's good that he drinks a lot, keep that up !
It just worries me because he cannot really walk and seems to be in intense pain. He whinces when I get near and when i hold him he keeps rapidly tensing his belly and sides. Like your stomach when you have intense hiccups. I'll keep doing liquids and puree veggies. He really hates drinking. Any ideas how to hydrate. He won't drink out of his bath like normal and it seems to pain him being in the bath.
How is Steve doing today?
Based on his behavior, it sounds like he has some pain. If he can't walk very well his joints
are definitely being affected right now.
Have you tried using a dropper & or syringe to drop water on his nose to see if he will take
some extra fluids? If he eats any greens, you can spray them down lightly to get more fluids
into him that way also.
Let us know how he is doing.