Oola has a history of having problems defecating, and that's a definite cause for hindlimb weakness. If poop forms a hard mass in the abdomen, it can put pressure on the spinal nerves the nerves coming off of the spine to the hind limbs. She's had a several-month history of straining really hard with pooping. Her first poop after coming out of brumation was terrible. Even though I bathed her weekly during brumation, the poop was still huge and very dry. The urate portion was over an inch long, rock hard, and very chalky. This happens a lot with her. She strained pretty hard to get it out and there was a drop of blood at the end of it. I was worried about prolapse, but luckily that never happened. So I was definitely worried that she damaged nerves when, after the poop, her hindlimbs went rigid and she had trouble moving them. It was from that point on that I saw the hindlimb weakness. When she walked, especially on smoother surfaces, she used primarily her front limbs to propel herself forward. She sort of swung the back half of her body to move along, with her hindlimbs not really doing much work.
So what has caused the repeated impactions? Not sure... The vet explained that MBD can make some reptiles prone to impaction because during growth they may develop a malformed pelvis, or their vertebrae may not form correctly and there will be pressure on the spinal cord. Just imagine trying to push poop or eggs through a too-small pelvic canal. Ouch! I had always been afraid of MBD because Oola does this really weird thing. When you handle her, she goes limp. When you set her down, she'll sit with her feet folded over at the wrists. It's like she has no concept of where her limbs are placed. She sort of looks crumpled when that happens. Sometimes when other beardie owners handle her, they ask what's wrong with her. But Oola's radiographs looked great. No evidence of MBD there, and her pelvis and spine look great. Dr. H explained that this really might be a personality/behavior thing for her. She's super sweet, super passive. She will literally let you do anything. And she's like a ragdoll when handled.
We're still waiting on bloodwork to make sure calcium levels are ok. Despite the fact that her rads looked good, who knows.... there's still a chance of hypocalcemia. And calcium levels are definitely important for proper muscle movement, so if she's having trouble moving her limbs then it could be a cause. I'm more concerned about the chronic hard urates. She gets daily baths right now, but her urates are still dry and chalky-- usually a sign of either too much calcium or dehydration. So confused about that! Also the bloodwork will help describe her kidney function. Is she losing water with chronic renal failure? I don't know.
The *good* news is that Oola is looking better every day. When she moves on carpet or rougher surfaces, she looks just about normal. MAN, can that beardie move!!! So every day she gets a 30-minute
bath where I move her legs to keep them mobile, and she gets a couple hours of "physical therapy" out of her cage every day where she can run around on the carpet. I think she's really on the mend. But I want to get to the bottom of why she's having these hard urates and therefore having trouble defecating. I don't want repeated impactions like she's had!!
Edit: About her being overweight, the vet doesn't think that's the cause for her neuro issue. She just incidentally happens to be overweight. She is 14 months old, 21" and weighs 530 grams. She only lost 15 grams during brumation but quickly gained that back. He suggested offering feeders every other day rather than every day, and that will likely bring her back to a good weight. I'm going to now try to feed just roaches and eliminate superworms which are more fatty.
