PLEASE HELP

[Tonja]

I don't know if this will help or not. I have read your entire thread and looked at all your pictures. I got my Emily 3 months ago and her mouth <she was just a few days old> looked a lot like the mouth on yours with the little pocket on the side. Emily to has that same pocket <now I am not saying this is what happened to your dragon> and the bone under her chin was malaligned. Emily is now about 3 months old and the bone is shifting back into place, shes young so it can happen in her case. Anyway my reptile vet told me in Emily's case it was probably due to the way she was positioned within the egg that caused her mouth to be deformed. The bones in her are still pliable so its shifting. She to will not eat on her own, I have to hand feed her due to the pocket on the side of her mouth. Now this is just a guess but by the looks of yours mouth, its possible shes been sick for so long and malnourished the bones got pourous a bit and her underjaw shifted by just laying on it <MBD can cause this shift without it actually breaking> and the shift caused the pocket on the side of her mouth like my Emilys. In Emily's case the pocket causes her frustration when she tries to eat on her own as live food escapes thru the pocket and she ends up chewing on nothing. She just gave up trying to eat..so now i use feeding tongs with rubberized tips and go to the opposite side of her mouth from the pocket, pull the lower lip down gently and place the feeding tongs along side her teeth and gently move it to the front of her mouth..when her mouth is open enough I slide the tongs back to the side of her mouth and open them just enough she can grasp the food in her mouth and teeth without the live prey escaping from the pocket. Shes gained weight doing this and has grown quite a bit in 3 months. As shes growing the bones for her are shifting back in place and the pocket closing <she never had mbd>. I am telling you this so maybe my feeding technique will work on your dragon. It could be she gave up on eating on her own cause her live food was escaping since she seems to have a nice sized open pocket on the side of her little mouth. Hope this helps.

 

[Ilovemybeardiebaby]

I noticed today that she has no teeth and the gums on the left side are swollen

 

[Tonja]

I dont know if this could be a possibility or not...if her bones are malaligned it could be the teeth are turned to the inside of her mouth and shes actually biting on the inside of her mouth slightly causing the swelling due to irritation. Emilys teeth are straight up and down now that her bones are realigning but were slightly turned inward creating a gap in the pocket her food was escaping out of. I am just guessing this could be a possiblity. This could also be a factor in why shes not eating on her own. She could have metabolic bone disease thats causing this but only a vet that deals with reptiles could tell you for sure. I can only go on what has happened with Emily. Once in a while she will eat a bug on her own but for the most part I have to hand feed her and will continue to do so even if its for the rest of her life. She still has the pocket but its not as pronounced as it was and her teeth are in the proper position even though the bone on the right lower jaw is still slightly out of place.

 

[Ilovemybeardiebaby]

She does have Mbd when I had taken her to the vet they checked out everything and they said the only thing wrong was the Mbd and that's why I have to give her liquid calcium

 

[Ilovemybeardiebaby]

http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m204/Jacki_e/b095bd37c7113dd7a9035ad1756acc41.jpg

Somones gaining weight =)