Protein vs Calcium

[RobbinRN]

Bump!

 

[RobbinRN]

bump please...waiting on Tracie!

 

[Drache613]

Hello Robbin,

Wow, what a huge difference, that is too bad.
I apologize, please remind me what UVB he has again? He did not have UVB before you got him, correct?
Just trying to make sure I have everything straight to make a full analysis.
He weighs 30 grams now, or maybe a little more? He is young, so, hopefully we can get him on track FAST before he gets worse.
I will dose the Zilla calcium for you, because I know the concentration of it. They recommend 3 drops, & I am not sure how scientific that actually is.
I am hesitant to have you cut the protein back too much because he is in his growing stages. Unfortunately sometimes when their calcium levels get too low, & begin to leach the bones, it can continue to do damage while they grow. His levels were probably very low when you got him, so his growth was affected somewhat in his tail by the curvature.
Hopefully this will turn him around. Sometimes other factors can affect their calcium absorption too like an imbalance of nutrients, or other illnesses, etc.

How is he doing today, he is a cutie!

Tracie

 

[RobbinRN]

Tracie,

Thanks for the reply!

His UVB is the Reptisun 10.0. I got him as a baby (stated to be 10 weeks old) on March 29th. I don't know if he had UVB during that 10 weeks. I bought him at a local reptile show and he was in a plastic tub under a big basking light all weekend.

Regarding the liquid calcium, it's a spray, so I'm not sure how to go about dosing it. Today I just added a few squirts to his greens and then dusted his crickets as always. He ate some greens, so I'm sure he got a little of it.

Actually, he is great today! I have witnessed no seizures in the past two days that I've been off work and, as I mentioned before, my sister-in-law saw none when she came by to feed him on Tuesday. I have made a point to offer crickets three separate times in the past two days since they are the 1/4 - 1/2" ones (his eye space is 1/2"). I really think the spasms might have had a lot to do with prey size. I've noticed no toe twitching and he seems pretty active today. I believe I'll stick with the smaller crickets and continue to offer him as much as he will take in 10 minutes.

I soaked him last night and he did very well. Usually he gets so freaked out that he goes into a seizure, but he just sat there hanging out in the warm water.

I really think the little bump on his back is where they may have given him the injections. Hopefully it is just irritation and will improve with time. I know his tail will always be crooked, but I am hopeful that I can make a difference in his growth rate and pattern from here on out.

Thank you so much for the support. I will keep y'all posted, with more pictures to come since I figured out how to do it!

Robbin

 

[zebraflavencs]

Robbin, do you have photobucket ? If you have an account, send me the link to your personal account and I can post photos for you !
(then explain how I did it )
Janie.

 

[RobbinRN]

Thanks Janie...I appreciate the offer, but that's what I did. I had an old Photobucket account that I hadn't used in forever. I was hoping to just upload straight from my computer like I can on Facebook. I finally ended up going the Photobucket route. I just need to add more pictures to my account to share with y'all!

Thanks

 

[Drache613]

Hello Robbin,

How are things tonight?
The liquid calcium dosage for him at 30 grams would be .017 but you can round it to .02ml that is not much but you at least know he is getting enough based on his weight. It is 1.7mg/ml in strength, which is strong. So you will need
I really hope that this can be corrected very quickly for him.
How close do you have the reptisun 10 to him?
The bump probably is where they gave him injections, though I am not sure why they would give injections there most are given in the arm or the hamstring area. Great you have not seen anymore twitching, or seizures either. Perhaps he will start leveling out now.
That is a good idea to stick with the smaller feeders for awhile to make sure he is not having any problems with them being too large for him. Does he have any problems going to the bathroom?

Keep me posted on him.
Tracie

 

[RobbinRN]

Tracie,

Thanks for the med calcs, but since it's a spray it's kind of hard to figure. I just sprayed some on his greens again this morning.

He has various heights at which to perch under his UVB. If he's on the floor of the tank, which is only when eating, it would be 11" from him because it sits on the screen top. The hammock in which he sleeps is only about 4" from the light, and he spends about an hour in the morning there and at least two hours there in the evening (he wakes up slowly and tucks himself in early). I have the timer set for 10 am to 10 pm. Throughout the day, he will move from place to place thermoregulating and he is anywhere from 10" to 7" from the light.

I worked today, so cricket feeding responsibilities fell upon my hubby who said he gobbled up about 35 or 40 of those tiny crickets. He states he noted no seizure activity from Little Man today. I'm off for the next three days, so I will be watching him closely and he will get a soak all three days. And last but not least, he has never seemed to have any trouble having a BM that I've noticed. He goes every day without fail and it appears normal, sometimes with urates and sometimes without.

I am hopeful!

Robbin

 

[spurlee01]

Just a thought- Unless he is eating all of his greens, he may not be getting as much of the spray as you think. I know when you give human babies supplements you put it in a tiny amount of milk and make them drink that before getting the rest of a bottle. You may need to do that with his greens so you know how much he's getting. And if you're already doing this, sorry, I just assume everyone else's beardie leaves greens in the bowl too (we give them more than we know they want so they always have as much as they want if that makes sense).
Sara

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Good he has not had any trouble going to the bathroom then.
That is one thing about the sprays, you really can't control how much he is getting because as Sara suggested, if he is not eating all of his greens, he wont get enough.
It is very easy to measure out the liquid. All you need is a tiny insulin sized syringe to measure out the dosage just to ensure he gets that 5 times per week right now.
Is he active today? How well did he eat today? It sounds like he did pretty well with roughly 40 small crickets today, that is excellent.
At least he is moving around alot & thermoregulating himself also.
You will be able to watch him for a few days now.

Tracie

 

[gulfbrzdawn]

Hi Robbin....just checking in to see how Little Man is doing today. Hope he is doing better. That's great that you have the next few days off to keep an eye on him.

 

[RobbinRN]

Hey y'all!

Little Man is fine today. He has gained another gram and now weighs 31 g! He ate so many tiny crickets this morning I couldn't even count them. Will have to go to store later for his afternoon meal. He has a bowl of fresh mustard greens with a thorough coating of calcium spray on them.

Tracie...I will heist some insulin syringes from work when I return on Tuesday and spray some of the liquid into a small shotglass and draw it up that way. I've never had to "force feed" him before so I hope I don't traumatize him by squirting it in his mouth. What if I squirt it on his crickets instead of the powder? It's a guarantee that he'll eat those

Just out of curiousity, just exactly how big should he be at this age (just shy of 5 months)? :?:

Thanks,
Robbin

 

[gulfbrzdawn]

Hi Robbin,

Glad to hear Little Man is doing so well.

When it comes to syringing the calcium...it may not be as bad as you think. Tracie had my beardie Rex start on the liquid calcium a while back. I really thought I was going to have a problem with Rex not wanting to take it, but it has actually been quite the opposite. I don't ever force it into her mouth. I will sit there with the syringe on her lips rubbing it on her(to where it looks like she is wearing lip gloss :lol: )she eventually opens her mouth and slowly drinks it out of the syringe. The calcium has a fruity flavor to it that they like or at least tolerate! She has her days when she is stubborn and doesn't want to open her mouth...so we just take a short break and try again.

I found when I did try to put it on her worms, I was wasting more than she was getting. Hopefully Little Man will cooperate and make this an easy task for you!

Good Luck