Stubborn MBD or old age? (Image)

[ToughPrincess]

I've had Lucy for 5 years when she was a year old and she's always been fun, happy, and healthy until about January she started showing signs of MBD. I took her to a vet and the vet diagnosed her with early signs of MBD said she was a healthy wait and suggested I dust her food everyday. Sometimes she's a little sluggish and favors certain legs and walks on the backs of her hands but it doesn't seem to hurt her. Somedays she wakes up and gets moving around on her own and sometimes I have to let her out to run around and get excited for life hahah. She gets about 10 dusted xlarge superworms almost everyday and I try to kinda roll her salad in some calcium because she doesn't like calcium and won't eat her salad (I've tried every green out there kale, collard, mustard, red chard, arugula) cause she knows she can get me to give her worms and I usually put squash baby food on it or occasionally pear or carrot on top which she loves. They wanted me to try to syringe feed her calcium mixed in water but didn't say how much.

Other info: viv: 55 gal long tank
Substrate: carpet
Heat lamp, repsun 10.0 24 inch, small mercury vapor bulb on/off depending if she's cold or not
Repcal calcium powder

I want to start feeding her soldier black fly larvae but there are like 10 brands so I'm shopping around. What would be the proper cah ratio? How long do they live in a 70 degree room? Any brand suggestions?

Any other tips on how to take care of my "elderly" bearded dragon would be awesome... a lot of stuff on here is about babies and juveniles.

Hopefully you can view the image (she isn't always like this i just set her down. she CAN walk) https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8WSL8zWzYMcWmRRUExGbXNrMkU/view?usp=drivesdk

Here she is after she crawled up on mom's leg haha
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8WSL8zWzYMcdHhOZ2hJSFdSUzQ/view?usp=drivesdk

 

[CooperDragon]

She looks to be a pretty good size. What is her weight? Did the vet take an x-ray to check out her bone density?

At her age she really should be eating mostly veges. The high calcium greens like collards are great. I would hold off on the supers for a while. They are relatively high in fat and can cause liver issues when they are provided in large quantities or as a large portion of the diet. Try offering salads with some dark greens and maybe some squash pieces and chopped green beans and see how that goes over. Try that daily for a week or two and see if she'll dig in. To answer your other question I've had good luck ordering black soldier fly larvae from symtonbsf. They'll keep for quite a while at room temp and if they hatch into flies those make a good treat as well.

How old is your UVB light? If it's a 24'' T8 bulb it should be replaced every 6 months or so. A T8 should also sit about 6'' above the basking area for best output. You may want to consider using a 22'' (24'' fixture) T5 bulb which is more similar to sunlight UVB output when set at the proper distance, usually about 12'' above the basking area. Proper UVB exposure will help her process calcium properly and build her bone strength as well as improve her overall health.

 

[ToughPrincess]

Thank you so much for your reply. I bought her bulb this January so in June I will look into the t5. I was trying to find out how to mount her fixture into her tank, but it doesn't have a diffuser on it and I didn't want her to get her tongue in there!!!

And I'll hold off on the supers and see what she does to the salad while her Phoenix worms ship. Just hate to watch her lose weight!!! Such a picky eater!!

 

[Taterbug]

How is your heat lamp situation? It is a little confusing the way you word it but the lamp should be on during the day and give her a basking temp of about 105

5 isn't so old for a dragon, more middle aged. However MBD doesn't completely go away after it's corrected. Bone, joint and other issues can be life long in a sort of old injury sort of way.

Cooper has given you some good advice for your other questions.