6 month old veiled boy has MBD please help!!

J

Jasonansally

New Member
Hi, my veiled chameleon has mbd. His front left wrist is limp when he walks and he has a extremely difficult time getting around. I gave him an extra 10.0 uvb bulb along with a tropical 5.0 bulb. I try to put him in natural sunlight 2 hours a day. I was dusting crickets with a calcium supplement but stopped when I read somewhere not to do that. I have taken out all perches and sticks he could possibly fall off of. He is currently on a towel with a vine laying flat with some shrubbery. What do I need to do to increase his chances of surviving? Such as certain supplements he should be taking or anything else I am missing. He still has a healthy appetite he eats 5 to 6 large crickets a day which are on a diet of oranges brocoli and watermelon. And he just got done shedding so I am taking that as a hopeful sign. Thanks for any help
 
What you are describing is a critically ill chameleon in need of a vet. What are you feeding (insects, supplements)? What brand of bulbs? What kind of chameleon and how old? Most MBD is due to poor nutritional management and lack of UVB but it can be caused by kidney failure as well. Ideally you need to visit a vet do bloodwork to evaluate him systemically and if its nutritional MBD get him started on calcium glubionate orally +/- injection, +/- vitamin D injection, +/- tube feeding. On your own its going to be hard to return him to health. Assuming its nutritional you need to get calcium with vitamin D into him. If he's eating, his feeders should be dusted with calcium plus vitamin D. Outdoor sunshine will help. You do have to worry about too much vitamin D as it can cause kidney disease and complicate his nutritional MBD with renal MBD. Either way there is no quick fix and its going to take some time to return to health.

Post pictures and fill in the https://www.chameleonforums.com/how-ask-help-66/ so we can help with management but in the mean time take him to a vet.
 
Please post photos.

Your gutload/feeding of the insects needs improvement. You can gutload/feed the crickets, superworms, roaches, locusts with a wide assortment of greens such as collards, escarole, endive, dandelion greens, kale, etc and veggies such as carrots, sweet red pepper, squash, zucchini, sweet potato, etc.

How long was it that you didn't dust with calcium?
 
I still dust them but not as much as I was which was twice a day. I went ahead and started doing it every other day. This was not due to my negligence I actually got this little guy from pet smart and he was jet black. They had the proper lighting but had a white plastic lid that separated him from all the light. He was clawing at the glass when I bought him. I just had to get him out of there. We are currently looking for a reptile vet around us the nearest one is over a half hour drive. Do u think he can handle the stress of a trip?
 
I believe the new bulbs are the exoterra 26 watt 10.0 desert bulbs. I was told they produce more uvb rays than the tropical bulbs.
 

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Here's one more pic; this is his bad arm. As you can see, he seems to be a happy color. Thanks for all the feedback it is very helpful.
 
I believe it is broken. He fell and I believed that was the cause. We immediately moved him to the floor where he couldn't fall off of anything. Almost immediately following the incident, he began to decline in health. Before this happened I thought he was getting better since rescuing him from pet "smart"
 
Wow, that is one sad looking devil. If he is still eating I would dust at each feeding. You can't overdo the calcium with this guy. Use calcium with vitamin D weekly and calcium without at all other feedings. Natural sunlight always helps. Hydration is going to be important as well. Be careful with the temperatures from those bulbs. You don't want a burn on top of the calcium. Otherwise the hospital cage looks good. Its taken a long time to get this bad and it will take a long time to recover.

What a vet can do for you is to give you a better liquid calcium supplement that will be better absorbed than calcium dust. They will go over your current treatment and if he is not eating they can help with tube feeding, but only if he isn't eating on his own. They will be better at monitoring his progress with checkups to make sure he is progressing.

Not much to do about broken limbs. If it was one back leg it could be splinted to the tail but the front, not much can be done. They will heal once the calcium balance is turned around. Again a vet can help with calcitonin injection once his calcium is stable. Calcitonin will direct the calcium to his bones.

That is quite a project. Good luck and let us know what happens.
 
I think you know now that stopping the calcium was a mistake. Where did you get that information from??? Right now you are doing two uvb sources? A 5 and 10? I would just keep the 10 and take him outside as much as possible in the sun. I have never heard of upping the uvb intake to 15. I don't know if I would go that route.
 
Yes I do realize that. I was still dusting just not as often but he was still getting a good amount of calcium from the oranges we feed the crickets. I judge the amount by the white calcium deposits around the nostrils. Since I started putting him outside the deposits are a little bigger than before which means he's getting more calcium, correct?
 
....And I kept the 5.0 bulb in there just in case he decided to hang out on that side of his cage. He usually is on the side with the heat lamp though. That's why the 10.0 is on that side where he is normally lounging.
 
Jasonansally said:
Yes I do realize that. I was still dusting just not as often but he was still getting a good amount of calcium from the oranges we feed the crickets. I judge the amount by the white calcium deposits around the nostrils. Since I started putting him outside the deposits are a little bigger than before which means he's getting more calcium, correct?
Click to expand...

The white powdery discharge on the nostrils isn't calcium, it's excess salts.
 
Jasonansally said:
Yes I do realize that. I was still dusting just not as often but he was still getting a good amount of calcium from the oranges we feed the crickets. I judge the amount by the white calcium deposits around the nostrils. Since I started putting him outside the deposits are a little bigger than before which means he's getting more calcium, correct?
Click to expand...

No calcium in oranges, and the white from the nostrils is salt.
 
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