A Long Story Regarding MBD

[lizal.fos]

So... this is kind of a long story, please bear with me.

I used to work at a pet store, and some guy had bred all these panther chameleons which he had sold to the store and my fellow co workers. Three of my co workers got a chameleon from this guy and one of them gave me his because he's completely at a loss about what to do. All of them have MBD pretty bad, we suspect they may have not had any UVB at all in their first three months of living (We also think they may be a product of inbreeding). Mine in particular has a bit of a crooked back, a loose jaw (her tongue is always out), and very weak arms. (I think they may be fractured). These chameleons were purchased four months ago and are all now seven months old. Mine eats fine, she drinks fine, and is always alert. Her mobility is another story though... she always has a weak grip. I just received her on Monday and had no idea she was like this. Hopefully I'm portraying what happened accurately, but to get to the point.... I do not have the money to take her to the vet and I am giving her vitamins and calcium as directed, she also has a very nice UVB light on her. I was wondering if there were any tips on maybe giving her a split or wrapping her arms myself?

Her name is Eleven and she is seven months old and 35 grams as of today.

Thank you!

***I have lowered all the branches in her cage since these pictures were taken to avoid her falling***

 

[kinyonga]

When a chameleon has MBD the calcium imbalance has to be corrected to make the bones and muscles strong again...and it has to receive proper supplementation, etc to keep it from returning. The crooked arms will remain crooked. It should really see a vet to check the bone health/calcium levels.

To bring the calcium back in line the chameleon should be given liquid calcium sandoz or gluconate that you can get from a vet.
It should get properly fed/gutloaded insects and proper supplementing to give it a balanced healthy diet. Its important to have proper basking temperatures so that it can digest it's food well and that also plays a part indirectly in nutrient absorption. It needs exposure to the UVB light (or sunlight) as well so it can produce the D3 it needs to use the calcium in its diet. You need to keep it well hydrated too of course.

Crickets, superworms, roaches, locusts can be fed dandelion greens, kale, endive, escarole, collards, squash, zucchini, carrots, sweet potato, sweet red pepper, etc and a little bit of fruit such as berries, melon, apples, pears, etc.

It's recommended that you dust the insects just before feeding them to the chameleon at almost every feeding with a phosphorous-free calcium powder to help make up for the poor ratio of phosphorous to calcium found in most feeder insects.
It's recommended that you dust twice a month with a phosphorous-free calcium/D3 powder to ensure that your chameleon gets some D3 without overdosing it and leaving it to produce the rest from its exposure to the UVB light. D3 from supplements can build up in the system and lead to health issues but D3 produced from exposure to the UVB light won't as long as the chameleon can move in and out of it at will.
It's also recommended that you dust twice a month with a vitamin powder that contains a beta carotene prOformed source of vitamin A. PrOformed sources will not build up in the system but this leaves it up to you to decide if/when the chameleon needs some prEformed vitamin A.

Hopefully the chameleon will be brought back to good health and live a long life.