jack's latest update
hello to all,
yesterday i took jack to a new vet. after hesitation because of the last visits, i decided it was in his best interests to seek a second opinion. this vet seemed to know his way around reptiles quite well, and gave a feeling of confidence. this could also just be me, hoping he is right, and we can fix things. i am just going to write exactly what the vet wrote on my take home sheet outlining the visit. here goes............
"Jack is showing signs of weakness, trembling, and muscle wasting. He has a history of being treated with a number of antibiotics, to no apparent effect. There are no signs of infection today, and the radiographs of the swollen parts of the legs are more consistent with
hyperparathyroidism - the main cause of this is nutritional/environmental from insufficient calcium intake. However, renal problems can also lead to this. Given his age and history I suspect nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism ( so called
metabolic bone disease).
Please stop all medications other than the fluids you are giving under the skin; give the calcium as prescribed and the ponazuril ( treatment for coccidia) only. Let me know how things go and if we see slow continued improvement, great. If not, we should consider a blood screening for further evaluation.
Double check the temperatures as discussed, so the basking site is actually around 105 F or so, as long as the cool side is low-mid 70's. Hope things go well, I know he'll get a lot of TLC
Asuming things go well, we will want to a follow up fecal exam in a couple of weeks."
soooo.............good and bad. got ponazuril for the coccidia, and he had a dose yesterday. today he ate 4 adult sized crickets, on his own
the ponazuril is a 5 day treatment, 0.04 once a day for 5 days. vet also said he looked a little dehydrated in the mouth area, so im going to increase fluid intake, as well as keep up the injected fluid. the calcium drops are once a day for a week straight, then twice a week thereafter........those could be for life he said, we will have to see how he does...........he also recieved a shot of straight calcium at the office.
so does anybody else things its strange that the last vet said he had super bones, and this one seems to think otherwise?..........this vet also said that this could take a substantial amount of time to start working. they do everything slow, he says. he thinks that jack is too young for kidney failure, but did not rule it out completely. he thinks more signs point to early stages of MBD, but did want to make sure that i knew it could still be kidney problems. he said that if the calcium doesnt start working within a month or so, we will take blood and see if its the kidneys. he also said that bloodwork is hard because they test uric acid for kidney problems, and the temp of the cham at the time can great affect the outcome of the test........
any thoughts would be great, please let me know what you think......
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