Vet appointment and now more confused (MBD)

[Kathy_D]

I am so upset and confused. I took my Heihei to the vet primarily because she has had watery poop off and on the past couple of weeks (this was the first appointment I could get), but also because I wanted her to look at the kink in Heihei's tail. We got Heihei December 26 from a reptile specialty shop. This place was highly recommended by a few people. When we got her, the owner said she was 3 months old but later said 3 weeks. She has a little tail kink and the end of her tail had been nipped. I asked about these things and the guy offered for me to take one of the more expensive but younger dragons instead. I left it up to my daughters and they wanted this dragon. We have cared for her and love her so much. When I decided to take her to a vet, I took her to one of the vets that a local herp rescue uses and that they recommended to me. She specializes in reptiles and amphibians.

Since making the vet appointment (10 days ago), I have noticed that she has had some limb tremors. She also holds her left "hand" oddly at times. When the vet picked her up to weigh her, the first thing she noticed were the tremors. She examined Heihei, paying particular attention to her limbs and jaw. She said that Heihei has MBD. She said that many babies don't get enough calcium just dusting the bugs and first wanted me to feed her calcium in a dropper with some Pedialyte daily. Later in the visit, she gave me a bag with a vial of liquid calcium, a couple of syringes and some needles and said to give her daily injections of 0.1 mL for a couple of weeks. She was not sure if the tail was caused by MBD or exacerbated by it, but it is getting worse.

Heihei pooped while we were there and the vet did a fecal test and said she is "loaded" with parasites. When I was talking about what we feed her and how she could have gotten them the vet said "she had them when you got her." She gave me Panacur to give to Heihei once a week for four weeks and told me how to properly disinfect her enclosure.

I posted in a Bearded Dragon group on Facebook after the appointment last night and a breeder was very concerned that the vet did not take a blood calcium level and she thought the injections would do more harm than good for Heihei by straining her heart muscle. This person on Facebook doubts that Heihei even has MBD. Now I am afraid to give her the extra calcium and I am afraid not to. I already feel like a horrible dragon mom, but I thought I was doing everything right. In addition to dusting her bugs daily, she has a 10.0 T5 tube UVB light. I can get a second opinion, but that will take a couple of weeks. Am I being silly to let a non-vet on Facebook put this doubt in my head or should I really get a second opinion (and delay the calcium treatment for a couple of weeks)? My husband thinks it is silly for me to let this person doubt the vet, but I am still new enough that I don't know and I want to do what's best for Heihei.

 

[Hdrydr31]

I would go with the vet dx as from all that has been said here sounds to me to be the correct dx and treatment.. MBD can be managed and slowed down and they can live just fine.. most dragon's have a low level of parasites and this is normal, it's when times of stress that this level gets out of hand needing tx.. What feeder insects do you feed? crickets are known carriers of pinworms..

Sounds like the vet is a good reptile vet and I would go with the course of treatment..

 

[Kathy_D]

We feed Heihei dubia, BSFL, and occasionally a few superworms (along with greens, squash, etc). Thanks for your response. I swear I have worried over Heihei as much as I worried over my human babies!

 

[Hdrydr31]

We feed Heihei dubia, BSFL, and occasionally a few superworms (along with greens, squash, etc). Thanks for your response. I swear I have worried over Heihei as much as I worried over my human babies!

Your welcome.. You are doing just fine and your little one is very lucky to have you as a momma!! They are very tough critters!!

 

[PatsyB]

I would listen to the vet too. However, I don't know if I would dust the feeders with calcium along with giving oral and intramuscular calcium. They can get too much calcium.

A few other things I would do. Get a probiotic, the panacur is going to be rough on her tummy so a probiotic will help. Places like beardedragon.co, beautiful dragons and bug de lite all have them online. Bee pollen will help the immune system. There is something called serrapepatase, it's an enzyme in silk worms that helps the body metabolize the medicines faster. Like it helps make them work faster.

My girl Dexter had tremors and they did an X-ray and found that she had the beginning signs of MBD. We did oral calcium for a few weeks along with the serrapepatase ( i may be spelling it wrong). I also did a B-complex vitamin for her. She doesn't eat any veggies and she's 4 so I'm sure that contributed to her problem. She hasn't had any tremors for a long time now and we now do the oral meds once a month. I found it was easier to inject the medicine into a soft bodied feeder worm rather than forcing her to open her mouth.

 

[Meganolvt]

Please listen to your vet. Unfortunately there are many breeders out there (of all kinds of animals) and others who give all kinds of advice with absolutely no medical knowledge. I am a vet tech and have and see reptiles and this absolutely sounds like MBD. The sad part is people try to save money and treat their animals, post it on the internet, and then people listen to them. In the end, they always end up either dead or at the vet anyway and very sick.