Bearded Dragon Limping on Front Leg

[Carole Ryan]

I have an 11-month old female bearded dragon named Cinnamon. Cinnamon is housed in a 75-gallon tank with a CHE controlled by a thermostat for heat. Her temperatures are 105 on the warm side and 82 on the cool. Her humidity is 46%, and her UVB bulb is a Reptisun 10.0. She is on reptile carpet. She eats dubias, roaches, superworms, hornworms, and crickets (calcium-dusted). She has a green salad everyday with endive or mustard greens with an added side of carrots, broccoli, squash, turnip, strawberries, blueberries (I am sure you get the picture). She eats well, is extremely active, and just pooped this morning. She usually goes every day to every other day.The last few days I have noticed that she has developed a limp on her right front leg. She seems to hop when she walks on that leg. She is not lethargic and I am able to move the leg through full range of motion. It does not appear swollen, bruised, or twisted in any way. Her nails do not appear broken or snagged. She does not pull it away when I touch it, and when she swims in her tubbie, she seems to use the leg well in the water. Her other three legs are fine. Good muscle tone. Good resistance when you pull on them. This leg just seems to be a little limp, but yet when she is done eating she can push my hand away to tell me she's done (I hand feed her), and she can do the "dragon wave" with that leg. She did do a flying leap off of her tree branch the other day to the bottom of the tank, a few days before this started; so I am wondering if she could have sprained it or possibly dislocated/broken it? Since it is Memorial Day weekend, I am not able to get in touch with a vet until, at least, Tuesday. Any suggestions what might be wrong. Other than hopping on the leg and the on & off limpness of the leg, it does not seem to have affected her at all. She does not appear in pain. She does an okay job at pulling herself up with that leg, but relies more on the left leg for the full pull up.

I have currently taken her tree limb out of the tank and left her with her hide and hammock suspended very low in the tank, so she does not have to climb. She also had a warm tubbie so she did have some moist heat applied to the leg while she was in the tub. Her color is good. I just am at a loss of what might be wrong. Please help if you can.

Thanks.

 

[BeardedDragon65]

I can only say Get a UVA bulb. You can use the CHE at night time. A vet will be able to see if the leg is broken or not so just make sure she ok until then.

 

[Hdrydr31]

Sounds like your doing a great job with her and her care.. I would imagine she hurt it when jumping from the branch as they get bigger the lower things should be in their tanks so that when they do those flying leaps they don't hurt themselves. I would have her checked when your able to by the vet to make sure that she didn't break anything..likely it's a sprain and will just take time to heal since your able to do all that you are with her leg... But they don't always show that they are hurting...
keep us posted.

 

[PatsyB]

It sounds like she may have gotten hurt jumping down from something.

I do agree with Beardeddragon65, you really want to mimic a natural environment for them so during the daytime hours they should have bright white light. A reptile basking bulb/or a Par 38 halogen floodlight would work perfect and save the CHE for nighttime heat if the tank drops below 65 degrees.