frilled dragon leg twitching!

[nivek5225]

I got a trio of frilled dragons Saturday(yesterday of typing this), they are a little over a year old. Today i noticed the male's back leg twitching. I have a little video clip of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XG7sBu3ie4

I've read this could be early signs of MBD? Either not enough calcium/vitamins, or not enough uv exposure? I ordered a megaray bulb but it hasnt come yet so i ran to the pet store and got one for the time being. Does someone know what the problem is and how i can help him?

 

[dragonqueen4]

thats an early sign of mbd, if u treat it right away it should go away fairly quickly. get the uvb on him and get lots of calcium into him. feed his insects collard greens or any other green that is high in calcium and dust the insects with calcium powder. you can buy liquid calcium from the pharmacy and give him some in a syringe too. just make sure his temps and humidity is correct as well. you should see improvement in a few days.

 

[dragonqueen4]

ok, i should of watched the video first, its a little worse than i was expecting. get as much calcium in him as you can, if you dont see any improvement in a week i would take him to the vet for calcium shots.
make sure he can get real close to the uvb bulb as well, with nothing filtering it

 

[akward_silence91]

this has nothing to do with the mbd, but your cage looks pretty small for a frilly. from what i know about them, they need fairly large cages because of their activity. just throwin it out there. good luck with him.

 

[nivek5225]

Thanks for the replies! I have a supplement dust, i'll try to get him to eat more of it with the crickets, and make sure he is getting the uvb all day. As for the cage, i know its not big enough. Its just temporary until their cage is built which will be 4ft long by 4ft high.

 

[akward_silence91]

sweet. can't wait to see your progress.

 

[nivek5225]

He doesn't seem to be interested in food at all today so i cant really get him to get the supplements. And i keep making sure he is right under the uvb... i hope he starts getting better.. :cry:

 

[dragonqueen4]

well your going to have to get some liquid calcium and give it to him orally with a syringe. its very important. my tegus foot looked like that and now he gets calcium shots everyday. this disease is very hard to reverse and takes a long time, however, it does not take it long to get worse. if he were my lizard i would take him for calcium shots. its a very serious disease.

 

[nivek5225]

I just noticed it all within a day, the day before he was chasing crickets and eating like crazy. If it is MBD wouldnt i have noticed it the first day i got him? Or can it just start out of no where?

 

[dragonqueen4]

Ive seen it before just come out of no where. I have a water dragon who seemed fine, then one day all of a sudden his foot and toes were twitching just like that. so i got him a mercury vapor bulb and started getting lots of calcium into him and i havent seen it since.
i work in a pet store and we have baby beardies come in and they look fine and within a day or two all of a suddn their twitching.
you usually will see twitching come out of the blue like that because it is usually the very first symptom, which is good because it shouldnt take long to reverse. your frilled was twitching a lot, i wouldnt let it go.
some other things that cause tremors are dehydration, hypoglacemia or a thyroid defiency. i still think its mbd

 

[ashesc212]

Yeah you really need to get them into a vet for liquid calcium. Where'd you get them from?

 

[nivek5225]

I got them off kingsnake. Yeah i'm definately worried about him, i will get him to a vet!

 

[PuffDragon]

Good responses from everybody. Sure does look like the onset on MBD. Inquire with who you purchased them from on what their diet and UVB was like. You probably caught it close enough to where you won't need injections. But if he won't eat you will have to start liquid calcium orally right away. You said your going to the vet, so consult with them whats best for both of you. Let us know how it turns out!

 

[nivek5225]

I THINK HE MIGHT BE GETTING BETTER!!!! After I slept so crappy because i was thinking of the poor guy all night, this morning when i went to check on him he seems better! He doesn't seem to be twitching at all! AND he was interested in some crickets again!

I got my MegaRay UVB bulb in the mail yesterday so maybe that was what helped him as i left it on all night. Either that, or he had some mild impaction and he passed it because i found a poop in there that was probably his. And thinking about it, it all started AFTER he ate like a million crickets and only AFTER i put that reptile wood chips/bark in there. I also gave him a warm soak last night thinking that would maybe help if it was impaction. That is what the guy suggessted that i got them from. So i guess its back to the petstore to get some of that reptile carpet crap lol even though i hate it, but i am not going to put anything in there that can end up in there stomach! I will have to take another video clip of him to show everyone! :-D