weak, clumsy, and sleepy tegu. HELP!!!

wongjitsu · New Member Joined: Sep 03, 2007 Posts: 6

Hi! Im from the Philippines. I bought my first baby red tegu last Saturday.

My problem is that he seems very weak. He doesn't lift up his head as high as the ones i saw in youtube. He's also very clumsy while walking and eating.

He cant to get the food in his mouth and will only nibble on ground beef and banana. He also cant hold on too long on a superworm. *saw his lower gumline with a dry yellow-orange lining (dry food or disesase?)

He also seems to be very sleepy- falling asleep while im handling him.

Is it possible for him to hibernate at this time considering our temperature in the country? I'm worried he is sick.

Hope you guys can help.

Thanks!

1.0.0 Albino Ratsnake
0.1.0 Albino Striped Ratsnake
1.1.0 Irian Jaya Blue Tongue Skink
0.0.1 Indian Star Tortoise
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VARNYARD · Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 8:54 am Post subject:

He does not sound like a normal healthy tegu. I would take him to a good herp vet.

wongjitsu · New Member Joined: Sep 03, 2007 Posts: 6

Thanks for the reply.

I'm worried coz my schedule is packed. I'll bring him to the vet this weekned.

He flicks his tongue often when he's awake. Im thinking that it's a good sign. Do baby tegus hibernate? I'm hoping he's just hibernating.

VARNYARD · Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007 11:41 pm Post subject:

wongjitsu · New Member Joined: Sep 03, 2007 Posts: 6

just an update. I brought my red tegu to the vet. his diagnosis is metabolic bone disease because the lizard was dragging his hind legs and couldnt get up on his feet. xray also proved that it was MBD.

I called the seller and tried to return it to him but he refuses to. The tegu has been with me only for 3 weeks yet he didn't want to accept it.

NJFyneztWhiteBoy · Member Joined: Sep 11, 2007 Posts: 19

Give him a calcium supplemtn if he is still nibbling on the ground beef...try to give him food high in calcium and stop giving him banana...the potassium doesnt let ure lizard absorb the calcium ...

DaveDragon · Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 5:40 am Post subject:

dpjm · Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 10:14 am Post subject:

I think it's more likely that the high amount of phosphorus compared to calcium in bananas is the culprit. Reptiles need a high ratio of calcium to phosphorus in their diet or they will remove calcium from the bones in order to maintain this ratio within their bodies. Therefore if you feed high phosphorus and low calcium, you get MBD. This is why people dust crickets with calcium, because they contain too much phosphorus and not enough calcium.
Does potassium bind calcium? I haven't heard of that.
Also what do you have for UVB lighting or is your tegu kept outside?

wongjitsu · New Member Joined: Sep 03, 2007 Posts: 6

The tegu was on banana diet only for one week. He's on ground chicken diet now.

Source of UVB is from natural sunlight and from UVB lamp. The veterinarian advised me to put him on UVB for 24 hours.

Is it true that not all reptile UVB lamps emit UVB? I read it somewhere. I'll check the brand name when I get home tonight so we can be accurate.

How much chance do you think will the tegu recuperate?

VARNYARD · Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 8:14 am Post subject:

Metabolic bone disease, probably the most common condition of poor health in tegus, it is usually caused by feeding an improper diet that is low in calcium or Vitamin D and ones high phosphorus. The occasional piece of banana won't hurt your lizard, but the phosphorus content may disrupt the delicate calcium: phosphorous ratio, which can cause metabolic bone disease. This ratio is of vital importance, with the recommended balance lying between 1.0 - 1.5:1.0. The use of a dry powder that has all of the appropriate vitamin and mineral supplements is recommended.

Metabolic bone disease (fibrous osteodystrophy), this occurs most frequently in animals with chronic renal disease or chronic nutritional imbalance, such as calcium deficiency, Vitamin D deficiency, or excessive phosphorus in the diet. The early clinical signs are firm, swollen limbs and tail (the lizard may, indeed, look like a fat, healthy animal), with the untreated animal later developing foreshortened mandibles, and paralysis. In its early stages, this disease can be cured by proper diet, vitamin supplements, and ultraviolet radiation. In its later stages, however, permanent damage may have occurred.
There are also some vitamin supplements that are very high in vitamin D3, you must watch feeding too much of this due to the fact you can overdose an animal with D3. It would depend on how advanced the disease has progressed before knowing if the animal can get back to perfect health. However, proper diet can stop the disease from getting worse.

wongjitsu · New Member Joined: Sep 03, 2007 Posts: 6

Varnyard,

Thank you for the info. I'll get a new calcium supplement since the one i got was purely calcium.

I called up the previous owner of my tegu and found out that bulk of the tegu's diet is mostly made up of mealworms and occasional pinkies. Could this be the cause of MBD?

By the way, the brand of my UVB lighting is Rep-Pro 160W (Self-ballasted mercury vapor bulb). Here's the link:

http://www.repprous.com/images/UVB_SP.jpg

VARNYARD · Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 10:43 pm Post subject:

I have never used that bulb, so I cannot say if they are good. I use Powersun 160Watt and the Zoo-Meds repti-sun 10.0s.