Looking for reassurance regarding MBD

[infinityedge]

Update 2:

We were able to get the little guy out with minimal stress and got him x-rayed.

It does look like he has MBD :-(

We have really been trying to provide proper husbandry, and feel super bad that he has gotten this far along.

The vet didn't have any calcium glubionate syrup, but he did have some 20% calcium glubionate and recommended mixing with kero syrup in a 4::1 syrup to calcium ratio to make our own.

Is this legit for the time being while we wait for premixed syrup?

For either the home mixed or the premixed, what is the best dosing amount of clacium glubionate per day?

What is the best way to orally dose a chameleon? Push an eye dropper in their mouth? Put a drop on a feeder insect?

Lastly, what are the chances of recovery? Will his arms always be deformed or will additional growth with proper nutrition help straighten things out?

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

Indeed he does. He has a folding fracture (where the bone literally just folds on itself because it's too weak) of his left humerus and right ulna and his bone density is very poor because you can't see any bones in the feet/toes at all in addition to the fractures. I'm surprised his legs don't look more bowed than they are in those pictures.

The good news about MBD is that if you catch it in time they often make very good recoveries. Even though he has fractures they will heal well with calcium supplementation and good UVB. He will probably always have a little bow to his legs but they will actually straighten out more than you'd think. Splints and casts do more harm than good because the bones are too weak so they break again at the ends of splints/casts.

I'm not familiar with the product you mentioned...calcium gluconate maybe?

In the Health section under the Resources tab there are some suggestions for giving medications to chams. https://www.chameleonforums.com/care/health/vet/

 

[infinityedge]

He seems like he is getting worse. He hasn't been eating again and we were only able to get one oral dose in him before he shut his mouth and refused to open it. He won't eat crickets even if we push them in the side of his mouth. I worry that we should have given him the ca injection at the vet.

I don't want the little guy to die.

We did get a dose in him today, got him outside for some direct sun, and saw him poop a nice white colored dropping, so at least that is good. But is is so sad watching him get slowly worse and not being able to fix anything.

 

[kinyonga]

White droppings are urates....brown are feces.

 

[infinityedge]

Sorry, meant urates, as in he is still hydrated.

 

[kinyonga]

So there was no feces dropped?

 

[infinityedge]

There was a fairly large brown feces pellet that came out as well.

 

[wodesorel]

I usually use calcionate which is a calcium glubionate syrup. Sometimes you can get it online but it looks like it's gone into shortage again as it does every so often. Maybe your regular vet has it?

My vets office was unable to order it a little over a month ago. None of their suppliers carried it either. I had to order RescueCal + directly from Repashy. It's supposed to be the same formulation as calcium glubionate but with no flavorings or dyes and I think less sugars. Shipping was decent and it arrived fast.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

It is not at all uncommon to see them get worse at first once the problem is identified. I warn people ahead of time that they are about to stop eating because it happens to pretty much of them so don't be discouraged. Their bodies were only barely coping to begin with so with any stress they are being pushed beyond their limits so they feel the full extent of how sick they are. Continue with the calcium supplementation and getting him in the sun. If he had been eating well he can go a full 2 weeks without eating at all and I wouldn't be worried because he has good fat stores to pull from. He won't starve to death. The stress of giving the calcium is a necessary evil even if it does wear him out a little. Without the calcium he will decompensate.