Topical calcium drops for MBD?
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Dave Weldon
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Howdy,
Mader's "Reptile Medicine and Surgery" 2nd Ed. book specs calcium glubionate at 10mg/kg of body weight, given orally once or twice a day. It may take months to get calcium body contents back to where it needs to be. When using a typical product like Rugby's Calcionate Syrup, many vets dose it at 1ml/kg of chameleon weight which would be 0.1ml for a 100 gram chameleon. I don't think the calcium, by itself, will solve much without the vitamin D3 via oral doses or from UVB, especially unfiltered sunlight.
An interesting note from the big Mader medical book:
"There is never any justification to treat ANY bone pathology with injectable calcium."
"Once the tetany stops, the patient should be switched over to oral calcium supplementation with calcium glubionate."
My take-away of what is discussed in the book is that injectable calcium can be used to treat "the shakes" that come with severe, untreated MBD. Once those symptoms are under control then treat with oral calcium to return calcium to the skeleton.
The book also mentions that injections of calcium are supposed to be very painful
.
Mader's "Reptile Medicine and Surgery" 2nd Ed. book specs calcium glubionate at 10mg/kg of body weight, given orally once or twice a day. It may take months to get calcium body contents back to where it needs to be. When using a typical product like Rugby's Calcionate Syrup, many vets dose it at 1ml/kg of chameleon weight which would be 0.1ml for a 100 gram chameleon. I don't think the calcium, by itself, will solve much without the vitamin D3 via oral doses or from UVB, especially unfiltered sunlight.
An interesting note from the big Mader medical book:
"There is never any justification to treat ANY bone pathology with injectable calcium."
"Once the tetany stops, the patient should be switched over to oral calcium supplementation with calcium glubionate."
My take-away of what is discussed in the book is that injectable calcium can be used to treat "the shakes" that come with severe, untreated MBD. Once those symptoms are under control then treat with oral calcium to return calcium to the skeleton.
The book also mentions that injections of calcium are supposed to be very painful
.
You said..."I don't think the calcium, by itself, will solve much without the vitamin D3 via oral doses or from UVB, especially unfiltered sunlight"...an injection of calcitonin once the blood calcium levels are high enough would draw the calcium back into the bones quickly. Any time this has been used with a reptile in my care (it didn't happen often), there was no D3 given...just several injections of calcium over a couple of weeks or so followed by the shot of calcitonin when the blood calcium levels were high enough that drawing the calcium out of the blood and back into the bones would not leave the blood calcium too low. Not saying that D3 shouldn't be used with other treatments that do not include using calcitonin.
Here's a site that talk about calcitonin...
http://www.reptilechannel.com/repti...h/lizard-metabolic-bone-disease-duration.aspx
One more comment...IMHO, its a good idea to get the calcium back into balance as quickly as possible to prevent further damage and death....especially if the MBD is severe.
Here's a site that talk about calcitonin...
http://www.reptilechannel.com/repti...h/lizard-metabolic-bone-disease-duration.aspx
One more comment...IMHO, its a good idea to get the calcium back into balance as quickly as possible to prevent further damage and death....especially if the MBD is severe.
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