realjuel
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« Reply #26 on: April 10, 2009, 01:27:09 PM » |
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I suspect that some of you may have tried to access the files and weren't able(OOPS-my bad) so I will paste it here and hope that it is okay.Twister
March 29, 2009
Adult bearded dragon lizard in the care of Carolina Pet Rescue. Twister was left in a house from which the humans had been evicted. He was taken to The Durham NC Animal Protection Society who asked Carolina Pet Rescue to take him. Nothing is known about his history. He is an adult, suffering from moderate to severe Metabolic Bone Disease. He also has unnatural purple highlights from being kept on purple sand and his condition indicates that there were other short-comings in his care. He is a hearty eater, however. The mbd has progressed to the point that he has very little control over his feet, his leg bones and ribs are weak and twisted and he moves by pulling himself along with his elbows and forearms. He does have some use of his rear legs but they don’t appear to be much help in locomotion.
I have included some detailed information on MBD but here, from _http://www.repvet.co.za/health_metabolic_bone_disease_mbd.php is a synopsis:
IN SHORT Calcium (a mineral) is needed for normal bone growth, muscle contraction and nerve conduction. The only source of calcium is dietary intake. Gut absorption of this mineral is dependant on activated vitamin D3 and the ratio and interaction of phosphorus. Dietary vitamin D3 precursors are activated by UV radiation. Non-absorbed calcium is excreted via the faeces. When inadequate levels of calcium are absorbed the body uses its calcium stores, i.e. mainly bone, to keep the calcium in the blood within normal functional range. This range is needed to keep muscle and nerve functions optimum. When the bone stores are however depleted, i.e. when there are still no calcium absorption, the movement functions start to become suboptimal and the animal start to show abnormalities.
able 1: Most common clinical signs seen with classic & hypocalcaemic forms of MBD
Classic MBD Hypocalcaemic MBD
Partial to complete lack of truncal lifting Intermitted muscle tremors, seizures & tettany
Pliable mandible or maxilla
Retention of the rounded infantile skull
Lameness or reluctance to move Flaccid paresis
Kyphosis, lordosis & scoliosis
Reduced appetite (or unable to eat) & weight loss
The signs that are apparent to my eyes are partial lack of truncal lifting, Intermitted muscle tremors and some paralysis(paresis) along with being thin despite a good appetite. I expect the thinness to lessen now that he has proper care. Their bones can be quite easily broken so I need to be mindful of using light pressure and keeping him from falling or hitting things if he has spastic movements.
I’m not quite comfortable with a basic method of recording the things I’m doing in a session with lizards and will present the first session in a narrative outline format.
Bearded dragons are (or should be) sort of spiky and I have yet to find a wrap material that is easy to remove without getting cought on the scales or spikes and is soft and a little stretchy. I continue to look as I think body wraps would be a great thing to try on these guys. I have found that both stiff bristle and soft bristle brushes are useful as is the stiff flat “stencil” brush which I have found invaluable for doing circular touches because it can contact the lizard skin(rather than scales)in ways I can’t do with my finger tips.
Picture of stencil brush
Twister was very sensitive to being touched in any fashion when I first started working with him. He would jerk in any direction and this may have been tremors from not having good control of his muscle or neural response to being touched. Since many reptiles enjoy the warmth of being held or resting on the arm, I tried to get him in that sort of position but his tremors were very erratic and I was afraid of dropping him if I tried to hold him. With him just lying in the open box on a blanket as he was brought to me, I started simply brushing him with a very soft brush. He allowed and even seemed to enjoy being stroked softly from nose to tip of tail and along the sides of his mouth. I did a row of 1-2 pressure connected chimps down his spine to the base of his tail. When I picked him up after that he settled quickly but was reactive to being touched on his feet-trying to pull them away but with jerky body movements. He did, however, easily allow me to pearl his tail very gently and to also move it slowly and gently in small side-to-side S curves. I was able to get similar movement in his back but they are supposed to have stiff spines so I didn’t encourage too much movement.
It’s hard to remember to give these guys breaks. Since Twister can’t move very quickly or decisively I was able to put him back in his container and allow him to rest. After such a rest I used the stencil brush to do connected circles on his legs from body to tips of toes, pausing for a few minutes between feet. With him still in his box I was able to do very gentle leg circles on his rear legs-he was reactive to having the left leg moved but did settle quickly and allowed small circles without reaction. He also allowed me to do raccoons on his rear legs with my hand and on the front legs with the stencil brush.
It was the first warm sunny day of spring so I took him out on the front porch to get some much needed sunshine. I simply set his box so he was in dappled sun and let him be until he showed some desire to move on his own-however jerky it was. I then brushed him all over with long strokes from the soft brush and then from the stiffer brush. He was much more comfortable being touched in any way by this point and would turn just his head to watch what I was doing. He even took a treat from me but dropped it. (I’m not sure freeze dried lamb is on his diet but it was in my pocket so I gave it a try—I need to have more appropriate treats next time!)
After another break and picking him up, I worked each leg by slowly and gently extending it and flexing it back close to his body. I did circles and rocking at the major joints and pearled and rolled his toes as I had done with Twitch. His legs were noticeably freer with more range of motion than when I did circles earlier.
I allowed another little break in the sun before trying connected raccoons from the base of his neck to the base of the tail where I began rocking the skin of his tail by rolling the skin left to right. By this time he was much more at ease being handled and seldom jerked or had tremors. I let him enjoy the sun, undisturbed, for about twenty minutes before taking him back inside and leaving. He would move around a bit and open and close his mouth –his movements were more fluid and normal, though only slightly, than when he had earlier tried to just move around.
April 5, 2009
Another nice day to take Twister out in the sun. I got him out of his habitat and thought he had more mobility than last week. He was more alert and looked at me when I called his name. This seemed to be more purposeful movement as he could turn his head with out spastic movement following the effort. Toes and hands seem to have more control & grip—they weren’t clinched or flaccid. He was also able to push himself up so that his chest wasn’t touching though I can’t say that I noted that last time. He also showed appropriate movements in response to things moving in his environment (such as the breeze blowing the paper in my notepad) in that he was able to turn his head to look at things and try to scramble away without the head-banging type uncontrolled movement seen last week.
After giving him time to enjoy the sun I started touching him by doing 3 Noah’s March from tip of nose to tip of tail followed by pearling his tail and manipulation of all four legs, with a rest break after each leg. I moved each leg slowly and carefully to extend and compress the leg,. Last week I didn’t keep a log of the touches and his acceptance because he was not even able to express acceptance so I didn’t start a record this week. (I find that taking breaks to write what I’m doing is a good way to give the animal a small break.) I noticed that the joints were much easier to move in that they were more flexible yet there seemed to be some resistance as though he had some muscle tone.
During the next break I noted that he moves all four legs when he walks and that there is some degree of grip in all four hands. He is definetly able to just move with purpose though there may still be some slight spastic head movement. I again worked each leg by doing leg circles at each major joint when the leg was extended and when it was compressed against his side. I also rocked the legs with them laying in my hand. Still pausing between legs, I did light python lifts on each legs. Since his legs are about the size of my little finger it was a challenge. I used one finger tip pad to lift the skin on his feet toward his body and did toe rolls on all his toes. I noticed that some were flexible to the point that I could move each joint and some times it was two or more joints moving together.
There was an unexpected response in that he purposefully pulled his right front foot away when I started working on that foot. He did allow me to continue.. During the next break he became more active than I have seen and he climbed up to lay on my shoulder in the sun. His nails are trimmed quite short so I’m not sure if his grip was impaired by that or if the scrambling was from the uncoordination resulting from MBD but he made it to where he stayed sunning for at least 5 minutes-he gaped his mouth appropriately to thermoregulate during this rest and at other times while resting in the sun.
At times he would become quite animated during the rest breaks and try to head for the bushes-he’s becoming a handful but he stayed still in my hand for a round of raccoons with the stencil brush. I did many tiny, very light(1-2 pressure) raccoons over his ribs, around the base of his skull and down his spine to his tail. I followed this with something similar to pearling but in wider arcs(using both hands) from his skull to tip of his tail-I also tried doing this in both the horizontal and vertical plains and he offered no resistance. After catching him in mid-bolt again, I held him such that the bulk of his body was resting in my palm and he was able to grip my fingers with his front feet and my wrist with his back legs(though not as strongly) and he had his tail wrapped partially around my arm. In hopes of improving his grip I did circles at his wrist joints and in the joints in the hands/feet(but not toes) I rocked the skin back and forth around the hands and feet and tail also at this point.
While he was resting on my thigh, I noticed that he was able to follow the movements of a fly that was walking around on my thigh. When the fly returned the third time, he moved towards it and very nearly caught it—I actually heard that “almost got it” sound familiar from trying to catch flies myself. I put him back in his habitat at this point-very pleased with his progress until I realized that I don’t have a base-line of progress to expect in such cases. I joined a Bearded Dragon forum recommended to me by someone I know from the turtle lists I’m with and posed a question about progress. I was told that even with optimal vet care they would not expect to see any noticeable changes in movements in a week. I’m thrilled that they are interested and am including the thread in this case. I hope to be able to handle some healthy dragons soon so that I have a better understanding of them. I also need to talk with Dr. Bishop, who has Twister for Carolina Pet Rescue, to see if she has noticed the improvement. From my reading it seems that beardies with the assumed level of MBD as Twitch typically have a pretty dull existence. MBD can be stopped and somewhat improved by proper husbandry(over a long time period) but for the most part they are kept in plain enclosures-devoid of things they could hit themselves on or fall from. Many have to be tube fed because they can’t catch prey or won’t eat from a food dish. I’m anxious to see if Twister can be rehabbed to the point of having the life of a beardie that never had MBD.
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