Help/Advise needed

[Kevin's Mom]

Hi - I'm new to this forum & looking for advise - I've just adopted (4 days ago) a severely handicapped bearded - we were told she's about a year old, but is the size of a 4 month old. She can't move - she struggles to scoot on her tummy while flailing her arms - she has no muscle tone and her fingers never formed bones - she's obviously frustrated - her shoulders are hunched, but not stuck in position. Has been syringe fed by her original person for a year (so he says) then brought her to a reptile per store and said if they don't take her he'll just throw her in the garbage! I saw her and just said, I'll take her She's obviously a hypo with too close generation breeding, she seems to have scoliosis as well a mbd. She is not emaciated or dehydrated. I syringe feed her babyfood with crushed up dragon food pellets, hand feed her phoenix worms & superworms. I have her in a 20 gal tank with MVB and ceramic heat at night. I move her around the tank from the hot to the cool side so she doesn't overheat or get too cool - I sit out with her everyday for more than an hour in the sunlight (with my 4 year old rescue beardie Kevin - he had mbd and walks on his wrists but is now the King) .
My questions - how much should I feed her? anyone else have a beardie like this? any input would be great.
She has a tremendous will to live, so hoping that together she can at least have a good quality of life and be comfortable.

 

[Hdrydr31]

Good for you for taking her in!! That can be very overwhelming to take in a high needs dragon..
I would for sure get her seen by a vet and get a work up done on her bloodwork to see what her calcium stores are, xray to see the MBD for a baseline.
I would put good greens like collards, dandelion, mustard, turnip greens in a magic bullet along with some supplements and pure coconut water, blend it up to puree it enough to be syringed.. Instead of baby food and the pellets.. they need live food and good fresh greens and baby food and the pellets do nothing for them. you can also add in the bugs into the blender if you need to.
It's possible that if you can get some good nutrition in her she may get a bit more mobility..
I would feed her a couple times a day what she willingly will eat..
Your picture didn't come through fyi

 

[PatsyB]

I would ditch the baby food and make your own food. I have a nutribullet that I make slurries in. I take the greens that I would normally feed my dragons and blend them with a little bit of water or plain coconut water and mix in my supplements like bee pollen, calcium, probiotic. It’s much healthier than baby food and you can even blend in some bugs.

 

[Kevin's Mom]

Thanks so much for your replies and your advise - sadly I do not have a nutribullet, just s blender and it didn't do well making a mixed green smoothie - BUT I do have 5 bladed herb scissors, which did the trick - making the pieces small enough that I can hand feed her without the syringe - a tad messy, but I got collards in her - I am able to feed her live phoenix worms and super worms with tweezers - I cant do crickets. I will get some coconut water - right now I'm giving her SMART water and a bit of pedialite - I put reptile carpet into the tank today and she seems to do better on that than paper towels since she gets more traction and is able to shimmy her way onto a rock to bask with just a bit of help from me. She definitely needs to build up muscle. I will be taking her to the vet - I take m,y 4 year old beardie Kevin every year - he'd Godzilla compared to her - he also was a rescue (my first beardie ever and I had no idea what I was doing) - not nearly as bad as her but was skinny and had mbd so his hands are teisted inward and walks on his wrists - he's been "cured" of mbd if you can say that, his hands will never be right but his bones are now solid and he's beefy and healthy - and he's free range - his territory is my entire downstairs (including chasing the cats away from his MVB heat spots) - and front porch - he spends most days in the summer basking in the sun in his outdoor set up. He's a rock star. I hope to get her at least solid and able to move into hot and cool sides on her own, right now I have to move her around the tank so she doesn't cook. Crazy question about their fingers and toes - Kevin's toes never formed bones - and NoNa (thats the new one) doesn't have solid fingers or toes - just very soft pliable digits - do you think they may ever solidify?

 

[PatsyB]

So glad she started eating her veggies on her own! The bones in the toes should get more solid with proper calcium supplimentation. They won’t be like normal toes but she will still get around.