Caring For a Bearded Dragon With Metabolic Bone Deficiency (MBD)

Just a disclaimer, I am not a animal doctor and cannot offer any medical advice. If your bearded dragons shows signs of MBD, visit your local vet immediately. So around October 2012 my bearded dragon, Slug, was showing signs of MBD. She acquired the disease from a light fixture that had plexiglass covering the UVA/UVB light. UVB rays have a difficult time of traveling through plexiglass. So if you have one of these fixtures, carefully break the plexiglass exposing the light bulb. After a couple months with this fixture, my beardie was showing signs of MBD. I didn't know about the plexiglass, UVB problem so the fixture was robbing my lizard of her precious light for months. She stopped eating, hid from the heat light, and was extremely lethargic. After about a week or so with these symptoms I did a little bit of research. I found that  she was showing strong signs of MBD and it finally clicked that the plexiglass was blocking the UVB rays. Brushing off my stupidity, I quickly broke the plexiglass. I didn't have money to take her to the vet, I just couldn't afford it at the time. They would just tell me to make sure she was getting UVB rays and to dust all her food with calcium, maybe even giving her a calcium gluconate shot. After a few months she started showing more energy and eating more, but she only ate when hand fed. I dusted all her food with calcium, and she was getting her rays from the UVB light. She would only drink water from a dropper, her motor skills were extremely damaged due to her condition. This sickness effects everything from their neurological functions to bone formation. She started showing signs of improvement, basking a lot more and a bigger appetite. I was constantly giving her calcium and vitamin supplements with her food, and giving her doses of REPTI-BOOST. This product is great for giving your reptile the electrolytes and energy it needs to get through a sickness. This disease though, is not something you can cure but help make the symptoms easier for her to live with. 

WHAT HELPED MY DRAGON THE MOST WITH MBD

Now keep an open mind. This is a bit unconventional medicine that I gave to my dragon. I am in no way telling you to do something illegal or to go and buy and posses something illegal. I'm just telling you what worked for me and the effect this medicine has on my dragon. With that said, I used marijuana to help with the worst of my dragons condition. I used one ounce of low-grade cheap marijuana, meaning high in CBD, and low in THC. I ground up the ounce in a coffee blender and cooked it in 28 fl. ounces of vegetable oil. I cooked it at a low simmer for about 30 minutes. I let it cool down in my refrigerator over night and the next day I gave about 5 ml to my bearded dragon. Her condition improved almost instantly over the course of the day. I noticed her moving a lot more and her movements seemed less robotic and more natural. I tried this after seeing a special on television about marijuana and the effect CBD (a cannabinoid) on the epileptic brain and that it over time helps rebuild the brain. I truly believe this is a miracle for my dragon because now she eats out of her bowl by herself, moves around her tank with ease and can actually shoot her tongue out at her prey with precision. Where before she would shoot her tongue out to the side of her mouth like she couldn't control her aim. She is doing a lot better and is a lot more independent. Please respond with comments if you think this idea is interesting.

A Bearded Dragon With MBD, And The Adopted

I'm posting this about my three bearded dragons. So we have Slug, Lil Man, and Big man. I know clever names right? This post will be about my experiences with each in order to help other people with their bearded dragons.

SLUG

Slug is the princess of the three and my girlfriend babies her 100% since she was a small little dragon. She was one of my first reptiles and she was once thought to be a he when she was younger. It's hard to tell the sexes apart when their younger even vets have a hard time doing this. I no this because when I was working for a animal hospital, in South Charlotte, NC  an exotic pets specialist told me once. So don't beat yourself up. Your best bet is to name them a unisex name and find out later. When Slug was around one year old, we purchased an overhead UVB/UVA lightbulb that was inside of a fixture.

Buying this light Fixture was the worst decision I've ever made as a reptile owner. I realize that UVB/UVA can't travel through glass and this fixture had glass on the bottom of it, covering the fluorescent light bulb. A couple months pass by and my slug bug (a name given to her after we found out her sex) becomes very lethargic, hides from the heat lamp, and doesn't eat. One day I try to hand feed her some mealworms and she can't seem to shoot her tongue out in the direction she wants it to. She can't move her arms to walk really well and when she does move, its really slowly and looks like a robot trying to move. I do a little bit of research and she was showing all the symptoms of Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD). I break the glass and unleash the UVB rays on my lizard. The fixture was robbing my beardie of her essential UVB rays. She developed MBD because of this product so if you ever get a UVB light with the glass or even plexiglass, do your dragon a favor and break the glass off, carefully.  A year later she is doing a lot better getting more of her mobility back and is able to grab worms. She still struggles with some motor functions but there is something out there that has helped her a lot that I will most likely right about in a future post. If your dragon acquires MBD please go see a vet, your dragons life may depend on it.  

Lil Man



 Lil Man was originally adopted by a veterinary technician I worked with from a client who had a litter and didn't want to keep all of them. After a couple months with the tech (my cousin), he ended up selling the litter but giving me Little Man. He was a very healthy baby lizard and loved eating everything from crickets to kale. Active all day and full of energy until the very end of the day. He's about a year old right now and is doing great, but recently he's been hiding from the basking spot under a log as you can see from the picture. I'm not to worried about this, because he is still eating fine, except for the crickets. He used to chase the hell out of some crickets, the second they drop into his tank, but now he barely even tries. I think he's just getting lazy as he grows up, I'm not sure but he still eats worms and salads so not worried about that. We tried naming him Striker, but Lil Man just seems to roll off the tongue. I'll keep you posted on this guy!

Big Man

 Big Man was adopted by me when I was working at the animal hospital. A client called the hospital asking if one of the technicians wanted to adopt a bearded dragon and I jumped to the chance of owning another one of these marvelous creatures. The previous owner never really handled him, so this makes him very nervous when you go to pick him up and handle him. People HANDLE YOUR DRAGONS! If you buy a baby bearded dragon it's important to handle them and tank them out of their tanks. Do this and they won't be scared and skittish when their older. With this said Big Man is a great beardie. He loves his crickets and super worms. I try to keep him strictly on salads of mix vegetables.

Bearded Dragons are great pets to have for all ages. by far the easiest lizards to keep and very hardy. They love their hot climates so keep their basking spots at a temp of 105-115 degrees Fahrenheit. Baby beardies need lots of protein, so lots of crickets and worms are a must. As an adult bearded dragon their diet should consist more of vegetable salads. I have my lizards on sand, but there is a debate over this. This hasn't given my lizards any trouble so see what works for yours. Hope you enjoyed this post and would love to hear about your beardes or any lizards at that!