My Crestie's tail kink? Should I remove it?

[brobertson]

Okay, so my Crested gecko has always had a bit of a weird tail, it would never go seamlessly from body to tail, there would be a bump. Now, I have noticed his link growing more apparent and the tail also sagging to the side. He did have a phase where he hung on the glass, but I added more decor. Now, I am thinking that he may have floppy tail syndrome. I don't want him to damage his hips from this, so I was wondering if I should do anything like amputate? Let me know what you think!

[brobertson]

Bada bump

[CushtaMinge89]

I see you have the same iPhone charger as me ha.

[dr del]

Hi,

Can you go over his diet for us?


dr del

[brobertson]

Hi,

Can you go over his diet for us?


dr del

He has as much CGD as he wants every other night, with crix very sporadically (maybe once every month or two) He is definitely a little boy, only 15 grams at 18 months, but I think that he is pretty healthy overall.

[brobertson]

Anyone?

[OctagonGecko729]

Do not amputate that tail. That animal has some signs of MBD, the most tell tale one being his jaw structure. We have a similar animal (Twinkie) which has the same issue. Just let him be, MBD is irreverseable but you can slow down its progression. How old was this animal when you got him?

You can give him one or two completely caked insects a week with Repashy's Calcium Plus. You can also provide him UVB but go with a very low wattage bulb to avoid the temps getting too high. I'd recommend the exo terra 2.0 or 5.0 uvb tropical bulbs.

I also would not breed him if you had plans to. The problem with MBD is that you do not know if it is a primary disease of a healthy animal who did not always have the right husbandry or if he had a genetic problem which lead to less than sufficient absorption of vitamins which then led to MBD.

[brobertson]

Do not amputate that tail. That animal has some signs of MBD, the most tell tale one being his jaw structure. We have a similar animal (Twinkie) which has the same issue. Just let him be, MBD is irreverseable but you can slow down its progression. How old was this animal when you got him?

You can give him one or two completely caked insects a week with Repashy's Calcium Plus. You can also provide him UVB but go with a very low wattage bulb to avoid the temps getting too high. I'd recommend the exo terra 2.0 or 5.0 uvb tropical bulbs.

I also would not breed him if you had plans to. The problem with MBD is that you do not know if it is a primary disease of a healthy animal who did not always have the right husbandry or if he had a genetic problem which lead to less than sufficient absorption of vitamins which then led to MBD.

Woah, you got me scared! You really think he has MBD
I got him as a tiny baby, and he has always had great care. He hasn't ever eaten baby food or anything, only CGD and dusted crickets. Based on the diet, I'm guessing this is the genetic issue you speak of, he was a pet store gecko.

What are MBDs implications in geckos? I know that it's real bad in beardies and other diurnal lizards, but I rarely hear about it in crestie's. Is he gonna have serious health issues? Would a vet visit be good? Panicking a bit, please help!

[OctagonGecko729]

Woah, you got me scared! You really think he has MBD
I got him as a tiny baby, and he has always had great care. He hasn't ever eaten baby food or anything, only CGD and dusted crickets. Based on the diet, I'm guessing this is the genetic issue you speak of, he was a pet store gecko.

What are MBDs implications in geckos? I know that it's real bad in beardies and other diurnal lizards, but I rarely hear about it in crestie's. Is he gonna have serious health issues? Would a vet visit be good? Panicking a bit, please help!

You caught it really early. So your animal shouldn't develope the serious problems associated with MBD like bone fractures. The one thing we don't know is how long an animal has to be exposed to bad husbandry for it to develope MBD later in life.

Our MBD gecko Twinkie was purchased at an expo and he weighed around 4g at the time and showed no signs at all. Once he hit around 10g it started becoming apparent. Once we realized what it was though we just bumped up his CGD feedings and toss him some calcium caked bugs every now and then. We seem to have slowed the progression of it.

So basically, he will be just fine but he will be somewhat of a special needs animal. I wouldn't recommend breeding him just because we do not know if there is a genetic component or not. The vet probably won't be able to tell you much at this stage, your animal has not started to break down bone to supply calcium to his blood so an X-ray likely won't show anything. Like I said though, just toss a 2.0 or 5.0 UVB Exo Terra UVB bulb on top of his cage and purchase some kind of electrical timer for it to cut on for 2-4 hours a day and then cut off.

[brobertson]

You caught it really early. So your animal shouldn't develope the serious problems associated with MBD like bone fractures. The one thing we don't know is how long an animal has to be exposed to bad husbandry for it to develope MBD later in life.

Our MBD gecko Twinkie was purchased at an expo and he weighed around 4g at the time and showed no signs at all. Once he hit around 10g it started becoming apparent. Once we realized what it was though we just bumped up his CGD feedings and toss him some calcium caked bugs every now and then. We seem to have slowed the progression of it.

So basically, he will be just fine but he will be somewhat of a special needs animal. I wouldn't recommend breeding him just because we do not know if there is a genetic component or not. The vet probably won't be able to tell you much at this stage, your animal has not started to break down bone to supply calcium to his blood so an X-ray likely won't show anything. Like I said though, just toss a 2.0 or 5.0 UVB Exo Terra UVB bulb on top of his cage and purchase some kind of electrical timer for it to cut on for 2-4 hours a day and then cut off.

Okay, I'll work on supplying more dusted crix and CGD, and I'll try to get a UVB bulb. Do you think that an expired UVB bulb from my beardie would give off a little bit of UVB? Also, here's my setup in case you can spot anything wrong with it



He has a bunch of fake and a few real plants, along with some wooden decor. The small light on top gives a bit of additional heat during the day, and I think I can get a new UVB bulb for that. I most heavily in mornings and nights, then let it taper during the day.

I am at a loss right now as to how this happened. My husbandry has always been solid and he seemed healthy, if a bit small. Was I just really unlucky and picked an unhealthy gecko, or is it something I did? Thanks for the help, I really hope the little guy is alright.