New addition, craigslist rescue. [Graphic images]

The previous owner obviously did not give this little thing proper supplements. It was only his innocent ignorance that led to the poor condition of this gecko. He responsibility contacted me via a craigslist post I made in my college town about kids buying herp's on a whim and not caring for them when the semester ends.

These images may be graphic.

The poor thing! Glad it's in a good home now, but unfortunately the damage cannot be undone.

I disagree that the damage cannot be undone. We'll take great care with her, and assist in the re-hardening of her bones. She's already taken down a good amount of critical care formula high in fat, proteins, and calcium, and with consistent feeding (She eats well from what I can tell, her previous enclosure had many well formed urates and feces in it) she'll be as right as rain as she can!

We have named her Precious, our special needs gecko, because my wife is going to school to be a special education teacher!

She can recover but it will be a hard thing to do. I beleive you can do it. (IDK if ya'll are christians) Il keep her in my prayers. With god anything can be done. Shes cute though the last picture, she is pulling of a smile regarding her pain.

Aw, poor thing! Good for you for getting her! I hope she can recover.
Is it MBD she has, do you think?
She's very pretty though, reminds me of my Fey. I'm sure has she gets healthier she will also color up a fair bit.

Yes, I'm fairly certain it's MBD but I'm highly optimistic because she seems to be eating. Like I said, she took down a healthy amount of high calcium, fat, and protein liquid; so hopefully she's already on the mend.

I'm taking opinions on morph as well, I have a feeling she's a hypo tangerine.

awwwww bless her, use UVB 5% light daily for a hour as this will help her harden her bones also you could get some zolcal-d liquid calcium with vitamin d3 which you can either give by syringe or in her water

I've got a UVB 5% for my anole that I'm going to ration for her an hour a day, along with the crit-care formula.

Make sure to remove her hides when you do the uv therapy so she can't hide from it. Thanks for suggesting that sam, I was going to if no one else did. Remember to do the supplements regularly and not overloading her straight away as her body is going to need to readapt to absorbing them, as much as you want to load them up to get her better fast, take it slow, build up to a higher regimen gradually or you could risk pseudogout if you over do it straight away. Looking at her feetit appears she may already have some gout going on, the swollen look is usually indicitive of gout, but hopefully those go away with proper suppliment therapy. Even if it is mbd, her jaw still looks nice and strong, its not all droopy and misaligned so that's good. You might want to get a fecal done to make sure there's nothing else going on. Good luck with her, please keep us updated... good save

Also try to put the liight up higher or put her in a small tank so that the UVB covers the whole are she will be in so she has to be in it.

Hope she recovers ok poor thing!!! I've been talking to quite alot Of customers recently and they are trying to sell their beardies etc cosctheir kid have gotten bored of them or bought it on a whim and can't look after them. It's so sad

I just looked something up to help with MBD it is Repashy Calium Plus. I use it and it contains helpfull vitamins and minerals. It can be bought from gecko ranch. Just google it.

I thank your input LeopardGex, but I have my own supplements I use.

I picked up a liquid calcium supplement that I'm going to slowly add to the crit-care formula, to build up. I've got her in a 12 qt tub, which will be tight enough for the UVB to catch her without any furniture.

Don't forget the uv bulb should be 12 inches above her, too close and you risk damaging her skin, too far away and it'll be ineffective. Remember leos are super sensitive to uv and their skin isn't designed to tolerate high doses of it.

I've always heard that the physical effects of MBD couldn't be reversed...except to strengthen the bones. Isn't she always going to have the curved spine and legs? Maybe I'm thinking of another reptile....though I thought it was with all reptiles.

Mbd can't be "cured", once a herp suffers mbd they will always be more succeptable to it than an animal that has never experienced it, but a lot of the damage can be reversed to a degree. There may still be some visable abnormalaties, but the majority of the leg bowing and crookedness should right itself as the bones strengthen and calcify.

It does depend upon the level of damage. I have one that is paralyzed in the back because of MBD and that has not reversed itself. There was too much damage to her spine. On the other hand I have another that could not walk because the legs were so bowed and now it is as healthy as any of my other lizards. And yes I considered culling the paralyzed one but she eats well and her favorite thing is to just sit on the table beside me while I am doing my log book for the night. She is like a silent little friend that just likes to hang out. The ONLY thing wrong with her is she drags her back end

I think that the whole MBD nbeing cured topic is not really pluasable, everyone knows it can't be cured but geckos ca recover well. The thing about the paralization do to spine damage is that gecko is healthy now. She is paralizided so that can't be fixed but, everything is fine now. MBD is a serius ddisease and should not be taken lightly, but with determination geckos can recover.

We're taking every precaution so that we don't accidentally fracture any limbs while trying to feed or clean her. So far, she isn't too jumpy so we haven't had too many problems about that. Hopefully with this intake of calcium it'll be a quick turnaround for her.

Quick turn arounds are always est but remember not to pump all the calcium and vitamins in her all at once.

That's already been mentioned devin but thanks for reiterating it. I have every confidence kodie is right on track... he's a pretty smart cookie

Jolene can you tell us approximately how long it took your mbd leos to recover/start showing some improvements?

I figured it would be at least a month of consistent calcium intake to begin to take effect. I am curious of your time lines too, Jolene! I imagine it's more case by case than anything. :thunbsup:

Yes Kodie and Kermit, it did take a couple months before everything else with that leo was better, of course other then the paralysis. To me she made a quick recovery. I have a couple others that have MBD and they are still the same, but not getting any worse either. So, I would say that a couple months you can hopefully look back and see a NOTICEABLE difference. There are minor changes as time goes on but it was the big notice after a couple months.