Those of you that have
pets, like iguanas or beardies, know all about the dreaded MBD (metabolic bone
disease). We stress about whether or not they are getting sufficient UVB and
how much calcium is in their diet.
Many of you know, but
for those of you that don’t, my iguana Arcadius came to me from a family that
did not have the time or commitment he needed. They tried; however, they were
missing vital components, such as a UVB light.
The Start
When we received Arcadius,
the stress from the move brought out the signs of MBD, and he began dragging
one of his hind legs. At this time I was still five hours away at school and it
was my mom that was taking care of him.
She took him to the
closest reptile vet (45 minutes away), and he gave Arcadius a calcium injection
and sent my mom home with a phosphorus blocker to give to him daily.
When she got home, his
other hind leg had stopped working, so he was dragging both. However, within a
week they were both working fine and he seemed like a normal iguana.
My mom and dad were
giving him the phosphate blocker everyday and my mom had done research on the
food they should be receiving so he was getting plenty of calcium in his diet.
The Beginning of the Nightmare
The minute I first met
Arcadius, we had an instant connection. Within a day, I had him eating out of
my hand, something my mom hadn’t been able to get him to do in the weeks she
had him.
About a week later, one
of the cats got into the room we were keeping him. She just wanted to sit on
the windowsill, but being a prey to the predator, he didn’t know that.
I went in to feed him breakfast and he was
folded up in the corner of his tank completely changed to his stress colors and
not an ounce of blue left in his skin. I thought the best thing to do would be
to leave him alone and let him calm down. When I went back to check on him
later, he was dragging both hind legs.
One of the effects of
serious metabolic bone disease is paralysis, and along with this he experienced
the inability to go to defecate. This is the point where most people say their
goodbyes, because it is practically unheard of for an iguana to recover once
they reach that point.
The Journey
We gave Arcadius a week
to recover, because that's how long it took him to stop dragging his legs the
first time. After a week of no progress and him still not going to the
bathroom, we decided to take him to the vets.
 |
| We had to put a towel in the bottom of his enclosure, so he had something to grab to help him move around |
Luckily, our neighbor (also my boyfriends dad),
let us know that a local vet we used to take out cats to also did reptiles, he
just didn’t advertise it. We ended up going there because this vet has an
iguana, and it was a 10 minute drive versus a 2 hour drive to the next closest
reptile vet.
Now let me fill you
in….this particular vet is not very optimistic. When my cat had a stroke and
heart attack, we brought him in and we were basically told that it was the end.
I’m not saying he was wrong, but I believe when you have many serious cases
that don't get better, the ones that could turn around are never given the
chance.
When we brought Arcadius
in, you could tell he didnt see my little boy turning around, but thankfully he
still agreed to try and help us.
We were instructed to
stop the phosphorus binder immediately, because we should have never been given
it in the first place.
The problem with
injecting vitamins and minerals, is that you can't control how much the body is
actually using, and you could overload the system. This is why unless your
animal has severe MBD, you may want to give serious thought to whether or not
you want to give a calcium injection.
He also took Arcadius
and manually pooped him. He recommended long baths twice a day to try and
encourage him to defecate on his own, since iguanas are known to like to go to
the bathroom in water.
We kept this going for
about 2 weeks before he said enough, and showed my mom and I how to poop him so
we would stop coming in and throwing our money at him. If we wanted to keep
giving Arcadius a chance at life, it was going to be up to us to make it possible.
*So fun fact - I know
how to poop an iguana!*
During this time he was
slowly, but surely, gaining movement in his back legs again.
The Miracle
By the end of week 3 he
was moving around much better. We were still putting him in the bathtub everyday
and letting him crawl around the bathroom to try and strengthen his legs and
get them working again.
By week 4 he finally did
it.
We were playing in the
bathroom, when he started to wiggle his butt. Next thing I know, there was a
nice old pile of poop on the bathroom floor. I won't lie, I teared up knowing
that because we didn't give up, Arcadius still had a chance to live his life.
It was a hard 4 weeks
watching him struggle, and we were increasingly having the talks about when
would enough be enough. Even though I hadn't had him long, I couldn't bare the
thought of putting him down, not after we rescued him.
When we went back to the
vet for a check up before he returned to school with me, he admitted that he
did not expect Arcadius to come back from his injuries. Never in history had he
seen an iguana with severe mbd like that come around.
He was absolutely
amazed, and it was the best feeling to be able to show him, “look I didn't give
up on him and look what happened!”.
Arcadius has a spine
deformity, and what I believe is some permanent nerve damage, so he won’t ever
really be able to climb as well as a healthy iguana, but he’s doing just fine
and living the life!
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