[luevelvet]

I would guess that twice a week is still not enough for your babies. What you describe is very much what MBD is in Uroplatus. Swollen joints, twitchy movement, ataxia etc etc.

Luis

[pakinjak]

I'm with Lue on this one. Sounds like calcium deficiency with yours, but my boy doesn't show signs of mbd or a calcium crash. He doesn't twitch and is very aware. Plus his swelling just popped up all of a sudden in just one leg. These are the things that make me rule out calcium deficiency in mine, that and I know how he was treated by his previous owner and I'd be very surprised if there is a husbandry related issue going on here.

[yaya543]

Originally Posted by pakinjak

I'm with Lue on this one. Sounds like calcium deficiency with yours, but my boy doesn't show signs of mbd or a calcium crash. He doesn't twitch and is very aware. Plus his swelling just popped up all of a sudden in just one leg. These are the things that make me rule out calcium deviancy in mine, that and I know how he was treated by his previous owner and I'd be very surprised if there is a husbandry related issue going here.

I have been asking around about uvb because I plan on getting a gecko but not this kind because I don;t have experience but anyway i read that because they are night geckos there skin can absorb too much when mixed with alot of D3 and can cause kidney problems. read this.
Breeding the Giant Leaf-tailed Gecko

[T-ReXx]

And another vote for MBD on those cases. The jerky movement clinches it IMO, I have seen that first hand in more than one Uroplatus suffered calcium deficiency. And twice a week is NOT enough for juvenile Uroplatus, I feed babies daily and supplement every single feeding. I feed adults every other day and supplement every single feeding. Uroplatus need LOADS of calcium, way more than other species, even those that also lay hardshelled eggs like Gekko or Ghyra. I am a firm believer in getting as much in their systems as possible and it I have never had nor seen a case of OVERsupplementation in Uroplatus(or any reptile for that matter).

And I am firm in my statement that this is not the issue with this particular sameiti. None of the symptoms point to it.

And just to say this: experienced opinions please, in the UROPLATUS forum, means experienced UROPLATUS keepers. General reptile husbandry will only go so far with these guys, and frankly, if Kevin didn't know the basics about Uroplatus husbandry, he wouldn't be hatching out babies left and right(congrats on that btw). Supplementation is a KEY part of their basic husbandry.

[pakinjak]

It's about time for an update on this guy. Where we stand right now is-

the knee is still swollen, but has been more swollen than it is now in the past. His ability to climb has increased, he still drinks very well, eyes are full and the tail is flat and looks good. He still doesn't rest head down during daylight hours though.

What I've been doing for weeks- off and on every couple of days I've been giving him a nice long warm soak. Every three days or so, I'll get him to gape and throw a cricket in his mouth. Tonight I put several crickets in a suspended feeding dish and he immediately picked his head up and looked at them. he didn't move toward them for app. 15 minutes, so I picked him up and place him near the dish. Within two minutes, he had eaten his first cricket that he caught himself in maybe two months.

He's been more active than usual, and I think the leg is going down somewhat. So maybe he'll pull through this after all. I sure hope he does, we've spent so much time pissing each other off that he's one of my favorite geckos.

Right now, my theory is that he had coccidia (verified) and that perhaps the stress of shipping or who knows what put him over the edge and caused a couple bad sheds. I then tried to help him with the shed on his toes, damaging his leg somehow and the swelling is a result of said injury. Of course, I can't really splint his leg so it makes sense that it's taking forever to heal.

[Elizabeth Freer]

Kevin ~

Good to hear this Uro finally caught and ate a cricket! Hope that is a sign of more crickets to come.

You feel he might have become injured as you were assisting with the removal of a shed and that the swelling was especially due to that?

Please post a picture of the right knee so we can have a before and after?

[pakinjak]

Originally Posted by Elizabeth Freer

Kevin ~

Good to hear this Uro finally caught and ate a cricket! Hope that is a sign of more crickets to come.

You feel he might have become injured as you were assisting with the removal of a shed and that the swelling was especially due to that?

Please post a picture of the right knee so we can have a before and after?

Sorry it's taken me so long to respond to this, but I've been keeping an eye on him and taking in more info. I have definitely seen the swelling go down, but it fluctuates and goes back up as well. He rests head up in pretty weird positions, and I think there's a correlation between his resting period and the swelling. When he rests so that the leg is the lowest part of his body, the swelling goes up. Sometimes he'll rest head down and I think those are the times swelling goes down, though he doesn't do it often.

Yes, I think I hurt his leg during shed removal- sprain, ligament damage, etc. I think the shed issue was because of a coccidia bloom, likely brought on from the stress of shipping. I'm certain of the first part, relatively sure of the second part, and making an educated guess on the third part.

He continues to hunt from a suspended dish, and moves around pretty well during the night. He does favor the leg a bit and doesn't have great mobility in the knee. I guess I just have a three-legged gecko.

[Aimless]

soft-tissue damage can take a long time to heal. I hope eventually he'll regain more use of the limb.

[nickexotics]

I haven't read the whole thread yet, but I saw the pic and I worked as a vet tech years ago....we never seen this type of gecko there, but there is no laceration on the skin. The only harm you can cause by pulling off skin is superficial. The swelling is underneath and I would suggest a vet visit. Possible biopsy?