Hypercalcaemia in reptiles

[Graham_s]

I was wondering if anyone has or knows of any interesting articles/publications on hypercalcaemia in reptiles, or if anyone has any experiences of hypercalcaemia they can share?

I'm not asking because any of my animals have hypercalcaemia, just because of my interest in biochemistry and geckos

Thanks in advance :biggrin:

 

[PhelsumaUK]

Good luck!...The more you look at calcium metabolism, the more complex it becomes..and just when you think you've got it cracked, along comes another feedback mechanism to confuse you again..and biochemistry and geckos is my thing too!

Commonest cause of hypercalcaemia in geckos (that I know of) is over use of liquid calcium preparations. Blood calcium goes up rapidly which causes a hormonal feedback to prevent further calcium uptake (and even causes calcium loss in extreme cases) which results in calcium deficiency....The more you give, the worse it gets. Over use of calcium carbonate doesn't have the same effect because there isn't the sudden and disproportionate rise in blood calcium. You just end up with unnaturally large calcium sacs (which can actually rupture externally). Over use of calcium can also block the uptake of other minerals, particularly magnesium and zinc.

There's lots of misconceptions over the use of calcium and the web is full of rubbish, (particularly from health food companies!) regarding the benefits and actions of vits and minerals. I've found the best bet is to look at an aspect that interests you, research it and try and sort the wheat from the chaff, then take up a thread from that to look at another aspect. I tend to look at research based on bird/fish if there's nothing I'm looking for on reptiles.

 

[Graham_s]

Thanks for your input. I agree with you completely. Presumably, there could also be some knock-on effects of overdosing on calcium - if it causes Ca to bond with Zn and Mg for example, then could the resulting compounds cause damage elsewhere, like in the kidneys for example. I think it's one of the least understood processes in the reptile world, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of interest in these sorts of physiological processes in reptiles. The only one close to this that I have seen is a publication about degenerative nutritional myopathy in U.phantasticus, which is fairly short and lacking in details.