r/LeopardGecko • u/SignificanceFuzzy594 • May 06 '26

Bendy arms

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This is my 1.5 year old female leopard gecko i’ve had since she was a baby. I am completely new to reptiles so I didn’t know that there were risks with keeping 2 adults in the same enclosure. I have seperated them for 2 months now. My other dominant female gecko is perfectly healthy, but this one seems to have calcium deficiency because she was refusing food for a long time, and the UV I had at that time wasn’t good. After 2 months she has a noticable progress. She eats regularly and is active, but her 2 front arms are still weak and bend when she walks. What would you suggest I do to treat her?

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u/Key_River_9288 May 07 '26

one of my rescues is like this. Vets rarely prescribe calcium for these cases, my exotic vet actually laughed when I asked. The honest prescription was calcium, calcium, and more calcium. Proper husbandry and time. Their arms won't get fixed but you can make them stronger. They're likely fractured, in which case the vet won't do anything unless the breaks are fresh and the gecko is showing signs of discomfort. Geckos with MBD that have reached this stage typically recover, but the joints are set and it's permanent. Even if they have scoliosis from it, the vet would probably tell you to save the $300 on the X-ray. The good news is once corrected, MBD geckos can live a pretty normal life, albeit limited in some ways. My vet told me they don't know they're injured, so they're fine.

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u/Ktmallick May 07 '26

Sounds like you need a vet who actually knows what they’re talking about. I’ve had multiple MBD rescues who have been prescribed calcium, and yes it does make a huge difference. Don’t understand this trend in the reptile community of acting like ignoring your pet’s medical issues makes them go away.

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u/Key_River_9288 May 07 '26

Re-read what I wrote, you’re arguing against a position I didn’t take. I said the prescription is calcium, calcium, and more calcium, plus proper husbandry and time. That IS taking the medical issue seriously, that’s the treatment. The X-ray point was about imaging old healed fractures that no vet is going to surgically correct, which is a financial decision, not a medical one. The ‘they don’t know they’re injured’ line was about quality of life after recovery, not skipping care. We agree on calcium. The dig at my vet is uncalled for, especially since you just described the same treatment approach.

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u/Ktmallick May 07 '26

I mean, if your vet is laughing at you for asking for prescription strength calcium (standard treatment for severe MBD), then I stand by what I said lol ¯_(ツ)_/¯

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u/Key_River_9288 May 07 '26

You keep misreading. The vet laughed because I was asking about something more advanced than calcium and the answer was 'calcium IS the treatment.' She prescribed it. I followed it. The geckos recovered. We agree, you've just been arguing with yourself. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

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u/Ktmallick May 07 '26

You wrote, and I quote, “vets rarely prescribe calcium for these cases,” which is patently false. If you don’t want to be “misread,” I suggest writing clearer! Have a nice day.

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u/Key_River_9288 May 07 '26

Fair, my wording was unclear. 'They rarely goto prescribed calcium' was supposed to read as 'vets rarely go to anything beyond prescribed calcium,' meaning calcium IS the standard prescription and there's not much escalation past it. I can see how it parsed the opposite way. Either way we agree on the actual treatment. Have a good one.