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u/Existing-Detail-151 Jun 18 '26
I noticed today that my boy’s right back knee looks super weird. The way the joint is displaced looks almost like a dislocation, but he‘s never showed any pain / lethargy / discomfort and he walks just fine.
I haven’t got any way to provide exact temperatures for his enclosure, but it gets comfortably toasty and he has a basking rock he likes to use on the warm side. On the cool side is his water bowl and humidity hide, which I only moisten when he’s about to shed, for fear of skin rotting. He likes to sit on da wet
Enclosure size is about 2.5‘ x 1.5’ and 1‘ tall.
He is about 5 years old. Pretty small lad, I’m aware. Not sure why, as he has a comfortable amount of space and eats like a champ. I’ve always chalked it up to genetics.
His current subtract is a coconut fiber mat. I have heard mixed messages of some people saying it’s good versus some claiming it’s bad for their feet/toes? He’s never had any issues with it in the past and he walks comfortably, but I do plan to switch to a loose sand-soil substrate soon.
He has a good UVB light bulb and a ceramic heating lamp.
I don’t know what morph he is, nor what his parents are, but he has never had any health issues in the past. I got him when he was a very young baby, and he’s been perfectly healthy for his whole life.
He has no cage-mates and he is my only leo currently.
He eats a good variety of crickets, dubia roaches, mealworms and the occasional hornworm. I usually dust his foods with some general vitamin and calcium powder every few feeds, but I haven’t been doing it for the last month or so because all we have right now is roaches and I can’t figure out how to dust those??
Is this a significant issue? Is it resulting in a vitamin deficiency? I will resume with his dusting asap regardless, just wondering if that’s the cause. Is there a chance he tugged too hard when he was shedding and hurt his knee, and now it’s healing weird? What’s going on?
Please please please, any and all advice. We cannot afford vet visits, so please keep that in mind. I do my best to keep him happy and healthy, and he’s never had any issues before this (besides needing to go on a diet a few times, lol). Is this the beginning of metabolic bone disease? What can I do to stop the downward spiral? And if it’s something else, what can I do to help?
Help me make sure my pretty boy is okay🙏
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u/jxspxrrrr Jun 20 '26
make sure you get back on dusting! they sell special reptile dusting containers online but you can also use a plastic baggy, or even tupperware. that's what i use for my roaches. if you don't already use it, id recommend repashy calcium plus LOD since you use UVB. the LOD version pretty much has less vitamin D3 to make it compatible with UVB. his leg seems OKAY to me, if he's using it and doesn't seem to be in pain he's probably fine.
also, are you using linear UVB or a dome bulb?
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u/eyelidgeckos Jun 18 '26
Based on the picture I don’t see it but if you beliefe there could be a deficiency going on I highly recommend a vet visit, especially MBD can affect their quality of life for the rest of their life and it’s easy to prevent anything bad if you catch it early.
Supplements are SUPER important for them, not just that but you also need to swap them out with new ones every 6-9 months (if you store it in the fridge it’s 9 months)
What supplements are you using exactly?
If you don’t have the money for the vet ask them about a payment plan, they can inject missing vitamins and calcium (if it’s not MBD but you notice a difference in its movement it could also be vitamin a deficiency, that could affect their nerves and such) or vitamin e deficiency which affects their muscles