Baby blue tongue has massive jolts and twitches, please help

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Louiee

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Second worried post in 1 day! Arghhh

I took my baby blue to the vet this morning about a swollen throat, he couldnt help, but its preetty much gone now..
I just took her out of her tank and now shes got huge jolts and twitches, shes still crawling around and coming to me but shes jolting and twitching so bad, HAS ANYONE ELSE HAD THIS BEFORE?
Or know why its happening ?
Pleasr help :(
 
Could be a lack of calcium, it is an element essential to their skeletal development and one early symptom is that skinks, dragons and monitors will jerk and twitch as their skeletons are decalcified, making their bones soft. Either get it into the sun, under an artificial source of UVB or add calcium supplement to its varied diet.
 
Thankyou so much, me and my partner are going to get some calcium and D3 supplements (preety sure thats wat its called)
Do you think she'll be okay untill tomorro ? Im so worried
 
I hope she is ok! It is very frightening when your pets are sick! What is she eating? The more varied the diet the better! My lizards are housed in outdoor enclosures and sun themselves everyday! Take care! K
 
bluetongues need uva, but uvb helps, and you should get repti-vite and repti-cal both of those dusted onto their veggies, which you should feed everyday
 
Id go back to the vet. Which vet did you go to? Just wondering because I live near nowra
 
I feed her once a day with that 10% fruit 40% meat and 50% veggie thing.. shes only 3 weeks old.. I went to town today and got her some repti - cal natural phosphorus free, calcium & vitamin D3 supplement and a Repti Glo 5.0 UVB 26W light too (shes under it now) to try get her levels back to normal. I just recently treated her for mites, they are gone now (thankgod) they were such a hassel! And I went to that vincentia vet out nere sancturary point.. Thanks guys x
 
To be honest, if she's twitching and has a 'swollen throat' as you say- It sounds like hypocalcaemia/metabolic bone disease to me.

Calcium has many vital functions in an animal- one of the most well known is its requirement for good bone growth. When there is insufficient calcium in the diet, especially for young growing animals, there is insufficient calcium to add to the bones to make them stronger, and to worsen it, the animal produces more parathyroid hormone which stimulataes the resorption of what calcium is in the bones (i.e.- removes the calcium from the bones) to be used for vital processes within the body. These lead to the bones becoming less mineralised, and the body replaces the calcium with a fibrous type tissue which is actually more rubbery, not as strong, and occupies more space- this is why animals with hypocalcaemia/metabolic bone disease have rubbery bones, especially the lower jaw, and why they have abnormally shaped bones including bulges in certain areas, in this case around the neck area. Radiographs can be useful to help diagnose this, because these bones show up much paler on radiographs, due to their lack of calcium/mineralisation, which makes them appear much whiter on the x-ray. As more calcium is lost, and more fibrous tissue replaces it, the bones appear 'blacker' and more like the soft tissues and fluid of the animal. Another vital use of calcium in the body is in the function of muscle cells. Calcium is actually essential to allow muscles to relax, and if it is not present to bind to specific sites on the muscle, the muscle cannot relax properly- you end up with neuromuscular signs including tremoring and twitching because of this. You can get other problems, such as cloacal prolapse, paralysis and in adults you can end up with seizures, amongst other things. Animals with hypocalcaemia/metabolic bone disease are also prone to fractures, and multiple fractures may be seen on x-rays.

Note- this is an extremely simplified version of what happens in animals with hypoglycaemia, but hopefully you get the idea.

In summary- to me it sounds like this lizard has severe hypocalcaemia and requires veterinary attention. A veterinarian (with at least some knowledge of reptiles) should assess the animal, and probably administer an appropriate volume of calcium gluconate as an injection, and the animal may need a series of these injections, in addition to the UVB and oral calcium supplements, to get the animal stabilised. Any severe bone deformities may very well stay with the animal for the rest of its life. If you don't know of a reptile veterinarian, you can just go to a local trusted veterinarian and request that they call a reptile specialist, or even a place like Currumbin Wildlife Hospital. I've done some of my vet science placement at the Currumbin Hospital and they are great people and very willing to help people.
 
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I feed her once a day with that 10% fruit 40% meat and 50% veggie thing.. shes only 3 weeks old.. I went to town today and got her some repti - cal natural phosphorus free, calcium & vitamin D3 supplement and a Repti Glo 5.0 UVB 26W light too (shes under it now) to try get her levels back to normal. I just recently treated her for mites, they are gone now (thankgod) they were such a hassel! And I went to that vincentia vet out nere sancturary point.. Thanks guys x

Two things here.I don't keep bluies but others that do might like to confirm or not.
You treated for mites? what did you use if anything?
Diet.40% meat with 60% fruit and veg doesn't sound right to me,not for a young bluies anyway.I would of thought a much higher % of meat in the diet would be better
 
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you can buy calcium syrup at the pet store, it's for cats and dogs and is ok for bluies too. use an eye dropper to put a drop or two on their tongue and they'll lick it up, apparently it tastes like sugar water.
 
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