HELP!! Sick??? / hurt baby???any ideas??

We have a baby who is about 5 weeks old. We were feeding and changing the water last night and noticed one of the babies walking a little strange.She uses her front paws just as she normally would to walk but seemed to be "buckling" (she'd move the paw forward and instead of it holding her weight...it slowly lowered to the ground) and would be rubbing her chin area on the ground. I wasn't to concerned because she was shedding and thought she was "rubbing" it off. This morning she was still doing it but most of the shed was off. She was actively trying to get the rest but the right leg seemed to be a problem still. She'd try to twist to get to the shed and not be able to support her own weight.I got her into a shallow warm soak and removed the rest of the shed for her...but she is still off. Still dropping her head and chest while walking...kind of a "military crawl" thing...I'd swear she's in pain! She complained a bit about being picked up ...which isn't normal for her. There is no swelling or abnornality I can see. We isolated her this morning so she wont have to worry about her 3 sisters climbing on her...but I'm worried! I have an appt w/ the vet on Fri. for some fecal samples and she'll come with me. It was the earliest appt I could get because the office will be closed until then.The Doc is on his honeymoon!
She is eating,but fell on her face going after a mealie. She is in the same enclosure since being born and there is nothing high to have fallen off or have gotten caught in. Could she have done this pulling at shed??? Could she be sick??? I am worried about her. This only started Friday night and I know she was OK during the day.She was out with me and her 3 sisters during the day.No falls or anything I can pin it on!! Any ideas...PLEASE!

I don't mean to offend you so really, don't take it that way. But have you been supplementing her with Calcium? It may be MBD. Does it look rubbery-ish?

Perhaps one of her sisters bit her and it's just sore?

my mistake...I should have stated that.All the babies have calcium available in their cage and mealies are dusted w/ vit and calcium regularly. All 22 of our babies have been healthy and vet checked. Mealies are fed Pro Geckos gut load. We are repeating the fecal because we discovered after a vacation in early September the hides had been switched in the cages while at a local pet shop that was sitting for us. One of 5 cages was isolated because they were rescues and had a parasite that they were being treated for. They were warned to use caution and even marked the cage to avoid confusion...yet they still screwed up! I had spoken w/ the owner...a breeder of leo's himself...and he assured me it wasn't a problem. They would follow quarenteen rules with them. Well...all the hides were switched when we got back. Now all need to be tested to be on the safe side. Hopefully the rescues were clear! They had their last dose of meds a week before the trip.
If it is an injury..can I do anything to help...maybe warm soaks? Please...no one suggest I try to wrap this little paw...LOL...she'd look silly in a band-aid!

My mind is pretty much spent for right now, lol. Too late (and I'm still a kid. It's barely after midnight!) haha. I'd wait to see if anyone else has anything to say. I've never really heard of a parasite causing such symptoms, but of course I haven't heard of a lot of things. Hopefully she'll "walk it off (like I was told in football all the time, lol)". Just keep an eye on her. Is she the "Runt"? Or smaller? I still think that maybe she got the bad-end of a brawl. That why I keep all of my babies seperate, just in case something like that happens so I would be able to know for sure. Or perhaps the "Sitter" pinched her little leg with the hide? Anything's a possibility, hah.

About the "nothing high to jump off of" thing. My brother's chihuahua jumped off the foot-rest of his recliner as he was putting it down, and broke it's leg in two places -- so just because it's not high doesn't discredit it.

I have had a vet tell me concerning a baby that I had received with bent/rubbery legs that sometimes a Leo baby has a problem absorbing the calcium and can develop mbd regardless of the amount of calcium available
Also with housing multiple babies (before you separated her) it would be difficult to accurately gauge her calcium intake
If she is walking on a bent foot then it just unfortunatley might be mbd but the good news that caught early enough it is treatable and the damage might be reversed
Good Luck at the vets
Sandy

To me it does sound like a calcium issue, I haev one that hatched perfect and a month later all of a sudden had a small tail kink. He is caged alone so I know he was not bit and Im 99% sure Ive never caught his tail in the hide lid.

I asked another breeder and called my vet, they both said that it seems that some just do not absorb the calcium as well as others. The vet told me to give him liquid calcium for a while (you can get it at most pharmacies without a prescription) to make sure he is getting enough to prevent his bones from being affected.

I also agree with Sandra, if you haev several housed together there is no way to tell who is getting calcium from the dish and who isn't.

I've had babies get a little over enthusiastic pulling their shed off. I think sometimes they tug so hard the accidentaly hurt a knee or wrist. In these cases, they usually limp around for a week or so, before they get back to normal. If she's having some kind of calcium absorption problem, it could make her more prone to this type of injury.

A few years ago, I had a baby do a knee in and it was bending the wrong way. I isolated her, made a little splint to keep the knee from bending the wrong way and hand fed her dusted insects. When her next shed came around, the splint came off, the knee was behaving normally, she was reunited with her cagemates, and never had another problem.

With a little alone time, and some TLC, I think your little guy will probably bounce back just fine.

-Alice