please! any advice?!

Well i just got home from work about 1 hour ago, and i wen to go feed my cresteds and leopards. well when i got to one of my crested females i was wondering whats with her, she wasnt moving, or anyhting. she looks very gravid. so i said oh maybe shes getting rdy to lay them and was. when i picked her up i say her front right leg looks swollen. and her jaw looked like it was gapping open and disformed!!! i dont knwo what could cause this. i use crikets dusted. and i give baby food but they dont want it. i dont know what i did wrong. i know when there preg. the calcium goes to the eggs. so i even put some calcium mixed in the water bowl, i coated, not dusted her crickets also. and i use the vit. d3 about once a week and i just use pure calcium for the rest ad some muti. vits. like twice a week. sorry if im gabbering on and this doesnt make sence but im worried and just. i dont want anyhting to happen to her, she was my first crested from about 1 year ago. plz any info will help....

p.s 2 days ago she looked fine. i didnt see her last night (she must have been hiding)

Kyle,

You need to take your gecko to the vet ASAP. It sounds like metabolic bone disease (fibrous osteodystrophy) to me. Early signs are swollen limbs and rubbery jaw. You may have caught it early if you don't see any tremors or kinked tail. It can be treated... but you need to treat it right away. Your vet will most likely give you some liquid calcium to feed her to reverse the effects.

Good luck with your gecko!

It definetely sounds like MBD. did the eggs she laid have "windows" in them or appear to be very soft. usually a female with MBD wont have viable eggs due to lack of calcium.

MBD sounds like the culprit. Even though you dust the crickets, make sure that you are spraying their cage before putting the crickets in, and don't put more crickets in than they can eat in one night! I find that after a couple hours the crickets manage to wipe off most of the calcium dust, thus there isn't much left when the crested eats them. To try to make sure that there is some calcium with the crickets I mix in a pinch with the cricket gut load. I heard from someone that if calcium gets in a cricket's respiration system, that it can kill them, but I haven't seen the effects of that yet. You should also leave a tiny bit (1/2 teaspoon) of calcium out about once a week, that way if the females are deficient, then they have the opportunity to help themselves get balanced. Mine will take a little lick of it just after laying a set of eggs. They won't eat more than that, so no point wasting your calcium.

What have you tried as far as baby food? Perhaps we can help with suggestions on other things to try.

Please, just get her to a vet as soon as possible, or she could have some serious problems, you could even loose her if she gets egg bound...

I hope this helps, please ask as many questions as you can come up with!

Good Luck to your Lady!

i have bad news, i called the vet earlier, and i was sceduled i think for tomoorw sometime. well anyway i came home from work tonight and i found her dead. i to think its MBD, ive seen it before but not with any of my herps. i guess theres a first for everything. but, she looked egg bound also. so i lost her and the eggs. leos coming into this world last night and today, and tonight i loose her. well thanks for all your advice. my male is surely gonna be lonely, and also i use gerber and some other brand i cant remember the name. with my cresteds they like, bananas, and sometimes stawberry/banana, also apricot. those are some of there favorites.

Sorry that you lost your girl... it's never easy to lose an animal. Sorry that I don't really have too much advice to give that hasn't already been stated.

Oh no! I'm so sorry for your loss. I know that this may sound morbid, but sometimes you can remove the eggs and they still might have a chance of hatching. (I've never tried it myself, but I've heard of it being done.) I'm sorry that she's gone.

that's a shame...sorry to hear

I'm soo sorry! I haven't lost one yet, and I know I'm going to cry my eyes out if I ever do!