Illness/Sickness: Another newt with MBD?

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twentytwo

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Hello guys,
I am new to this forum and also having newts is a new hobby for me. A week ago I bought 3 "Southern crested" newts, one of them being "crippled." That was what came to my mind first, at least. I thought it was born this way, or got injured during transport or by the other animals in the aquarium they were kept in. I got it anyway thinking of giving it a better/more comfortable place to live in. But now that I did some research, I figured it might also have metabolic bone disorder. It does not have the "humps" on its top, but the tail is bent in 3 spots, which do not seem to ever straighten. He also walks weird, his body is kind of curved and when he is walking he pushes one of his back feet to the front and the foot goes on his own body, instead of staying on the ground, if this makes sense. It seems like he is walking on himself. He is missing some fingers on two of his feet, but my biggest concern atm is his "distorted" body. I bought a liquid calcium supplement to feed him through food, but the lower part of his head seems to be a little swollen on the sides, he seems to have difficulty eating (swallowing lots of times for a few minutes after only eating a small piece.) Where I am living there is no vet that takes care of any reptiles, let alone newts. Some say they give their newts "calcium baths" or even "injecting liquid calcium" into their mouths with a syringe (no needle). Can anyone help me here? I am really so confused and I don't know what to do with this little guy here.
 
I would also guess its suffering from MBD. I think its likely lots of captive newts suffer from it to a degree given peoples habit of feeding frozen bloodworms as a staple, although its likely less debilitating to animals that are kept purely aquatic.
As far as I know the deformities caused are irreversible. It is possible to correct the diet and harden the skeleton to prevent further problems, but if the animal is badly affected euthanasia might be the kindest thing to do.
 
In our case, with our newt that had MBD, the vet suggested we try calcium baths - we used Calcium Magnesium Citrate mixed with tank water in a shallow container to bathe him. We bought the Calcium supplement at a pharmacy. The proportions were about 1 teaspoon of the Calcium to a half cup of tank water. We soaked him for about 20 minutes daily and were told to do this for three weeks.

As Chinadog said, I don't think this will help with the deformities, but it may be worth a try to help the newt's condition. Hope this helps.
 
Thank you so much guys for taking time to reply. I figured out that the pet shop owner fed them only with fish food and pellets :( I am actually surprised the other 2 newts I got from there look pretty healthy.

CatSpit, I could find this supplement (Thorne Research - Calcium-Magnesium Citrate Powder) online and thinking of getting it. Was the supplement you used in powder form?
 
No we used a liquid supplement. Specifically, we put 15 ml of the supplement in to 125 ml of tank water. The 15 ml contained 750 mg of calcium citrate, 300 mg of magnesium citrate and 5 mcg of vitamin D3. The vitamin D is important as it helps with the absorption of calcium.

The vet determined the ratio of supplement to water based on the product we used, as noted above. It might be difficult to figure out using a powder.
 
I am having the same problem, what was the name of the liquid supplement you used?
 
Thank you so much for your help CatSpit! I really appreciate it
 
CatSpit said:
Sorry to hear that. We used Calcium Magnesium Citrate in the proportions noted above.
Click to expand...

Yes but is there a brand name for the one you used? I asked for it at a pharmacy and all they had was with blueberry or strawberry flavor :confused:
 
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