I wanted to share a success story in case others out there have a similar problem. I recieved a call from a girl who took one of my babies a while ago. They baby was about 5 months old and she had him for a while. She said he was becoming less active and he wasn't using his rear leg. I talked her through checking all the basics which she said were correct. We maintained contact over the next two weeks where she kept telling me his condition was getting worse and worse. Again, using the knowledge and help on this forum I had her check out everything. I finally got a call from her mom saying she couldn't handle this sick baby anymore, so I met her and took the baby back, thinking it would die based on the updates I was getting.
Initial condition was mixed. He was very attentive, no obvious injury, but his plastron was very, very soft. He ate and drank well also. With some help and guidance from the forum I started trying to fix the perceived problem of calcium deficiency. The poor guy couldn't walk. didn't have strength to even lift himself. I put in a new UVB bulb and got him outside in the direct sunlight as much as possible. We felt sorry for him because he would try to move but couldn't, so my sons would move him around the enclosure throughout the day to give him a change. I added extra calcium to the diet and put a piece of slate in the enclosure for him to sit on instead of soft coir.
I didn't see much change for 2 weeks. He ate well, pooped, soaked and stayed attentive. I noticed he moved around a little during the soaks, and pretty soon he moved around on the slate because it was hard enough to support him. Also, during this time, One of my other clutches hatched, so he was surrounded by little babies crawling everywhere, which may have helped also. In the last few days, he is now crawling around the enclosure on the coir and is mobile again. I'll continue the diet and UVB until his little legs are strong again, but it looks like he will survive fine.
Hopefully this will help others who may find themselves in a similar bad situation. Don't give up, these little guys are really tough.
Initial condition was mixed. He was very attentive, no obvious injury, but his plastron was very, very soft. He ate and drank well also. With some help and guidance from the forum I started trying to fix the perceived problem of calcium deficiency. The poor guy couldn't walk. didn't have strength to even lift himself. I put in a new UVB bulb and got him outside in the direct sunlight as much as possible. We felt sorry for him because he would try to move but couldn't, so my sons would move him around the enclosure throughout the day to give him a change. I added extra calcium to the diet and put a piece of slate in the enclosure for him to sit on instead of soft coir.
I didn't see much change for 2 weeks. He ate well, pooped, soaked and stayed attentive. I noticed he moved around a little during the soaks, and pretty soon he moved around on the slate because it was hard enough to support him. Also, during this time, One of my other clutches hatched, so he was surrounded by little babies crawling everywhere, which may have helped also. In the last few days, he is now crawling around the enclosure on the coir and is mobile again. I'll continue the diet and UVB until his little legs are strong again, but it looks like he will survive fine.
Hopefully this will help others who may find themselves in a similar bad situation. Don't give up, these little guys are really tough.
These guys can have such a will to live, if we just give them our best help. Glad the entire family got into the action of helping him.
