REPTILE | PET GAZETTE | 31
and enclosures in which captive animals can
thrive, we have to look at the whole of overall
nutrition and seek to supply for the natural
cycles and processes in a natural and effective
way. We take our lessons from the wild animal
and its own ecosystem here of course.
It is when these cycles and processes
are not catered for in line with the natural
development of the species that the cycles
start to break down. This then leads to
imbalance. Imbalance always leads to ‘dis-
ease’ in some way. The nutritional cycles of
course can have a large impact very quickly.
If we do not feed an animal at all, all of its
systems will eventually fail as stores are used
until they subsequently run out of fuel. If we
insist on only feeding one food source to a
species intricately developed to use many
food sources, we cause an under provision
of the food groups, leading to a long and
terminal imbalance. If we under provide, or
provide energy from light within the wrong or
an unbalanced spectrum we not only reduce
the amount of energy that is available to
an animal but we also greatly hamper the
thousands of processes and cycles that are
attributed to the collection and use of solar
energy.
Each and every cycle must be working to its
fullest in order for an animal to truly thrive.
The fact that we still see cases of metabolic
bone disorder (MBD) either as nominal or
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advanced is testament enough to suggest
that keepers still either do not understand
the importance of overall-nutrition or that
we are not able to. I cannot believe that
anyone would intentionally cause harm, so
the issues must therefore stem from poor
understanding, lack of available educative
resource and/or a lack of access to the items
needed to allow for natural function. The
good news is, that MBD cases do seem to be
falling and that more and more keepers are
able and willing to make pertinent changes if
imbalance is spotted.
I wanted to present some abbreviated
case notes to you this month to explain the
thinking and processes that we have used
ourselves at our research centre this year in
order to help an animal that was given to us
by a rescue charity that displayed some of
the worst symptoms of MBD that I have seen
myself in the last 30 years.
The animal, a grown male Asian Water
Dragon arrived into our care in the early
spring. It had been accessed by a vet and
partial treatment had been given. However,
it became clear very quickly that the animal
needed urgent and long-term specialist care
in order, at that point, to save its life. In reality
the animal was emaciated, the spine was
twisted in multiple places, the back legs were
both unusable, swollen and twisted. The jaw
was broken but fused leaving it misaligned
and clicking when moved and the animal
was displaying the ‘end stage’ symptoms of
stargazing and fitting. This indicated that the
level of mineral deficiency was so advanced
that released stores were not able to supply
the balance needed to allow neurological
function. I have to say that over the first
month of care, that we seriously sat down
and considered if it was even possible that
the animal could ever stabilise and that if
humane euthanasia would be a more ethical
choice on three occasions.
I always look for signs of the spirit of life,
we should always seek to save life if we can,
especially if an animal appears to still have
fight, and a hopeful reasonable solution can
be found, then we should fight for it as hard
as the animal itself does. Vet advice is always
needed, these very advanced cases are all
different and should be considered with the
advice of a vet at every step so that good
ethics are maintained.
In this case we carried on working with
the animal. We placed it within a suitable
enclosure where it would be easily exposed
to the correct levels of UV-B at the basking
point. We provide the correct wavelengths of
infrared over an area that it could bask easily
and start to re-energise its body. This was
a very real case of enforced light therapy.
We also started the process of trying to feed
the animal and to increase its hydration. It
September 2018