- Today I wanna show you three animals we have
that are all very different individually,
but are all suffering from the same issue
due to neglect in care.
The first is this yellow-bellied slider
who has this ridiculous lumpy shape as you can see.
He is around 40 years old, if I remember correctly,
and has not had proper care since 1992.
The second is a leopard gecko,
which is not 40 years old.
It's less than a year old,
but it is suffering from pretty similar issues
because of neglect in care.
And the third is a bearded dragon.
Same deal, very young and it's not growing properly
because of issues with the husbandry.
All three of these animals are suffering
from metabolic bone disease.
Now it sounds like it's contagious
'cause it's called a disease,
but it does not affect any animals around it.
It simply affects their growth
and how they develop as an animal.
Specifically with bones, including shells in turtles.
So let's get started with this one,
and then I'll show you those other two,
talk about what their issues are,
how it's happened, and how they have adapted,
and how you can avoid it with your own animals.
This yellow-bellied slider, like I said,
has not been cared for right since 1992,
which is just a really weird thing to think about.
That was eight years before I was born,
so it's been a while.
Thankfully, he is doing very well all things considered,
but you can probably immediately tell what his issues are
if you've ever seen a turtle, or if you have common sense.
He's completely lumpy, lopsided,
has no symmetry in his shell.
It's grown completely off.
A normal slider is gonna be symmetrical, pretty flat,
have a nice aerodynamic shape for swimming,
and doesn't look absolutely ridiculous.
Meanwhile, this turtle is very long.
It's got this weird curve to it.
The left has indentions in the body.
The bottom's just completely sticking out,
so he can't even stand without just wobbling side to side.
The back is squished so much
that his tail doesn't even really fit into his shell.
And his front is just completely off and warped to one side.
So what causes this and how does it affect them?
Well, sliders are an animal that are semi-aquatic,
so they'll enjoy time in the water obviously.
They'll swim, they'll find food, they'll seek shelter there.
But most of the day, they're gonna be basking on rocks
and logs and places like rivers, creeks, stuff like that
where they have places to bask
and also easy access to water.
When they're basking, they are under the sun,
which is very warm and has UV rays,
two things that are very important.
Warmth is important so that the shell
can stay dry most of the time
so it doesn't start rotting away.
And then UV rays help the shell grow as it should.
In captivity, they're gonna do the same thing.
You're gonna put a heat lamp and a UVB bulb.
And this has to be replaced pretty often
to make sure it's still working
because the rays kind of run out in the bulb,
and after about six to 12 months,
it's not going to be very effective.
So basically, whoever had this turtle at that time
was not doing that from the 90's 'til now.
The person we got him from was doing a great job.
If I remember correctly, it was actually someone
from an organization that takes in other animals,
and ended up getting this turtle.
But they didn't actually work with reptiles,
so they gave it to me.
And although I'm not keeping him permanently,
he is pretty interesting to show off.
So he was not given UVB,
which meant that his shell did not grow well.
And this causes quite a few things.
Not all of them we can tell necessarily.
Now thankfully, because he's twice the age of me,
we can tell that he's probably
gonna be fine the rest of his life.
He's probably been thriving well so far,
since he does look quite good overall,
but the things we cannot see is how his skeleton is.
It would be interesting to get an x-ray of him.
I might see if I can do that at some point.
But who knows what exactly his skeleton looks like.
How things are pushed around inside.
Who knows how his organs are placed.
If they're being squished together
or pushed to the side or bent weirdly.
Now thankfully, like I said, he's doing well,
so there's probably nothing that'll rupture
or have issues long-term.
But also, we can't be completely sure,
and it's not a risk you wanna take at all.
Aside from that, he's not very good at moving around.
Swimming, he has to have super deep water
to make sure if he rolls over,
that he can roll himself back.
He does adapt pretty well,
but things like getting onto a basking spot
is really difficult when you have this huge belly
that you're also sitting on.
It's gonna be a pain.
He is gonna need a lot of accommodation
when it comes to basking and stuff like that,
because although this cannot at all be reverted,
this is permanent for the rest of his life,
it can at least not get worse because turtles
do grow their entire life like every reptile.
But it does slow down as they get older.
Most of their growth is in the first two years or so
for most reptiles.
But thankfully, you can see that he's still super energetic,
super friendly, really comfortable with people,
and quick plug, he's available on Emerald Scales,
where we re-home, sell, rehab animals.
The other two animals I'll be showing you
have actually already sold on the site,
but if you wanna get updated on the new animals,
you can sign up to the newsletter
or the mailing list which is linked below
so that you do see new animals before almost anyone else.
But he is still available.
He is definitely gonna be special needs
and need his own little things,
but regardless, he does quite well and adapts with it.
It's super unfortunate
and it's super weird just how ridiculous his shell can look.
Next up is a little bearded dragon
named Lucky by the previous owner.
Like the first one, the previous owner
was not the one who caused the issues in care
but instead they got it from someone else
and cared for them the best that they could
and helped them the best that they could.
Lucky is a weird beardy.
His legs are completely locked basically inside
the base of his body as you can see.
Now he doesn't really seem to care.
He too adapts super well,
but he also has metabolic bone disease.
It does affect him differently
because he doesn't have a shell,
but he does still have bones.
And you can see, although I can actually move his legs,
they just, they're natural position is under his body,
like in a mummy pose.
So this makes a lot of things difficult like walking around,
flipping himself over if he falls off something ...
What else do beardies do?
I don't know, but he also needs a lot
of accommodation with his enclosure
because he can easily fall off of things or roll off
'cause he's just scale-y soft-ish
that can just start rolling and not stop.
But thankfully, he's still very motivated in general
when it comes to eating and basking,
and he does do well with all those things.
Now, it's just sad because you can just kind of imagine
what he would be like if he a normal beardy.
He could run around and explore more.
And who knows how his joints feel
or how uncomfortable or how sore he gets
because his legs are always underneath his body like this.
Just because he's messed up like this
doesn't mean he's gonna stop growing.
He's still pretty young
and is going to continue growing in size.
Now he could also be stunted,
meaning that he's not gonna grow anymore,
but it's best to assume that he is gonna keep growing.
So assuming he is gonna keep growing,
that's just gonna be more weight on his joints,
more stress on his legs and body,
and it might be harder for him to move around
'cause it's hard for him to build up muscle
when he can't really move that much.
So if you think about it,
if you have the legs of a two-year-old
or the strength of a two-year-old's legs,
but you weigh as much as a normal-weighted human,
it would be kind of hard to walk around.
This isn't an exact comparison,
because beardies do have four legs.
They move very differently,
but it just kind of gives you an idea
of what it's gonna be like for him,
and I don't know why his leg is out like this.
So he can kind of hold on.
I guess I could put his arms around my finger,
and that just looks like he's holding on for dear life,
but it's actually just 'cause he can't move his arms.
Lucky's pretty pretty in general.
He's got some nice oranges and browns,
and he obviously was not a normal bearded dragon.
It's just whoever got him first did not know
what they were doing and did some of the same issues.
Either A, they didn't give him UVB,
because beardies need it was well.
They are also a basking species.
Like in Australia, you'll find them
on rocks and logs and places,
basking in the sun so that they can grow properly.
Also, diet can have a big change
or effect on this with lizards.
Along with turtles, but lizards especially.
If he wasn't fed a proper diet,
if he didn't get the right vitamins or minerals,
if he wasn't fed the right veggies or proteins,
if he didn't have a balanced diet,
that probably affected it as well.
So he cannot be reverted either, just like the turtle.
He's permanently gonna be like this,
but it can be stopped from getting worse
and maybe even get a little bit better over the years.
But the likelihood of him looking like this is that
it's gonna be quite permanent for the rest of this life.
I don't know his exact age,
but let's say he's under two years old,
which is probably under a year,
assuming he's not super stunted.
he still has nine to 12 years left,
and hopefully he'll do just fine.
A lot of people talk about where the line is for euthanasia.
I definitely don't think he's on that line,
'cause you can tell he's not stressed,
he's not uncomfortable,
but who knows how he'll be in the future.
So that's Lucky, a weird-looking bearded dragon.
The third is this little special needs leopard gecko who,
you guessed it, also has metabolic bone disease.
We've only had a few leopard geckos that have gotten MBD.
It's impressive to mess up a leopard gecko care this badly.
So congrats, you did it.
You conquered really bad care.
This one actually sold a couple hours before filming this,
so congrats to whoever bought them,
assuming you've passed verification.
Wink, wink, and we're watching you.
Now, this is a beautiful gecko.
I'm not perfect with gecko morphs,
and this is originally from a pet store
that was just probably shipped in
from Reptiles by Mack or some big supplier,
so the exact morph we're not gonna have the lineage of.
To me, it looks like a Mack Snow Tremper Albino.
I could be wrong with that,
but that's my best guess.
It looks a lot like the
Mack Snow Tremper Albinos that we have.
And he is also suffering in the leg area.
His legs aren't looking too good.
His joints are basically inverted.
His worst foot is his front right one,
and you can just see it from the video.
He's very bizarre.
Thankfully, he doesn't seem to notice this
just like the other two 'cause it's kind of all he knows.
Unfortunately, he's also very young,
so he's gonna have this for quite a while,
and continue having issues.
His tail, however, looks good.
He's a good weight.
He's eating really well.
He's very enthusiastic, has a ton of energy.
He's squinting a little bit
'cause these lights are very bright
and he is A, a leopard gecko, and B, albino,
both of which make their eyes more sensitive,
so I wouldn't actually give him UVB.
So UVB is an iffy one with leopard geckos,
because that does actually not cause metabolic bone disease.
This is the one nocturnal species that I have in this video,
meaning that they would not bask in the sun,
meaning that they don't need UVB.
All they need is a proper diet
and of course heating and stuff,
but to cause metabolic bone disease, it's entirely diet,
meaning he probably wasn't given the right vitamins
or minerals with his food.
I do have a care guide on leopard geckos
where I break this down,
so you can find that on goherping.com/leopardgeckos.
And because of that, his legs just grew super wonky
and his joints are forever messed up.
Accomodation-wise, he probably needs the least
because he can still move around.
He just looks kind of like he's crawling
or dragging himself more.
I wouldn't give him anything super high up,
but leopard geckos don't usually get that anyway.
And he can get himself to and from his water bowl,
to his heating, to his hiding spaces and stuff.
So thankfully, he is not going to be too difficult
to deal with in the future.
It's just unfortunate that he has to deal
with something that was really easily avoidable
if he was cared for properly,
which is not that much to ask.
We have lots of animals with no issues whatsoever,
but it's definitely increasingly common
to get animals that look pretty bad
because we take in pretty much anything
from pretty much anywhere from pretty much anyone,
so who knows?
I think it's interesting that we have these three all
at the same time so I can show you an example
of a leopard gecko, bearded dragon, and slider
with the same disease, metabolic bone disease,
which are all caused from different things.
So yeah, it's kind of sad, but thankfully,
I think they're all going to do okay.
But those are the three pretty unique animals
that I wanted to show you today.
There's gonna be more.
We all know there's gonna be more.
I'd like to pretend like maybe there won't be.
Maybe the rest of the animals will be healthy and happy,
but that's not true, so yeah.
Kind of unfortunate,
but we'll deal with them as they come in.
So that's Lucky, the leopard gecko, and the slider,
one of which is still available
at emeraldscales.com if you're interested.
So that's it.
I hope you enjoyed checking out these three dudes,
but I'm Alex and thanks for watching.
(soft upbeat music)