baby iguana & gout

Question
I recently discovered a "bumpy" left elbow on my iguana Stig, who is less than 1 year old. I took him in to my vet (who is one of the few in Tucson who has worked with reptiles), he took xrays
and made a working diagnosis of gout. The right elbow is normal, but both of his knees show signs of inflammation. We have decided to treat this with water therapy - frequent misting, steaming, soaking daily and I am administering water by hand out of a eye dropper several times a day. I have another iguana I got at the same time who is normal and growing more rapidly than Stig.
They house together and have a diet of chard, dandelion greens, kale, collards, carrots, squash, sugar snap peas, a little fruit.

I was talking with an acupunture friend who does healing work on animals, and she was "getting" metabolic bone disease". The iguanas have a heat/basking light on a timer, a UV light, and when I am home and the weather is good I move the cage outside and they have natural light. They have never had any food not normal to an iguana.
Gout or bone disease?
I would welcome any thoughts you might have. Many thanks.

Answer
Hi Kathy,
A few of the foods you are feeding MAY cause gout, especially if fed on a regular basis.  Kale is a big culprit in their diet.  Carrots really shouldn't be fed due to their high oxalate acid content, which, when fed with other high oxalate foods such as swiss chard, snow peas, can lead to not enough absorbable calcium for the iguana, leading to MBD. For more on diets, www.iguanaden.org and www.anapsid.org are two good diets to go by.
So, you see, it can be either thing going on. All iguanas are different due to genetics.  What one doesn't do well with, may not be a problem for another. Depending on how much time they spend outside in unfiltered, natural sunlight, their diet, uvb source, temperatures, all can play a part in MBD.  With gout, it generally is  diet related, be it foods or lack of enough water, but can also be caused by improper temperatures.  When there isn't a basking area of 92-96 degrees, they cannot digest foods properly,(and organs don't filter properly,) which causes a strain on their organs, which in turn can cause gout.
I'm going to include some info on good uvb sources...it's possible you are using the wrong uvb light, or not using it properly. Not your fault by any means if this is the case as there is so much bad info out there, especially from manufacturers and pet stores.
I also want to warn that housing two iguanas together MAY lead to problems.  two males can never be housed together.  Two females MAY get along if there is lots of space and with male and female, the breeding issues can cause stress and injuries.  

LIGHTING:

Supplying uvb can be done in a few ways. By special lights that come in fluorescent tubes or special screw in bulbs (mercury vapor)that are designed to produce uvb and heat. The tubes do not produce heat. UVB is needed by the Iguanas to be able to absorb the calcium in the foods they eat. With out the uvb, they will develop metabolic bone disease. There are tubes that say ''full spectrum'' but they do not produce any uvb.
With the correct tubes, they must say that they produce BOTH uvb and uva. The uvb needs to be 5% or higher. Repti Sun 10.0 and the Repti Glo 8.0's are a great source for uvb. The old "favorites" are the repti sun 5.0 or the Iguana light..which are the same tube, just different package. These need to be positioned 6-8 inches over the iguana for the 5% and 8% and 8-10 inches for the 10% so that they get the uvb that is needed.  The tubes need to be replaced every 6-9 months as that they stop producing UVB long before they stop producing light.Using a fixture that holds two uvb tubes of at least 3 feet in length will provide adequate uvb for your iguana. There has been new studies that have proven that compact uvb lights, both the spiral/coil type(screw in and pins) and the ones that look like long "U's" laying on their side and a few other brands are causing what basically amounts to snow blindness in reptiles.  To read more on this, you can go to http://www.uvguide.co.uk/index.htm
 On the mercury vapor , they also produce heat. They also produce the uvb and uva. The best on the market now are the Mega Rays.(http://www.reptileuv.com) The distance from these are greater than the uvb tubes and the directions must be followed that are listed for the light. When using the mercury vapor lights, you don't need to have one light for uvb and one for heat. The Mercury vapor lights provide both.
For daytime heat, if using the tube uvb, regular household incandescent light bulbs produce heat. I like the halogen bulbs as they produce a nice bright light for your ig. The wattage will
depend on the size of your iguanas enclosure. and the room temperature.Of course, the best uvb is from the sun and if you are in an area that you are able to take your iguana outside in a proper enclosure, (Never a tank or enclosed, solid cage)