Hi everyone. Boris is an unknown aged male sulcata. I got him about 3 years ago and he was about 45lbs. He is now about 50lbs. He has free roam of my backyard with a 4x8 shed that has been custom converted with insulation, Kane heat mat, UV light, heat lamp, and cameras (so I can spy). His diet is mostly just my backyard grass with additional (probably too much but he begs) supplements of mixed lettuces, fruits, and veggies and occasional Mazuri pellets. I am in northern california so he has been mostly staying in his house for the past 2-3 months but when he does come out or I make him come out he acts like he is unable to use his back legs. He kind of pushes himself forward on them and then uses his front legs to pull himself. He will roam around the grass like this eating and pooping like he always does.
Last year he had an episode of limping on one hind limb. His shell would hit the ground over his back left leg with every other step. What he is doing right now is nothing like that episode - right now he seems like he is just too weak to lift his whole weight. When the limping happened last year I took him to UC Davis Teaching Hospital exotics department and they did xrays and bloodwork. His xrays were fine and his bloodwork showed dehydration or possibly kidney disease. The doc was more suspicious it was just dehydration which was a shock to me as he was eating great and I often added water to his food and made sure the sprinklers came on early every AM so the grass was wet when he came out to graze. I have never been able to get him to drink much - I know everyone says soak them to make them drink but Boris just refuses to drink while being soaked - I have tried many many times. Occasionally I can get him to drink from a bowl that I hold up to his face but not often. They gave him sq fluids and after a few weeks of additional water soaked food the limping stopped.
So this current problem is not like what happened last year. This seems worse! I will take him back to UC Davis if necessary but I would prefer not to as it does stress him (not to mention makes my car reek! haha) . I would love to find a tortoise vet who did housecalls to see his whole environment and tell me if I am doing something wrong but I can't find one around my area.
So my questions are: could this be related to something lacking in his environment? I feel like his heated house is not humid enough. Could that be it? How do I add humidity? Is this metabolic bone disease/calcium deficiency? My understanding was that I did not need to supplement calcium to an adult eating mostly grass. I know bladder stones are a concern but he regularly passes liquid urine, urates, and stool so I don't think that is the problem.
Sorry for the long post but any advice would be much appreciated.
Last year he had an episode of limping on one hind limb. His shell would hit the ground over his back left leg with every other step. What he is doing right now is nothing like that episode - right now he seems like he is just too weak to lift his whole weight. When the limping happened last year I took him to UC Davis Teaching Hospital exotics department and they did xrays and bloodwork. His xrays were fine and his bloodwork showed dehydration or possibly kidney disease. The doc was more suspicious it was just dehydration which was a shock to me as he was eating great and I often added water to his food and made sure the sprinklers came on early every AM so the grass was wet when he came out to graze. I have never been able to get him to drink much - I know everyone says soak them to make them drink but Boris just refuses to drink while being soaked - I have tried many many times. Occasionally I can get him to drink from a bowl that I hold up to his face but not often. They gave him sq fluids and after a few weeks of additional water soaked food the limping stopped.
So this current problem is not like what happened last year. This seems worse! I will take him back to UC Davis if necessary but I would prefer not to as it does stress him (not to mention makes my car reek! haha) . I would love to find a tortoise vet who did housecalls to see his whole environment and tell me if I am doing something wrong but I can't find one around my area.
So my questions are: could this be related to something lacking in his environment? I feel like his heated house is not humid enough. Could that be it? How do I add humidity? Is this metabolic bone disease/calcium deficiency? My understanding was that I did not need to supplement calcium to an adult eating mostly grass. I know bladder stones are a concern but he regularly passes liquid urine, urates, and stool so I don't think that is the problem.
Sorry for the long post but any advice would be much appreciated.
