Eye concern

[Court562]

I just purchased a 6 month old P. P. Leopard Tortoise two days ago l. I'm new to the whole tortoises secen. I've had many bearded dragons and crested geckos, but I've never seen any of them with eye problems. My girl seems healthy and is eating, drinking, and popping just fine. But she keeps her eyes closed all the time and has what appears to be white skin or pus on both eyes. When she dose open her eyes, I can still see the white stuff. Is this normal or is something wrong? Temps are 90 hot side, 70 cool with two hiding spots and a water dish. What do you recommend?

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi, and welcome to the Forum!

There are a bunch of reasons why a baby tortoise keeps his eyes closed. I'll try to address the most common.

Are you using one of the coil-shaped compact fluorescent bulbs? If so, turn it off immediately. Those bulbs are known to cause a painful condition similar to snow-blindness in baby tortoises. To sooth the eyes you can buy this from your vet or a feed store:

If that's not the reason, then I see a glaring reason in your pictures. Baby tortoises need to be kept moist/humid. You can't achieve humidity in a dry, paper-towel lined habitat. He needs a 4 or 5" substrate that can be moistened, and the top of the enclosure covered to keep in the moist air as it evaporates.

I don't think he has a respiratory infection, but keeping the habitat between 80 and 85F degrees all over (no hot or cool side), and covered, will help at any rate.

 

[Court562]

What type of substrate do you recommend? I'd like to be as cheap as possible.

 

[Court562]

I'm using this...

 

[Yvonne G]

Take your baby out every morning and place him in a small bowl of warm water that he can't climb out of. Leave him in there for about 15 minutes.

Buy a brick of coco coir and place it in a 5 gallon bucket. Pour hot water over it. After about a half hour, it should have fallen apart. Then you can press and drain out the water and use it in your tortoise habitat.

In order to keep him warm during the soak, you can place the bowl back into the habitat at the side of the light, not directly under it. You will have to get rid of the cardboard hiding places with the new moist substrate. Quite a few folks use these:

 

[Markw84]

The powersun is a good bulb Just be sure you don't have it too low - it does produce a good amount of UVB and can cause eye problems if too close. A 100 watt should be about 18' - 24" above tortoise eye height for a leopard in my opinion.

For substrate, Orchid Bark - fine grade is available at home depot and pretty inexpensive. It holds moisture well while allowing the top layer to dry a bit, and will not get mold.

Vitamin A deficiency can also cause eye problems like this. In my experience leopard tortoises are especially prone to this, especially as hatchlings. Looks like romaine and dandelion in there now, which is pretty good for Vitamin A, along with collard greens. I do like romaine for that even though it seems to have a bad rap as a store bought lettuce, but it has the best ratios of vitamins, A and C, along with a great calcium to phosphorus ratio. It just looks lacking in nutrients in the charts because of the water content that skews the ratios of those items. Cut off the thicker, whiter parts of the stems and feed only the greenest parts and it is a good part of a varied diet. If you did an analysis of just the leafy dark green parts, without the huge water content of the stem, it would be amongst the best foods.

Have you got your tortoise eating Mazuri yet? For me it's like a 2-3 time per week addition to ensure better vitamins, calcium and trace D3 moistened and served on top of the greens. All my tortoises love it.

 

[Court562]

You guys are being helpful. Just went out and got some substrate at the pet store. I'll post another picture when the setup is done. What do you think of her eye? You think the setup change alone should help her or do I need treatment?

 

[Yvonne G]

Soaking daily for 15 minutes will help with the eyes.

 

[Court562]

How's this?

 

[Court562]

So I just gave her bath number two. I noticed she opened both eyes. Water was slightly warm, she pooped about four times in 20 minutes. Her eyes were opened normal and when I placed her back in her home, both eyes were opened fully. She definitely seems to be getting better. Only problem now is I haven't seen her eat today and took about 6 or 7 poops.

 

[crimson_lotus]

Looks great, just a suggestion would be to cover the mesh top so the humidity stays in.

 

[Court562]

Cover with a board or something? When should I expect her to Seattle in and start eating again? It's been three days that I've had her.