Foods to clean out the digestive tract?

[CrystalsFamily]

I have had quite a saga with our Russian Tortoise Crystal (see this very long thread if interested in many, many details: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/worried-about-inactive-tortoise-in-ne-please-advise.89528/) and now have a pretty good hypothesis that his not eating and not being very active has to do with being blocked/constipated. (He has pooped out a couple of oblong hard- and fibrous-looking things a couple of times now and improved afterward, but then backslid). So.... are there any foods or other things anyone knows of that might help tortoises to clear this kind of thing? (If I could get him to eat it, given the lack of appetite. Most of the last 38 days he has eaten nothing.)

 

[Yvonne G]

canned pumpkin (not pie filling), aloe plant, watery fruit

 

[Kirin]

cactus pads, watermelon, and pumkin.

 

[CrystalsFamily]

Thanks, Yvonne and Kirin. I heard he was eating watermelon when he was feeling better (we were away and the petsitter reported), but he's not now. I've put out canned pumpkin (organic, from BPA-free tetra pack, actually) a number of times and he hasn't touched it. I will keep offering those anyway. Don't think I can get my hands on cactus pads here in New England, but I've seen aloe vera fronds in the produce section -- just cut it into small bits?

 

[marcy4hope]

i don't know about russians, but i had a sulcata that had bladder stones over a year ago and wasn't eating anything at all. i gave her baths/soaks in canned pumpkin mixed in the water twice a day, and sometimes added gatorade. after 1 week, her eating improved greatly and at her 3 month check-up the bladder stones were gone.

 

[leigti]

Cucumbers have a lot of water in them and my Russian tortoise loves them. That might help with constipation. I just cut it up into slices and feed it to him peel and all.

 

[CrystalsFamily]

i don't know about russians, but i had a sulcata that had bladder stones over a year ago and wasn't eating anything at all. i gave her baths/soaks in canned pumpkin mixed in the water twice a day, and sometimes added gatorade. after 1 week, her eating improved greatly and at her 3 month check-up the bladder stones were gone.

Interesting. How did you know it was bladder stones? That isn't something the vet mentioned.

I have been soaking 2-3X/day this whole time, once in baby food, might be a good idea to rotate pumpkin into that.

 

[CrystalsFamily]

Cucumbers have a lot of water in them and my Russian tortoise loves them. That might help with constipation. I just cut it up into slices and feed it to him peel and all.

He used to love zuke, which is also very watery, but hasn't been going for it. Wouldn't hurt to try cuke!

 

[marcy4hope]

I had xrays done at the vet, and that's how we discovered it was bladder stones.

 

[Elohi]

I'm going to say again, despite it's earlier mention, cactus pads. Those babies will help an elephant poop a boulder.


Elohi(Earth)

 

[Tom]

CF,
Has this tortoise been x-rayed?

 

[Evy]

CF,
Has this tortoise been x-rayed?

Is that bad for Tortoises ?



Blue (European hunt-mix dog)
Dolly (Yorkie dog)
Penny (Sulcata)

 

[Tom]

No. It would tell you whether you are, or are not, dealing with stones or intestinal obstruction.

 

[CrystalsFamily]

No. It would tell you whether you are, or are not, dealing with stones or intestinal obstruction.

No, he hasn't been x-rayed. I am wondering about that given the above discussion. But -- would it inform treatment in any way? It sounds like I would just keep doing what I'm doing even if it was stones or an obstruction? If so, I'm not sure I see the utility of an x-ray. The vet I saw wasn't hopeful about any tests yielding useful info despite their expense (she was talking about CT scans, I think). I would have to take him to a vet hospital for that. Which would also give me a second opinion. But again, with there being some improvement (3 steps forward, 2 steps back variety), I'm not sure if the timing is right for that....

Also heard on another thread that cactus pads can be ordered online. (Don't think I can get them here in New England. Was just in AZ and could have grabbed some while on a hike! But I didn't really know what I was doing -- what type or whether they would stay fresh enough for when we got home.)

Today I made the piles of pumpkin and watermelon large, with just a little bit of greens on the side, in the hopes that this might interest him more in those foods. When he does nibble (and I mean, just a little nibbling), it always seems to be on the leafy greens. He's never liked fruit -- seems to be a naturally healthy eater when he's well!

Open to further input about utility of x-ray/2nd vet opinion.... It's been well over a month since he was really well, despite brief partial improvement after passing the first hard-looking thing.

 

[Maggie Cummings]

Justa thought, but please make sure your lighting, heat, humidity are all correct also. In my experience, tortoises don't get constipated that often, not like us anyway, and one fed mostly grocery store produce has soft liquidy poops much of the time anyway. For an animal that 'used' to eat/poop good something must have happened to change all that. I'm wondering about the quality of your Vet...(just saying). Please keep up the babyfood soaks, he needs some nutrition...good luck and keep us posted

 

[CrystalsFamily]

Justa thought, but please make sure your lighting, heat, humidity are all correct also. In my experience, tortoises don't get constipated that often, not like us anyway, and one fed mostly grocery store produce has soft liquidy poops much of the time anyway. For an animal that 'used' to eat/poop good something must have happened to change all that. I'm wondering about the quality of your Vet...(just saying). Please keep up the babyfood soaks, he needs some nutrition...good luck and keep us posted

There are many, many details about the saga, with much advice and learning and effort on my part, here, if you want them: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/worried-about-inactive-tortoise-in-ne-please-advise.89528/
I just brought it over to this diet forum too, with the question about foods that might help. I have been soaking 2-3X/day this whole time and will continue to do so. As to what might have happened, my theory is that it was something at the petstore that he ate that he shouldn't have, or maybe he was dehydrated or too cool there, which led to the blockage. This all started about 2 weeks after we brought him home, and I know their systems are slow, so I'm thinking it just caught up with him then. For about 3 days he didn't eat (adjustment), then ramped up to a good healthy appetite and activity by the one week mark and stayed that way for another week and a half before he got sick.

The vet seems smart and attentive to me, but I think has general reptile experience, not necessarily a lot of tortoise-specific.

 

[ascott]

I would bring the tort, a towel, plastic container all into the bathroom. Shut the door, stuff the towel under the door and set the tortoise up in the soaking container in warm water...then place the container out of the way so that you can turn the shower on and turn it to the hottest setting and let the bathroom fill with steam and warmth....let the tort soak for about 15 minutes while this is going on...then I would turn the water to a warm setting acceptable for the tortoise and I would plug the tub and then set the tortoise in the bathtub and let him move about in the tub in the warm water with the steam / warmth filled room for another 20 or 30 minutes....I would try this each day until positive results appear....
Exercise and warmth will do wonders for a backed up tortoise....

Also, if the tort prefers leafy greens then offer some romaine lettuce, red leaf and green leaf lettuce, all of which are high in water content...Russians traditionally like foods that are red in color (strawberry, bell pepper and such) see if Crystal will eat some and if so then you can place a bit of mineral oil in a bite sized piece of the accepted treat food and this will also help to lubricate from inside....

I would also bump the temp in the basking spot to 110-115 and pour some water in the substrate directly beneath the basking light, I would also cover the top of the enclosure tightly to allow humidity/warmth to balance out some....I also would make sure that you are running a night heat source to make sure that the enclosure does not fall below 80 degrees ever while the tort is ailing....

 

[CrystalsFamily]

I would bring the tort, a towel, plastic container all into the bathroom. Shut the door, stuff the towel under the door and set the tortoise up in the soaking container in warm water...then place the container out of the way so that you can turn the shower on and turn it to the hottest setting and let the bathroom fill with steam and warmth....let the tort soak for about 15 minutes while this is going on...then I would turn the water to a warm setting acceptable for the tortoise and I would plug the tub and then set the tortoise in the bathtub and let him move about in the tub in the warm water with the steam / warmth filled room for another 20 or 30 minutes....I would try this each day until positive results appear....
Exercise and warmth will do wonders for a backed up tortoise....

Also, if the tort prefers leafy greens then offer some romaine lettuce, red leaf and green leaf lettuce, all of which are high in water content...Russians traditionally like foods that are red in color (strawberry, bell pepper and such) see if Crystal will eat some and if so then you can place a bit of mineral oil in a bite sized piece of the accepted treat food and this will also help to lubricate from inside....

I would also bump the temp in the basking spot to 110-115 and pour some water in the substrate directly beneath the basking light, I would also cover the top of the enclosure tightly to allow humidity/warmth to balance out some....I also would make sure that you are running a night heat source to make sure that the enclosure does not fall below 80 degrees ever while the tort is ailing....

Wow, this is a lot of new advice for me to try! Thank you! In some ways it brings me full circle -- first advice from forum and vet was warm that tort up! Then later there was a scare with my temperature readings where I thought I had warmed things up too much -- now I use an infrared gun to take temps. (Covered a lot of good husbandry tweaking on the other thread.) But I have probably been a little conservative since then about warming him up. We stopped running night heat around then, as it had also started to warm up here so that it wasn't going below 65. Plus I didn't really have any idea what was wrong for a long time. Now that I have some evidence suggesting that he's blocked, it makes a lot of sense to go after the warming again, and I like this bathtub methodology!

Again today he walked over the piles of watermelon and pumpkin and went for the greens, so more watery types of greens is a good idea. One other person mentioned mineral oil, but didn't know how much, and I've been hesitant to try it, since it's, you know, not food, and I don't know for sure that he's constipated. But you think it's safe to try? Do you have some experience with it?

 

[CrystalsFamily]

So I did the deluxe spa treatment, and much excitement ensued! First of all, he moved around in the big bathtub a lot more than he has in a long time, which can only be good. Second, I got flashed! I have seen the many, many alarmed posts about what popped out of a new tortoise-owners tortoise, in which they are reassured that this is just their tortoise's "manhood." Nonetheless, I'm going to post a few pics here, because I wasn't expecting it to be so large and dark brown--I thought it was poop at first, but it went back in all three times, and pee came out each time. On the underside, there was the telltale pink spot. Can someone just let me know if this looks right?

 

[mikeh]

Glad to hear he is eating something. Is he more active now?

Hopefully @ascott will chime in on the mineral oil details.

What substrate are you using? Any possibility it was new to him when you got him, he tried to eat it and now its a problem? Does what came out resemble it?

Not to alarm you further but, while flashing is normal, given his condition I would start monitoring how often it occurs, if it retracts easily and if he seems to be struggling while its happening. There have been couple threads where a lethargic/sick tortoise started to flash, eventually not retracting and ultimately passing away, pointing to something wrong was happening on the inside. Perhaps keep that Xray option open.