PLEASE HELP: closed eyes, weak, not eating

lovebugaphid

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our new 3 month old Leo has been with us for 5 days it has not eaten much since it got to us, I have not seen it drink either, eyes are closed and possibly sunken, sleeps all day & rarely moves around enclosure. we have a powersun 100 watt UVA/UVB BULB, A 150 watt CHE, substrate is cypress mulch & organic soil, cooler side of enclosure is above 80F & warmer side is above 90F with a basking area around 100F. the tort hasn't eaten much since getting to us, very little if any. we have zoo med grassland tortoise pellets, spring mix & wheatgrass we have been offering the tort. we have been giving it warm water soaks, baby food soaks, & pedialyte soaks. I believe the tort may be dehydrated.

PLEASE help with suggestions of treatment. there are no reliable reptile vets in our area, only ONE place treats reptiles & their knowledge is very limited on tortoises.
 

Greg T

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Your setup sounds pretty good. Have you been dusting the food with calcium powder? I've seen similar symptoms with calcium deficiency. The best bet for food is chopped up spring mix or red/green lettuce. I suggest you start feeding the lettuce with powder and get him outside in direct sunlight for at least 30 minutes as many times a week as possible. Keep doing the warm soaks.
 

lovebugaphid

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Your setup sounds pretty good. Have you been dusting the food with calcium powder? I've seen similar symptoms with calcium deficiency. The best bet for food is chopped up spring mix or red/green lettuce. I suggest you start feeding the lettuce with powder and get him outside in direct sunlight for at least 30 minutes as many times a week as possible. Keep doing the warm soaks.

thank you so much for your response. I'm just worried since the tort hasn't been eating much. do you have any other suggestions to get calcium in their systems beside the calcium powder in the food? for example, a calcium soak? would that help?
 

lismar79

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You can add a can of squash or carrot baby food to your soak water too, not for calcium but as nourishment. Some times they take a while to settle in to a new enviroment, but the eye thing is a concern.....
 

lovebugaphid

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You can add a can of squash or carrot baby food to your soak water too, not for calcium but as nourishment. Some times they take a while to settle in to a new enviroment, but the eye thing is a concern.....

thank you for your reply. we've been doing carrot baby food soaks which really seems to wake the tort up. the little guy is much more energetic, eyes open & active after soaks. but after a while it goes back to eyes closed, barely moving again. thanks for your help & we'll keep up the baby food soaks
 

lismar79

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Sorry I just seen that you had mentioned thatin you first post... when I had a sim issue my vet recommended offering orange, red, and yellow foods. Butternut Squash & raddiccho is a fav.
 

Levi the Leopard

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I'm sad to read ...

Do you know how this baby was started before you bought it?
How they spend their first hours, days, weeks before coming home with you plays a HUGE role in their future..
 

ascott

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Are you keeping high constant humidity in the entire enclosure? Like 80% or more? If yes, then keeping the cooler side at 80 is fine, however, if you are not running the entire enclosure at the high humidity then the cooler side temp you have at over 80 is way too high? and the warm side is 90 and the basking is over a 100? Again, if you are running constant high humidity in the entire enclosure then keeping the cool side at 80 is ok, but if not---you may be baking the little one...how close is the uva/uvb/heat bulb from the top of the tortoise shell?
 

Yvonne G

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Temporarily exchange your Power Sun with a regular 100w incandescent bulb and see if this makes a difference. Your Powersun might be a bit strong on a baby's eyes. If this is the case, when you put it back in, raise it a bit and add some fake plants to diffuse the light and add spots of shade.
 

lovebugaphid

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Are you keeping high constant humidity in the entire enclosure? Like 80% or more? If yes, then keeping the cooler side at 80 is fine, however, if you are not running the entire enclosure at the high humidity then the cooler side temp you have at over 80 is way too high? and the warm side is 90 and the basking is over a 100? Again, if you are running constant high humidity in the entire enclosure then keeping the cool side at 80 is ok, but if not---you may be baking the little one...how close is the uva/uvb/heat bulb from the top of the tortoise shell?

thanks for your reply. we have been keeping constant high humidity at above 80% with a reptifogger humidifer. my apologies for not including that in the original post.
 

lovebugaphid

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I'm sad to read ...

Do you know how this baby was started before you bought it?
How they spend their first hours, days, weeks before coming home with you plays a HUGE role in their future..

the place we got the tort from says they were keeping them in a open top tortoise table, bedding/substrate was husk, with a UVB and 35W bulb. diet was spring mix & mazuri. sigh..my heart is sad. it isn't looking great for the little guy. :(
 

lovebugaphid

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Temporarily exchange your Power Sun with a regular 100w incandescent bulb and see if this makes a difference. Your Powersun might be a bit strong on a baby's eyes. If this is the case, when you put it back in, raise it a bit and add some fake plants to diffuse the light and add spots of shade.

thank you for your reply. we have switched off the powersun since this morning, but it isn't looking too great :( the little guy is extremely lethargic & does not perk up as much as it did after soaks. i've tried baby food soaks, warm water soaks, pedialyte soaks, turning off the bulb, i really dont know what else to do. the little guy won't eat, drink, open its eyes, or move around. it's so disheartening and i feel terrible. we've been trying our very best to provide proper care & husbandry for the little one. im wracked with guilt & worry :( thank you for your help & if you have any other suggestions we can try please let me know. thanks again.
 

Levi the Leopard

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On husk is good. Anything but rabbit pellets. :rolleyes:

Did they soak the baby daily? Provide a water source?

Did you wean your Leopard baby into the hot and humid environment? When they are started that way, they thrive but I'm starting to believe that dry kept babies need to wean into the high humidity or it, too can have fatal results.
 

ascott

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Have you tried to turn all of the humidity creating garb off? I mean, let him dry up a bit...the air may be too heavy for him...as Heather mentioned, it may be too much of a contrast...I know living here in the High Desert in the arid fresh air is fantastic and the moment I am forced to be in a heavy humid hot space all I want to do is pass out and feel sick to my stomach.....at this point I would try to let the air receive some fresh dry air and see what happens....
 

lovebugaphid

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On husk is good. Anything but rabbit pellets. :rolleyes:

Did they soak the baby daily? Provide a water source?

Did you wean your Leopard baby into the hot and humid environment? When they are started that way, they thrive but I'm starting to believe that dry kept babies need to wean into the high humidity or it, too can have fatal results.

they said they soaked them daily. i didn't think to wean them into a humid environment :/ so I've since turned off the humidifier and have just been keeping temperatures high and manually spraying the enclosure with a spray bottle. should I start completely dry again? the little one is about the same as yesterday. weak & not eating. :( he/she seems to have pooped today & yesterday though. maybe it's eating while I'm not around? but eyes are still closed :( thank you for your input I really appreciate it.
 

lovebugaphid

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Have you tried to turn all of the humidity creating garb off? I mean, let him dry up a bit...the air may be too heavy for him...as Heather mentioned, it may be too much of a contrast...I know living here in the High Desert in the arid fresh air is fantastic and the moment I am forced to be in a heavy humid hot space all I want to do is pass out and feel sick to my stomach.....at this point I would try to let the air receive some fresh dry air and see what happens....

yes, after reading heather's comment I turned off the humidifier since yesterday morning. I have kept temperatures the same but have only been spraying the enclosure with a spray bottle. it's significantly drier according to the humidity gauge we have in the enclosure, but not desert dry. thank you for your input I'll try getting in some fresher air into the enclosure. I appreciate your help
 

lovebugaphid

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thank you all for your responses. a quick update on our tort. it's not looking good :( I have not noticed any improvement. we have turned off the UV bulb since Monday. I turned it on for a bit yesterday & the little one moved the most I've ever seen it move in a while AWAY from the bulb. so I turned it off again. the humidifier is also off. all we have on now is the CHE which is keeping the enclosure between 80-93F. & we spray the enclosure throughout the day. we've been keeping up with the baby food soaks, pedialyte soaks and warm water soaks. eyes are still closed, only opens for a very little while during soaks. I have not seen the tort eat or drink. but it continues to poop white-ish creamy stuff. we have been using a dropper to feed the tort. we blended wheatgrass, water, pedialyte, tortoise grassland pellets & liquid calcium then strained it so we only have the juice. we've been able to open the little ones mouth without much resistance & drop a bit of the juice in its mouth. we have also given it a bit of zilla jump start caloric supplement. it's been a week since we've gotten the little guy & it's been the same. eyes closed, not moving around much, weak & not eating or drinking.
 

Yvonne G

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I think this baby was sick when you got it. You should contact the seller and try to exchange it for a healthy one. My guess is that it is suffering from a respiratory infection along with failure-to-thrive syndrome.
 
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