Redfoot baby lethargic and won't eat or open eyes- urgent!

Sylphie

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Jul 14, 2017
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2
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Pennsylvania
We first got Anko about a month ago, and I feel like she never really "perked up"- she (just using that pronoun out of habit rather than actual ability to tell) would rub her eyes quite a bit while eating and some during her soaks, and I've only ever seen her defecate a couple of times since we got her. She rarely eats very much, and although we provide her water, I've never actually seen her use it, nor have I seen substrate in it to lead me to believe she is. We just found an issue today with how we've been keeping her; I wasn't aware that coil UVB bulbs were problematic, so I've ordered a better UVB bulb for her that should be here soon. But this has gotten so much worse in the last few days I'm really worried- she barely touched her food the last few days, and only opens her eyes during her daily soaks, where they still look swollen. Last week my fiance found her flipped over on her back in her enclosure... neither of us have any idea how she managed it, but he righted her as slowly as he could to try to avoid any injury and she couldn't have been that way for more than an hour or so. I fed her around 5:30 PM today and placed her in front of her food, but she has neither eaten nor moved since then. She gets a mix of various fresh veggies by the day with a few fruits thrown in here or there for variance and a small dish of mazuri on the side with tortoise multivitamin mized in. We used to have a calcium supplement block in there for her too, but she didn't touch it and it molded, so any suggestions on a replacement one would be great. It looks to me like her third eyelid is inflamed, but I'm not exactly any expert. D: We've been keeping her on cypress mulch and making sure it stays moist but not soaked. Her temp readings are maybe a little low- we bought a new house recently and have been renovating it from an awful state, and don't have a heater so I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out how to keep her warmer. Right now we have a ceramic heater above her enclosure along with a heat pad on the side, and the basking area reaches 85-90 with the rest hovering mid-70s at night and 78-80 during the day. I'm not sure if those are acceptable temps but if not, please provide any suggestions on how I can improve it! Her humidity has been around 85%.
I've included a photo of her taken this evening.
 

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daniellenc

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Temps aren't that bad but she looks like she's in bad shape for sure. I'd add in some baby food soaks once or even twice a day and get her to a vet.
 

Pearly

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Central Texas, Austin area
70's is too low for a baby. Don't let night temp drop below 80F. She looks sick and I suspect RI, especially if your humidity is 85% and temps drop to 70 at night. I'd bump up her temps to 85F, soak her in warm (95-102F) baths couple times a days, call my vet asking for emergent visit and antibiotic prescription
 

Aunt Caffy

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May 21, 2014
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476
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We first got Anko about a month ago, and I feel like she never really "perked up"- she (just using that pronoun out of habit rather than actual ability to tell) would rub her eyes quite a bit while eating and some during her soaks, and I've only ever seen her defecate a couple of times since we got her. She rarely eats very much, and although we provide her water, I've never actually seen her use it, nor have I seen substrate in it to lead me to believe she is. We just found an issue today with how we've been keeping her; I wasn't aware that coil UVB bulbs were problematic, so I've ordered a better UVB bulb for her that should be here soon. But this has gotten so much worse in the last few days I'm really worried- she barely touched her food the last few days, and only opens her eyes during her daily soaks, where they still look swollen. Last week my fiance found her flipped over on her back in her enclosure... neither of us have any idea how she managed it, but he righted her as slowly as he could to try to avoid any injury and she couldn't have been that way for more than an hour or so. I fed her around 5:30 PM today and placed her in front of her food, but she has neither eaten nor moved since then. She gets a mix of various fresh veggies by the day with a few fruits thrown in here or there for variance and a small dish of mazuri on the side with tortoise multivitamin mized in. We used to have a calcium supplement block in there for her too, but she didn't touch it and it molded, so any suggestions on a replacement one would be great. It looks to me like her third eyelid is inflamed, but I'm not exactly any expert. D: We've been keeping her on cypress mulch and making sure it stays moist but not soaked. Her temp readings are maybe a little low- we bought a new house recently and have been renovating it from an awful state, and don't have a heater so I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out how to keep her warmer. Right now we have a ceramic heater above her enclosure along with a heat pad on the side, and the basking area reaches 85-90 with the rest hovering mid-70s at night and 78-80 during the day. I'm not sure if those are acceptable temps but if not, please provide any suggestions on how I can improve it! Her humidity has been around 85%.
I've included a photo of her taken this evening.
Too low of a temperature combined with high humidity can cause problems. My tortoise went through a period of gaining little to no weight and not eating much. It turned out the temperature was a little too low to digest food, so she didn't eat.
 

TammyJ

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I hope you can get her to a good vet and start treatment, please keep us informed, and keep her warm.
 

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