Cloverhand
New Member
My 8 month old sulcata has become sick over the past week now. I took him to the vet in my area who works with reptiles (after reading some other sick sulcata forums I am questioning what he told me).
Here is the issue:
1: his food intake decreased drastically and he became very lethargic which did get better. Since going to the vet and trying to give him the critical care supplement that he told me to give, his food intake has nearly stopped again. He told me to syringe feed but prying his mouth open seems wrong.
2: my tortoise (Pixel) has not gained weight since April (he told me this could be ok) i feel it is malnuishment. His shell is also still soft (he did say not ok) despite every attempt to follow the feed suggests in other forums from Tom and calcium supplement twice a week. So needless to say he weight 54g.
3: if syringe feeding is ok. How the heck do you do this?
4: the things I know you wanna know
Temp in basking area is 90°f daytime, 85°f in the cooler side. At night it is 80°f. I used a uva/uvb heat light and a ceramic daytime and ceramic coil night time.
Humidity is low and I have found misters and fog machines but I need to turn the enclosure into a closed system also which I haven't figured the best way to do either. Humidity runs between 50-55%.
Substrate is coconut coir. I live in Harrisburg PA area so it is too cold to go outside right now so he does not get out currently. He does have water in the enclosure and he has two hides.
My biggest concern is that I am going to make him worse by trying to make him better. So any suggestions to get him healthy again I will take.
Here is the issue:
1: his food intake decreased drastically and he became very lethargic which did get better. Since going to the vet and trying to give him the critical care supplement that he told me to give, his food intake has nearly stopped again. He told me to syringe feed but prying his mouth open seems wrong.
2: my tortoise (Pixel) has not gained weight since April (he told me this could be ok) i feel it is malnuishment. His shell is also still soft (he did say not ok) despite every attempt to follow the feed suggests in other forums from Tom and calcium supplement twice a week. So needless to say he weight 54g.
3: if syringe feeding is ok. How the heck do you do this?
4: the things I know you wanna know
Temp in basking area is 90°f daytime, 85°f in the cooler side. At night it is 80°f. I used a uva/uvb heat light and a ceramic daytime and ceramic coil night time.
Humidity is low and I have found misters and fog machines but I need to turn the enclosure into a closed system also which I haven't figured the best way to do either. Humidity runs between 50-55%.
Substrate is coconut coir. I live in Harrisburg PA area so it is too cold to go outside right now so he does not get out currently. He does have water in the enclosure and he has two hides.
My biggest concern is that I am going to make him worse by trying to make him better. So any suggestions to get him healthy again I will take.