Something's wrong with my red-footed tortoise, need help!

[Margalota23]

How do I give her antibiotics? And which exactly does she need. I separated them to avoid having the other getting infected as well, the other is really sick, she left a couple of mucosity puddles today. I want to focus first on aiding her condition before moving forward with the other things I must fix like the whole enclosure and their diet. Also Is it safe for me to be in contact with her, right? I won't get any disease right?

 

[Margalota23]

Pearly:

1) No I haven't. I don't have any excuse.
2) No, I won't be able. Lighting alone is 50x times my wage (here). I don't want to imagine how much does it cost both the lighting and the heating; Temps and Humidity I don't know their levels, I don't own whatever ppl use to measure them.
3) I don't, Don't know how, and I'm pretty sure I don't have the means to do it.
4) No, I just want to help her first with her disease before fixing my mistakes on their care.
5) Not yet, I'm afraid.
6) No, I just been alternating between Hibiscus and Lettuce.
7) I feel like a total moron, I don't even know what that is.
8) No, I haven't changed their enclosure yet.
9) I've been soaking them everyday in warm water since she started to present odd symptoms
10) No, At the beggining of my post I stated that it won't be possible due to the expensiveness of it. If I could have gone to vet in the first place, I would've definitely gone without hesitating.

 

[SarahChelonoidis]

With tortoises, fixing care is part of fixing disease. Tortoises need to be warm for their immune system to function properly. They also need to be able to synthesize vitamin d (so they need UVB light) to process the calcium they eat (cuddle bone is a good extra calcium source) and be properly hydrated. Antibiotics will not work if the care is not correct. A tortoise that is too cold, malnourished, or dehydrated will not be able to fight off infection.

If you cannot measure temperatures, you don't have the means to care for a tortoise and should consider rehoming them to someone who can.

 

[Pearly]

Sweetie, now I feel like a moron I apologize if all those questions were intimidating to you. This was not a personal attack, I was just trying to get on this same page with you in order to help you help your sick tort. I guess the first question I should have asked was: what's your location?

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Can you also supply Hibiscus leaves? (Not just the flowers)The leaves are very nutritious.
No personal attack here, either. I just want you to realize how dire the situation seems to be.

 

[Pearly]

How do I give her antibiotics? And which exactly does she need. I separated them to avoid having the other getting infected as well, the other is really sick, she left a couple of mucosity puddles today. I want to focus first on aiding her condition before moving forward with the other things I must fix like the whole enclosure and their diet. Also Is it safe for me to be in contact with her, right? I won't get any disease right?

The antibiotic needs to be prescribed by the vet. But then... again: what's your location? Your circumstances might be different

 

[martaemha]

Margalota23,
The condition of your tort seems extremely severe. You wrote about mucus puddles, this just sounds terrible.If this is a respiratory infection she needs to have appropriate temps and these are provided with lighting. She also needs a varied diet and at this point probably medicines. We will not know which ones unless you take her to a vet.

You will not save a sick tort with such a limited diet, inappropriate conditions and without being able to provide veterinary care. I don't want you to think that I am being rude and personally attacking you, but the fact is that if you can't provide appropriate conditions for your torts then you should consider giving them away to somebody who will.

If you let us know what your location is maybe we will be able to at least find a vet that would agree to see her and not charge for the visit.

@Pearly your RF enclosure is the most beautiful thing I've seen!

 

[Pearly]

Margalota23,
The condition of your tort seems extremely severe. You wrote about mucus puddles, this just sounds terrible.If this is a respiratory infection she needs to have appropriate temps and these are provided with lighting. She also needs a varied diet and at this point probably medicines. We will not know which ones unless you take her to a vet.

You will not save a sick tort with such a limited diet, inappropriate conditions and without being able to provide veterinary care. I don't want you to think that I am being rude and personally attacking you, but the fact is that if you can't provide appropriate conditions for your torts then you should consider giving them away to somebody who will.

If you let us know what your location is maybe we will be able to at least find a vet that would agree to see her and not charge for the visit.

@Pearly your RF enclosure is the most beautiful thing I've seen!

Thank you for the compliment. I too, felt, Margalota may have jumped into tortoise babies illprepared, but we really don't know the whole situation and I try not to jump into conclusions before knowing the facts. Different parts of the world have different standards for care of animals. I like to think that all of us do our absolute best with what we've got for our pets

 

[Margalota23]

No, no guys I do not feel attacked whatsoever. In fact I appreciate all the help you've been giving to me and my torts.So...by location, you mean what? my country? I've stated a couple of times that I live in Venezuela. As you said, Pearly, we do our absoulte best with what we've got for our pets, but that's a huge problem here, we can barely take care of ourselves due to the AWFULLY OVERWHELMING Economic and political crisis we are currently experiencing here in Venezuela. Even if you had the means to take proper care of yourself and a pet, you'll be facing another problem, and that would be to find whatever you need to take care of the pet like the food or the meds.

 

[Margalota23]

Ok, so Is the UVB totally necessary? because I'm totally sure I can't afford it. Also, how do I get the enclosure to have the temperature and the humidity level they need to survive?

 

[Sara G.]

If you can't get your tort outside several times a week for several hours then yes the UVB is 100% necessary.
Personally, even if you can get your tort outside I would still recommend it.

 

[Sara G.]

To give them heat you need to have the proper heat lamps set up but if your enclosure is open on top you might have a hard time keeping the heat in.
You could try enclosing your tank/enclosure. Some people use plexi glass with holes cut out for the lights, others use plywood with the holes cut out. Sometimes you can hook it up so the lights hang inside the tank, which is even better, provided the lights are at a safe distance away from your torts.

Enclosing your tort's home will also keep the humidity in.

 

[JoesMum]

Your tort must be able to bask in order to become active and digest it's food. If you are keeping it indoors you MUST have a basking lamp - a regular household reflector bulb from a hardware store will do the job.

Your tort must get UVB in order to create vitamin D3 which helps to absorb calcium in its diet. The sun is a great source, but it needs to be outdoors and not through glass for several hours a week. Otherwise a UVB lamp is the only option.

If you cannot do both then your tort should be rehomed.

 

[Pearly]

My babies don't bask. They seem to always seek shelter from the bright light. That goes for their nursery tank and outdoors as well. I remember worrying at the beginning about their health because of this. Then heard from more and more RF keepers that this behavior is quite normal for this species as in a wild they do spend most of their lives foraging on forest floor. Another thing I wanted to throw in is that the PO's location maybe pretty close to the RF natural climate depending on where in Venezuela. Coast would be different than the Andes which brings me to my point: I think they may be ok without the uv lamp IF THEY GET TO SPEND ENOUGH TIME OUTDOORS in tort safe enclosure. The only thing I'd worry about would be keeping them warm enough. For the 11 months I've been caring for our babies I've been making sure that their temps don't fall below 80F. And that's what I drill into my kids who often want to pitch in with the tort chores: "remember, they are tropical species, and anything below 80F is TOO COLD for them". They love it warm and humid. It is important to measure temps at the ground level and not "up in the air" because the torts stay there the whole time. Warm air travels up so ground temp maybe be much lower then what the wall thermometer shows. What is your climate like? Just remember: keep them WARM! I have low 80's on my dark end of their emclosure and 85-86 where the UVB and basking lights are. I'm not sure what the direct basking temp is, I don't check it anymore as those babies never go there. They need to be warm to digest their food, I think I read somewhere that their internal temps must be at least 85F. Also sick tort can not/will not recover from illness if their metabolic rate is slow in cool temps so the golden standard of caring for sick tort is : BUMP UP TEMPS to 85F. To us it may feel stifling but the sick torts' immune system can then wake up enough to fight off infections. With minor RI's (like the common colds we get) keeping them warm and humid may be enough, but your description makes me think this may be beyond the common cold. She may need antibiotics but whatever you do, PLEASE KEEP HER WARM.

 

[Pearly]

How do I give her antibiotics? And which exactly does she need. I separated them to avoid having the other getting infected as well, the other is really sick, she left a couple of mucosity puddles today. I want to focus first on aiding her condition before moving forward with the other things I must fix like the whole enclosure and their diet. Also Is it safe for me to be in contact with her, right? I won't get any disease right?

And sorry I didn't address this important question in my prior post. Yes, we can contract some diseases from animals but with keeping universal precautions (mainly good handwashing) it is unlikely. Catching most common respiratory infections from torts in most cases: very low chance. Just make sure to keep thingsclean and always WASH YOUR HANDS with water and soap after each time you handle them

 

[Anyfoot]

No, no guys I do not feel attacked whatsoever. In fact I appreciate all the help you've been giving to me and my torts.So...by location, you mean what? my country? I've stated a couple of times that I live in Venezuela. As you said, Pearly, we do our absoulte best with what we've got for our pets, but that's a huge problem here, we can barely take care of ourselves due to the AWFULLY OVERWHELMING Economic and political crisis we are currently experiencing here in Venezuela. Even if you had the means to take proper care of yourself and a pet, you'll be facing another problem, and that would be to find whatever you need to take care of the pet like the food or the meds.

I have not read this thread so excuse me if someone already asked.
What are your temps outside where you live, in Venezuela. Is this not where your redfoot torts are native to?

 

[Kori5]

Maybe I have a more direct approach then other members and I apologise if I'm gonna insult you by saying this. But your tortoise is going to die if you don't take her to the vet. It is a serious situation and you come here back and forth, seek for advice when really, all you can do to save her life is to take her to the vet. They're gonna weight her and give her baytril or some other antibiotics. I don't think you realise how serious this is. Later you can discuss your husbandary with members experienced in redfoots. Loan some money, sell something, beg the vet...anything.