Throwing up

[Trisha0023]

Help! Our red foot is 3 years old. Havent had any problems with him thus far. But today during his soak he started throwing up! It was scary. His poop also looked light and some of it was loose. Maybe just something he ate? Unfortunately all vets are closed. I made the mistake of googling and read a story of how a red foot started throwing up then died the next day. Any advice helps!

 

[lismar79]

I have no advice but I hope someone on here can help soon!

 

[naturalman91]

What are temps humidity and diet? Need more information to go on but I'd get to a vet when you can

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Yep, I'd get to a vet as soon as possible
Make sure it's a recognized herp vet, as some of the ordinary dog and cat type vets are worse than useless

 

[Pearly]

I am sorry to hear your tort is unwell. The rule of thumb for illness is to keep them warm and soak, soak, soak until you can get her to the vet. My fingers crossed for you. Keep us posted.

 

[Redstrike]

+1 to vet when they open.
There is a list of vets here on the forum. Last I knew it was organized by state.

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/forums/tortoise-vet-list.126/

 

[cdmay]

If it was just he one incident I would wait a day or so before doing anything with a vet.
Keep him in good conditions...warm, humid and the rest, and monitor his behavior and eating.
Assuming that he has not been exposed to any new animals, I doubt that it's a disease issue.
It may simply be that he ingested too much water at once, or ate something that caused the problem.
If he shows more symptoms after a couple of days, then seek a veterinary solution.

 

[Mike05]

One of my tortoises threw up a while back and his stool was loose. It was after feeding pieces of a hard boiled egg. After a day or so he was perfectly fine. Evidently it did not agree with him at all. I started feeding my tortoises pinkie mice for their protein instead. Haven't had the first issue since.

 

[inkling13]

I'll second the hard boiled egg issue. The only instance I've had of a tort throwing up (with some very nasty loose stool as well) was within a few hours of eating a hard boiled egg. She'd eaten them fine in the past but had a bad reaction that time. I had never even heard of a tort throwing up before that day and was very alarmed. I found some instances on the forum here of other's who had bad experiences with eggs and I don't feed them at all now. Anyway, when it happened to my girl I soaked her, did a full bedding change (it stank to high heaven and I didn't know if the irritant came from there), and tentatively offered food later in the day. She gobbled down the food without a second thought and had no further issues so we held off on the vet at that time. I can't say your situation is the same or even similar but I figured I'd add my two cents just in case it helped. Good luck, and if they still show signs of digestive upset a vet visit is definitely in order.

 

[cdmay]

Yeah...skip feeding eggs.
The reason I gave the above advice was because I've had perfectly healthy long term tortoises barf on rare occasions....literally just a couple of times I think. In each instance the tortoise ate a bunch of food after drinking a lot of water. One time it was after the tortoise had been inside for a few days due to bad weather outside. When she was put back out, she drank a load of water and then ate a lot of food. Puked a little bit later.
But was fine after that.

 

[Raymo2477]

I don't like eggs for my torts.

I use mice. I also keep Ball Pyrhons, Corns, and Hogs so every now and then one snake won't eat and I throw the mouse to the Redfoots.

 

[Pearly]

Interesting about the eggs.... I've never had a problem and know of many forum members smashing a whole cooked egg, with shell and giving to their RF's... I have given mine hard boiled few times, and scrambled couple times (no salt or anything, just plain egg). I have also used the yolk of the poached egg to run over the piled fresh chopped greens to encourage my babies's interest in them (the greens). I will be watching them closer next time after they get some eggs