winking/blinking tort

[Rachel Sobran]

my russian tortoise is only blinking his right eye and not his left one. what the heck! please help.

 

[Yvonne G]

Get some sterile saline solution and squirt some on the eyes with a dropper. You can buy the saline for contact lens users at the pharmacy.

I would suspect there might be something in the RIGHT eye. I don't think I've ever seen my tortoises actually blink unless it went along with yawning or flinching.

 

[Rachel Sobran]

he seldom blinks his left eye, and when he does, never at the same time as his right. he has been like this since i got him on 2/1/15

 

[Rachel Sobran]

is this bad?

 

[mini_max]

My Russian sometimes closes or blinks one eye but not the other. He doesn't have any ocular issue that I'm aware of.

 

[Rachel Sobran]

I have never seen him blink his left eye.

 

[Tom]

We don't know if its bad. As Yvonne said, he's probably got something in that eye, and flushing the eye might dislodge it.

Are you using a coil type UV bulb?

 

[Rachel Sobran]

you mean like a ceramic heat lamp like this?

that goes on top of his bars.

(this is not his but a pic of one on the internet, a penn plax tortoise palace) He also has this:

 

[Tom]

you mean like a ceramic heat lamp like this?

that goes on top of his bars.

(this is not his but a pic of one on the internet, a penn plax tortoise palace) He also has this:

Pics aren't showing.

I'm talking about a coil type cfl florescent bulb. Not a ceramic heating element.

 

[Rachel Sobran]

oh, well then no.