Gennifer11
Active Member
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2015
- Messages
- 138
I have an estimated 7 month Sulcata named Leo. When we first bought him from a pet store I had done all the research online and was ready to go. After we got him home he seemed to get sick and he just kept getting worse. He had the bubbles from the nose, trouble breathing, and sqeaking when he couldn't breath etc. We took him to the vet and got some antibiotics and other recommendations. We tried the shots and when those didn't work, we tried the 45 day oral antibiotics. By the end of the 45 days he seemed much better. We even went back to the pet store and complained about how the poor little guy was on an iceberg lettuce diet, no vitamins, no calcium and he was in an aquarium tank, the pet sore also never bring their reptiles to the vet like petsmart will, they ended up giving us our money back for the tortoise.
It's been about 3 weeks and $400 vet money since we stopped antibiotics but the symptoms seem to be lurking back. He has the bubbly nose, mostly for awhile after his soaking, he squeaks occasionally, and he is so lazy. I thought we kicked the respiratory infection in the butt. So I need some advice. Does this sound like a lifetime issue? Am I doing something wrong?
Here is my info: It's winter here in VA, so we are house bound.
Enclosure contains basking mercury vapor UVB light kept between 95-115°F (when he started getting sick again we increased the temp from about 90-100° to current temp), a night red IR heat lamp so he's not cold kept at 75-85°, coconut husk substrate kept mostly moist on basking half of enclosure, dry Timothy hay on other half (I just bought a heated mat to go under enclosure container under hay section since the house is pretty chilly) he has rocks to climb on, hay to hide in, alway a small dish of water even though he never uses it, and I've been feeding him a new diet for the past 2-3 months which includes MAZURI pellets (recommend by the vet since they are one of the only tortoise food producers that is regulated and tested) but I saw there is a lot of protein in there so I do half of that and half of the zoo - med grassland tortoise pellets. He eats almost a full pellet size by the end of the day. I also try to pick his favorite clover type plants outside when the weather permits. If that isn't available I sometimes offer kale (he hates it), cucumbers, just introduced Brussel sprouts, on the rare occasion I will give him Romain lettuce or drop of pumpkin puree. Other foods I've tried that he doesn't like, carrots, all fruits, tomatoes, peppers, he even managed to find a little chunk of boiled egg yolk on the floor and chowed down (that was great to catch him doing...) Let's see, besides that I give him a 15 min soak everyday, twice a day now that he seems to be sick again. When he is rest less I will let him run around the living room, he loves it until he's tired then he will find somewhere to hide and wait for me to find him...at least he is getting exercise. The only type of deformity he "could" have is his face is always crusty and peeling, near his mouth and nose it looks like he has smooth skin (I would imagine he rubbed all the 'scales/scutes??' away.)
Let me know if you have any questions or comments please. I love this little guy like a child, I would hate to have anything happen to him.
-Gennifer
It's been about 3 weeks and $400 vet money since we stopped antibiotics but the symptoms seem to be lurking back. He has the bubbly nose, mostly for awhile after his soaking, he squeaks occasionally, and he is so lazy. I thought we kicked the respiratory infection in the butt. So I need some advice. Does this sound like a lifetime issue? Am I doing something wrong?
Here is my info: It's winter here in VA, so we are house bound.
Enclosure contains basking mercury vapor UVB light kept between 95-115°F (when he started getting sick again we increased the temp from about 90-100° to current temp), a night red IR heat lamp so he's not cold kept at 75-85°, coconut husk substrate kept mostly moist on basking half of enclosure, dry Timothy hay on other half (I just bought a heated mat to go under enclosure container under hay section since the house is pretty chilly) he has rocks to climb on, hay to hide in, alway a small dish of water even though he never uses it, and I've been feeding him a new diet for the past 2-3 months which includes MAZURI pellets (recommend by the vet since they are one of the only tortoise food producers that is regulated and tested) but I saw there is a lot of protein in there so I do half of that and half of the zoo - med grassland tortoise pellets. He eats almost a full pellet size by the end of the day. I also try to pick his favorite clover type plants outside when the weather permits. If that isn't available I sometimes offer kale (he hates it), cucumbers, just introduced Brussel sprouts, on the rare occasion I will give him Romain lettuce or drop of pumpkin puree. Other foods I've tried that he doesn't like, carrots, all fruits, tomatoes, peppers, he even managed to find a little chunk of boiled egg yolk on the floor and chowed down (that was great to catch him doing...) Let's see, besides that I give him a 15 min soak everyday, twice a day now that he seems to be sick again. When he is rest less I will let him run around the living room, he loves it until he's tired then he will find somewhere to hide and wait for me to find him...at least he is getting exercise. The only type of deformity he "could" have is his face is always crusty and peeling, near his mouth and nose it looks like he has smooth skin (I would imagine he rubbed all the 'scales/scutes??' away.)
Let me know if you have any questions or comments please. I love this little guy like a child, I would hate to have anything happen to him.
-Gennifer