leopard777 - Ahaha :D
I'm pretty sure it was a food-based impaction or constipation due to dehydration or something of the sort. He's been soaking a lot more lately and the day before yesterday was the first time he's eaten by himself in a while. He's on the road to recovery :tort:
Yeah, he's doing his own thing now. I usually leave 2 reptile bowls filled with water, one shallow and one a little deeper with them and he's in one of them right now just sitting down and looking around.
Glad to see he's A LOT more active than he was before the constipation. Had me real...
I've read that birds can eat chili because the capsaicin doesn't affect them the way it does mammals. I think it was because birds are unable to digest seeds the way mammals can, that and and they travel longer distances; so the chili plants evolved to protect against mammals and favor birds...
Okay here's some pictures of the blockage...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/95283715@N06/15597714570/in/photostream/lightbox/
This picture is a bit blurry but it's roughly about 1 5/8" long, excluding the fiber-y bit at the end...
i have a spare syringe given by a vet for my dog's medicine. It has no needle on it and I was thinking of giving my tort about 1/4 of a ml of mineral oil ond applying around and inside. Would that be fine?
I was wondering this after eating some Aloe Vera I was cutting up for my tortoises. When cutting up veggies for them, it's not unusual for me to go ahead and pop a piece of collard/mustard greens, grass, or veggie in my mouth to see what it tastes like. The aloe jelly was actually pretty tasty...
I want to warn ahead of time for the 'TMI' I'm posting below.
But anyways, I have some good news! :) I got some gloves on and, slowly and gently pulled it out without much effort on my part; it actually seemed like he was helping. After I got it out, I can see why he wasn't able to pass it by...
This is him in his separate terrarium, you can see the poop in the back:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/95283715@N06/15780234481/in/photostream/lightbox/
This is a pic of the poop sticking out of his cloaca:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/95283715@N06/15780234791/in/photostream/lightbox/
This is...
Okay thank you Yvonne! I've never thought about that before, but now that you've mentioned it, it makes a lot of sense.
Update: I went to the nearby grocery store and in the pharmacy section, they had "Extra Heavy" TopCare Mineral Oil LUBRICANT LAXATIVE. It was the only one so I bought it. My...
So I'm assuming helping him pass it by breaking it up with some tweezers or gently tugging would be a bad idea. It seems to be dry, (not as dry as it was yesterday) fibrous poop, which is still sticking partly out of his rear end.
Also would pharmacy mineral oil be okay for him? I assume so...
The fir bark isn't easy to break, and pretty large, so I doubt he could've broken it up, let alone swallowed one whole. My little torts aren't very big, about palm-sized.
No aside from their fir bark substrate, which the pieces are pretty large (most pieces are larger than his head) there are no small stones for him to swallow up, just huge ones that they climb on, so that's why I feel it's a constipation issue rather than a compaction issue.
No I haven't exactly cleaned the area,but I'm pretty much certain it's poop. It seems fibrous and "grassy" but pretty dry. I know some people around here have thought that that their tortoise's penis was poop. But I don't think that's the case this time. Does anyone know how to cook or soften...