My sully hasn’t pooped in about 10 days
- Thread starter Nujie
- Start date
chartle
New Member
My African tortoise had the same problem and I put a tiny amount of Mineral oil in a small piece of watermelon and next evening she pooped!
Thanks I tried it yesterday. In the beginning he was clambering to get out of the tub what with the vibration and shaking. But after a while it seems to relax him and he just was peaceful and even seemed to doze off! But sadly....no poop....car ride next then!
I’ve been putting mineral oil in his veggies too but no luck yet. Maybe cause he’s a huge one at 40 kg? Nothing seems to be working and I am thinking of taking him back to the vet. Although I really wish he could poop on his own soon. He’s been soaking in warm water for over 40 minutes everyday now, we increased this from 15-20 minutes to 30 minutes to now 40 minutes.
We started making the water abit deeper too.
How is your tort doing? What's his/her name? I hope you are having luck.
Thanks for asking Ray! My torts name is “srinual” which means “cream colour” in Thai language. When he came to us as a hatchling he was cream colored so my mom named him ( and we thought he was a she so we gave him a most ladylike name!). I finally took him to the doctor yesterday after trying car rides, daily soaks, mineral oil bathed veggies, to no avail. The doctor did an X-ray and it showed that although srinual had poop in his system, he wasn’t severely backed up or impacted and there were no stones or any unusual objects either. So the doctor said maybe he is just getting used to eating again (after a month of no solids at all) and to give him some more time. The doctor gave us liquid paraffin to give him (20ml per day every other day along with his grass/veggies) and some other daily medication to help boost his digestion and system. We will try this for another week and hopefully he will poop. But the doctor didn’t seem too alarmed and told me that he’s seen tortoises that haven’t pooped for much longer than this and when they finally poop it’s all good. But it’s good we did the X-ray because I was getting so worried he had stones or had eaten something else he couldn’t digest! So we will see after about a week....I really hope he poops. Will keep you updated! Thank you!
@chartle I’m still giving him okra and hiding his meds inside so he will eat them. I ask my vet about probiotics but he said he won’t prescribe them but I can buy them and feed them to my tort if I want....I’m not sure why he said in my case he doesn’t think it will make much of a difference? I might try buying some and feeding to him if he still won’t poop. Right now I’m hoping the increased meds as well as the liquid paraffin will do the trick.....praying!
Just a suggestion, the seeds in okra don't break down in the digestive system. Though the seeds will help keep things loose. The seeds might rot in Srinaul digestive system and cause another problem. Just a percussion. Does she like to bask? Maybe a little hotter would help things out.
Oh thanks for the tip Ray! I’ll try scooping out the seeds first then. He does like to bask in the sun and Thailand has tropical weather all year round so during the day we let him roam the garden and walk walk walk until he kind of stops on his own and decides to nap. And we warm up his bath so it’s not just room temp. I have a basking light for him but I haven’t used it yet cause it’s already so hot during the day here. Do u think It could help if I use it?
I don't think so. The Thailand sun and heat would be better than any basking light.
I have been to the Philippines and experienced their weather. I am sure your weather is the same or worse.
Yes it’s definitely just as hot as or more than the Philippines. Still no poop though! If the liquid parrafin doesn’t help soon I think we need to go back to the vet again.I don't think so. The Thailand sun and heat would be better than any basking light.
I have been to the Philippines and experienced their weather. I am sure your weather is the same or worse.
Wow he is a beauty! Love the color of the carapace.
Thanks Ray! He’s a giant baby and super naughty. And still no poop! I’m getting frantic. Just asked the vet again what further action we should take!
Good luck! Hope everything comes out ok.
@Nujie any updates on how your tortoise is doing?
Hi Vladimir thank you for asking. It was a stressful week as even with all the meds srinual didn’t poop. We finally took him back to the vet on Friday and the vet told us he would keep him for a few days and try giving him water enemas (I’m not sure if I’m using the right words, the vet would try pushing water up his rectum). And today finally the doctor reported that after the procedure srinual did poop abit and also loads of urates came out which must have accumulated over years the doctor said the xray showed that there are still some feces in his system so we will give srinual another day or two and hopefully he will release more. Im just hoping when he comes home he will eat and poop on his own, hopefully he will heal and become stronger with time and good diet and exercise.
When he comes home he'll need to be hydrated. The "loads of urates" shouldn't look like "loads." When a tortoise is well hydrated, his urates look soft and creamy, not hard enough to look like "loads."
Hi Yvonne and thank you for your reply. Yes we definitely hv to keep soaking him daily when he gets home. His urates were unfortunately sandy and didn’t look creamy, they looked like a lot of sand on the beach, but maybe I used the wrong word, they weren’t in big lumps or anything like that. I just meant there was a lot that came out. We all love him (he lives with my parents) and mom and dad are anxiously awaiting his return!
