Another Update on my sick Leopard Tortoise

[scubatyler]

After about 3 days on the Baytril chester became much more active and began to eat on his own. He still only opens his eyes for about 30 minutes after I soak him in warm water. I soak him twice a day and he spends a few hours eating after each time. I am a little concerned about his weight dropping. when he got sick he was weighing about 36 grams and now he is around 30. He has been bouncing around between 29 and 32 grams for the last few days. How long should it be until he starts gaining weight again? What do you think could be causing him to have his eyes closed so much? I thought that it could be the UV light but it is an exoterra solarglo mercury vapor bulb. I switched it out to a halogen bulb for a week and the eye thing didn't change so I switched back to the mercury vapor bulb. What kind of probiotics do you guys recommend for tortoises on antibiotics?

 

[Yvonne G]

In order to give his eyes some rest, why don't you temporarily switch the harsh bulb out and use a regular incandescent bulb just for its heat. Do you have the eye ointment? You can buy it at a feed store or from your vet.

I have used TNT with probiotics. You can purchase it from carolinapetsupply.com. They are usually pretty fast with shipping, however, I ordered something from them last week and I haven't received it yet.

 

[scubatyler]

In order to give his eyes some rest, why don't you temporarily switch the harsh bulb out and use a regular incandescent bulb just for its heat. Do you have the eye ointment? You can buy it at a feed store or from your vet.

I have used TNT with probiotics. You can purchase it from carolinapetsupply.com. They are usually pretty fast with shipping, however, I ordered something from them last week and I haven't received it yet.

Thanks! I do not have any eye ointment but I would like to give that a try. What kind is it? Antibiotic eye ointment or something else. There is a feed store less than a mile from my house but I don't know which ointment to buy. I have some Zoo Med repti-turtle eye drops that I have been using and they seem to help him get his eyes open but a half hour later they are closed again. I will try switching out the bulb again too and see if it makes a difference.

 

[yagyujubei]

Get Terramycin Antibiotic Opthalmic Ointment. It usually comes in 1/8th ounce tube. The tube that I am looking at is made by Pfizer.