Baby Greek tortoise click help!

[BRT]

Hi all,

I know this has been discussed plenty on here but can’t see anything that is super similar to my situation. Me and my partner have a baby Greek tortoise Little Foot ( I say baby as he’s not yet a yearling) I’m guessing he’s around 7 months since we don’t know for sure.
The people we got him from we are pretty sure sold him to us sick and told us he was close to a year! As after less than a week of having him we noticed the nose bubble on him and rushed him to an emergency out of hours vets it was a respiratory infection and he confirmed that he looked a lot younger than we were told! Since being treated he was more active than what he was and eating a load more just generally being a happy tort!
Yesterday I picked him up from his outdoor enclosure to put him into his inside one and noticed him clicking! Not with his mouth open but just in general making the clicking sound! It’s hard to tell for sure what he’s doing since you have to have your ear close to his head and can’t see exactly what he’s doing.
He has no nose discharge they look super clear, his eyes look clear. He’s still eating and he wanders around esp to his food bowl when he wakes up although it is hard to tell with him if he’s become less active cause I don’t watch him 24/7 he’s an independent guy!
We think he does it when we pick him up to move him or when we put our ear close to him to hear. To the best of our ability when we leave him be and listen we can’t hear it. Could it be he’s vocalizing with us? Or do you think it’s something to be concerned with?

Inside he’s in a 40 gal + enclosure humidity is at 72% and he’s cool side is 72 he’s hot is 84 with the basking at 95/96 in temperature.

I know he’s probably fine but I think I have ptsd from the last bout of respiratory infection we went through!
As a side note if anyone needs an out of ours emergency vet in the Sacramento area all creatures veterinary emergency clinic are amazing. The vet has a 40lb sulcata themselves which helps.

 

[SinLA]

Can you post pics of him and his enclosure?

 

[BRT]

 

[BRT]

This is him literally 5 minutes ago and his indoor enclosure and outside one. Sorry for the quality of the pictures

 

[BRT]

He’s pooping fine and he’s peeing. He’s being soaked and he goes in his water bowl as and when he wants and drinks

 

[BRT]

@SinLA do you have any recommendations? he’s currently tucking into some lettuce. I have noticed he’s doing the head and front leg bob when he is laying down sleeping. Not sure if all this is normal or not.

 

[SinLA]

going to refer to you other people b/c I don't know anything about Greeks. Maybe @TeamZissou, @zovick or @Tom?

 

[BRT]

going to refer to you other people b/c I don't know anything about Greeks. Maybe @TeamZissou, @zovick or @Tom?

Thanks for the refer! I appreciate it!

 

[zovick]

Thanks for the refer! I appreciate it!

It sounds to me as though the tortoise is still having trouble breathing. It probably needs more treatment for the RI.

I would suggest giving it injections of ceftazidime every three days for two weeks. This equates to 6-7 doses total. You will need to get the medication from your vet and inject it. Inject in the front leg armpit area where the skin of the underarm meets the lower shell. This will be done with a tuberculin syringe and a very small needle. if you can't or don't want to do it yourself, then find a vet who will do the injections for you. The dosage is 20 mg per kilo of body weight, so your tortoise will need a good bit less than 1 cc of injectable ceftazidime solution per dose going by what I figure it to weigh.

 

[ShellingtonTheFirst]

Don’t disregard what anyone else has said because they’re far more experienced than I am, but my Greek clicks when he’s stressed — if I’m making too much noise is his viv, if I wake him up abruptly or if I’ve handled him too much, he’ll do the head bob/leg pump thing and make a clicking noise.

 

[BRT]

Don’t disregard what anyone else has said because they’re far more experienced than I am, but my Greek clicks when he’s stressed — if I’m making too much noise is his viv, if I wake him up abruptly or if I’ve handled him too much, he’ll do the head bob/leg pump thing and make a clicking noise.

Thanks for the replies everyone. We’ve come to the conclusion like yours he does it when he’s not particularly happy with us. He’s more active than ever, is eating like a champ. Pooping and peeing and just being his tort self.