Bo

[onarock]

Yvonne, can you give us an update on Bo?

 

[tortoisematt]

Think seriously about seperating Bo from So if possible until you figure it out. I had two young Aldabras, both were apparently healthy (normal growth, eating, thermoregulation, etc) with shared food and water. One day I came home from work and one had died suddenly and violently (from the torn up enclosure). Necropsy revealed acute pnemonia and damaged kidney/liver tissues. Long story short, the other was a "carrier" of something, likely mycoplasma or herpes virus. It took several trips to the vet and courses of different antibiotics until we narrowed it down to those two things.

Now BOs symptoms are not exactly the same. Mine was growing like crazy and never slowed down. He kept on growing until he died almost a year later as we tried to nurse him back to health. When I started keeping a closer eye on him, I noticed that when I disturbed him late at night when he was tucked into his shell it looked like his eyes were leaking onto his mouth and neck. It was actually fluid from his mouth, but I wouldn't call it foam, just clear saliva. If I had X-rays on him, I'm sure there would have been some indication in his lungs like his deceased cage-mate had, and that is not consistent with BOs illness. Also check his mouth and tounge color, my tortoise was noticeably not pink, his mouth was more of a pale beige color.

This is probably tough to hear, and I hope Bo is OK, I just want to give you and your vets something else to look for and rule out. This was a wake up call for me to practice STRICT isolation whenever possible for expensive tortoises. I thought that because I got them from the same breeder at the same time then quarantine from each other was not necessary. I'm not sure where they got this disease because it is very difficult if not impossible to pick these up from the environment. I've never had any other tortoises with these illnesses and my aldabras were never exposed to any other tortoises or tortoise equipment. So possibly they brought it with them from the breeder or maybe picked something up from lizards or other reptiles near his enclosure (I lived in TX).

Best of luck to you all. They look great otherwise, and I am very interested to hear what you find out. If you have any questions from my experiences, let me know.

 

[DAV46]

Hello, I havent posted here in a while but I too have an Aldabra that I had the exact same issues last winter. I live in Georgia and have to pull him/her in for the winter. Mine was born in 2006 and currently measures at 16 inches straight length. I am by no means an expert but here is what I went through last winter. I house 'Squirt' in a very large cattle trough in my garage in the winter months using several flood lamps for light and heat during the day and a ceramic heater that runs 24/7. This is much dryer heat than being outside during our hot humid summers. I notice the tearing starts whenever humidity is down and only occurs during winter months. Squirt did develop the foam bubbles that came from both the mouth and nose at times and even made sharp tense breaths as if to blow out his/her passages. I do not have vet's here that I trust 100% so I closely monitored and did research and found where others have seen this and they came out of it. Squirts appetite remained strong and once Spring hit and back outside in warmer temps both the runny eyes and foamy bubbles went away. Over the summer he/she has conituned to grow and thrive. This year I did add a Stanfield heat mat to the indoor pen and I have not seen any issues even though the garage itself gets very cold the pen is staying warm. My thoughts are the dry heat and if it gets too cold for lengths of time the tearing and bubbles start. I do know the symptoms seem like a respitory issue but it might not be. I know this is one tough species and that is hard to rely on with the amount of money we all invest but I also am just as afraid to fill them full of meds which many Vets are quick to do.

 

[Yvonne G]

My vet finally sent me Bo's X-ray. You can see the wire just to the right of the curved spine:

There is nothing new on Bo. He's still the same.

 

[Laura]

can you feed him a magnet like they do with cows? probably not since cows have the chambered stomach thing.. so is this what is causing him the issues?

 

[Yvonne G]

No, the vet doesn't think the wire has anything to do with it. We're hoping it will rust away or pass through. She feels his biggest problem is the lack of calcium and I'm working on that.

 

[exoticsdr]

Yvonne,

just a suggestion, but perhaps you could work on getting some pictures of the inside of his mouth while he is eating to see if perhaps he has some stomatitis issues...I know, without anesthesia, it won't be easy but may be something to spend some brain time on and see what you can do. you might be able to place the food on a mirror and get a good picture in the reflection as he grabs at his food. Did the vet take a radiograph of his head while they were at it? Since he as a wire in his belly, maybe there is something lodged in the palate, tongue or esophagus also. Even though, I generally subscribe the the old saying, "If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck"...I do sometimes look for the occasional zebra in the herd of donkeys. Let me know what you think.

 

[RV's mom]

Still hoping for Bo's recovery and return to good health.

And altho I really like my vet, when I read Doc Westin's posts, I wish I lived in S Texas. Smart with a good sense of humor. Very important.

teri

 

[Kuro]

i hope Bo gets to feeling better soon

 

[tortoises101]

Good luck Yvonne, and do keep us updated on Bo. Hope everything turns out well.