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Hey, all. First post here, but long time lurker (a year or two) for all that sweet, sweet infoknowledge in preparation.
Well, the day finally came. On Feb 4th, my partner and I headed to a town nearby to meet up with a well known, reputable breeder here in my area of the UK, to purchase two little hatchlings. Initially we were only going to get the one, but the couple who had the clutch offered us two for the price of one upon learning that our son is Autistic. It was their last two and they felt that it would be great for our boy to have two of them to watch or feed. Obviously, this was simply an offer we couldn't turn down, so we happily accepted the generous offer.
We arrived home and after a day and a half in our care, they were already trudging around the enclosure, eating from our fingers and allowing us to stroke their shells without showing any signs of stress or dislike. In fact, it turns out both of them love head rubs and ask for them multiple times a day by looking up at us and raising their heads high whenever they see us near, it's extremely sweet.
Well, things haven't changed much, but 3 days ago I noticed a slight puffiness to the right eye of the smaller one (Kurma). The substrate was a little dusty, so I lightly misted it down and churned it around to spread the moisture evenly throughout. During this moment, I caught Kurma rubbing his eyes with his legs. Assuming it was just the dusty coco, I brushed it off and simply squirted a drop of water onto his face from a pipette. It done the trick, cleaned his eyes out and he seemed fine.
The next morning, I woke up and immediately checked on them. They were both still sleeping, partially buried as expected. However, I noticed that Kurmas eyes looked slightly buldged/puffy. Of course, alarm bells rang. My first reaction was to pop him in the dish for a morning soak and to clean his eyes. Upon picking him up, he popped his head right out and opened his eyes... Everything looked normal. No swelling/buldging, deep sparky eyes, no redness, nothing that caused alarm. I apologised for waking him, let him soak and fixed him some breakfast. He pooped in the bath, ate just fine, had a stroll around the enclosure and finally went back to bask for the rest of the day. Usual, predicatable, expected behaviour from everything I have read online and heard from other keepers. He also had a few short soaks in the water dish where I noticed him drinking a few times too.
Later that evening, we were quietly sat watching them sleep when Kurma woke up. My partner was trimming a Wandering Jem plant and decided to give him a small nibble of leaf as he was taking an interest in it from the side of the enclosure. After taking the leaf, he blew a small bubble from his nose before doing something I can only describe as what we would consider a sneeze... Just a forceful expulsion of air from his nostrils.
Again, panic. I thought back to the puffy eyes, now he was blowing bubbles, my immediate thought was a RI. We also saw that he kept on rubbing his eyes like before, so I done what I done last time - gently washed his eyes out with some water before drying his face off so no coco would stick to him again.
We placed him in a seperate, smaller tub overnight to keep him away from the other baby, Guylian, and decided to monitor his condition before considering a vet visit. After setting up the enclosure, purchasing the little ones and paying for my daughters glasses, a vet bill just isn't doable at this very moment.
So, Kurma spent the night in the infirmary tub. The next morning the puffy eyes were still there when closed but I couldn't see any discharge or bubbles from either the eyes or nairs. The basking lamp turned on so naturally, he woke up. As soon as he opened his eyes, the puffiness went back down. I could see a little bit of his third eyelid showing but as soon as he was fully awake, it went back to being normal.
At this point I decided to change the Coco to some fresher, moister stuff, so I began mixing up a fresh batch of Coco with the assumption that it was simply too dusty and dry. We reintoduced Kurma and kept a close eye on him after changing out the medium and all seemed well. No swelling, no nair bubbles, but he continued to rub his eyes from time to time but no clear signs of any infection or irritation.
Still concerned, I stepped away for a few hours to do some searching online for possible causes. I checked the light heights, temps, humidity, it was all as it should have been. Guylian was still doing just fine, and so was Kurma other than the rubbing.
By this point it was late so their lamp turned off. After a few moments of getting comfortable, they both closed their eyes and went to sleep.... But AGAIN, Kurmas eyes looked puffy/buldged. I thought it was best not to disturb them and let them sleep in peace, but it had me worried.
I got up this morning and, as usual, done the morning check on them both. They were still asleep, and Kurmas eyes were still puffy. I snapped some photos before waiting for them to wake up so I could bath them. As always, as soon as he woke up, the eyes went down and the puffy lids disppeared, but he is STILL rubbing them a lot.
I'm sorry this post got so long, I just wanted to explain the situation clearly. My assumption is that it can't be an infection because surely Guylian would also have gotten it by now, right? I'll include some photos as examples so you can all see what I'm talking about. Does this sound like irritation? Is there anything anyone here could recommend we try to resolve this or narrow down the cause?
Thanks.
Well, the day finally came. On Feb 4th, my partner and I headed to a town nearby to meet up with a well known, reputable breeder here in my area of the UK, to purchase two little hatchlings. Initially we were only going to get the one, but the couple who had the clutch offered us two for the price of one upon learning that our son is Autistic. It was their last two and they felt that it would be great for our boy to have two of them to watch or feed. Obviously, this was simply an offer we couldn't turn down, so we happily accepted the generous offer.
We arrived home and after a day and a half in our care, they were already trudging around the enclosure, eating from our fingers and allowing us to stroke their shells without showing any signs of stress or dislike. In fact, it turns out both of them love head rubs and ask for them multiple times a day by looking up at us and raising their heads high whenever they see us near, it's extremely sweet.
Well, things haven't changed much, but 3 days ago I noticed a slight puffiness to the right eye of the smaller one (Kurma). The substrate was a little dusty, so I lightly misted it down and churned it around to spread the moisture evenly throughout. During this moment, I caught Kurma rubbing his eyes with his legs. Assuming it was just the dusty coco, I brushed it off and simply squirted a drop of water onto his face from a pipette. It done the trick, cleaned his eyes out and he seemed fine.
The next morning, I woke up and immediately checked on them. They were both still sleeping, partially buried as expected. However, I noticed that Kurmas eyes looked slightly buldged/puffy. Of course, alarm bells rang. My first reaction was to pop him in the dish for a morning soak and to clean his eyes. Upon picking him up, he popped his head right out and opened his eyes... Everything looked normal. No swelling/buldging, deep sparky eyes, no redness, nothing that caused alarm. I apologised for waking him, let him soak and fixed him some breakfast. He pooped in the bath, ate just fine, had a stroll around the enclosure and finally went back to bask for the rest of the day. Usual, predicatable, expected behaviour from everything I have read online and heard from other keepers. He also had a few short soaks in the water dish where I noticed him drinking a few times too.
Later that evening, we were quietly sat watching them sleep when Kurma woke up. My partner was trimming a Wandering Jem plant and decided to give him a small nibble of leaf as he was taking an interest in it from the side of the enclosure. After taking the leaf, he blew a small bubble from his nose before doing something I can only describe as what we would consider a sneeze... Just a forceful expulsion of air from his nostrils.
Again, panic. I thought back to the puffy eyes, now he was blowing bubbles, my immediate thought was a RI. We also saw that he kept on rubbing his eyes like before, so I done what I done last time - gently washed his eyes out with some water before drying his face off so no coco would stick to him again.
We placed him in a seperate, smaller tub overnight to keep him away from the other baby, Guylian, and decided to monitor his condition before considering a vet visit. After setting up the enclosure, purchasing the little ones and paying for my daughters glasses, a vet bill just isn't doable at this very moment.
So, Kurma spent the night in the infirmary tub. The next morning the puffy eyes were still there when closed but I couldn't see any discharge or bubbles from either the eyes or nairs. The basking lamp turned on so naturally, he woke up. As soon as he opened his eyes, the puffiness went back down. I could see a little bit of his third eyelid showing but as soon as he was fully awake, it went back to being normal.
At this point I decided to change the Coco to some fresher, moister stuff, so I began mixing up a fresh batch of Coco with the assumption that it was simply too dusty and dry. We reintoduced Kurma and kept a close eye on him after changing out the medium and all seemed well. No swelling, no nair bubbles, but he continued to rub his eyes from time to time but no clear signs of any infection or irritation.
Still concerned, I stepped away for a few hours to do some searching online for possible causes. I checked the light heights, temps, humidity, it was all as it should have been. Guylian was still doing just fine, and so was Kurma other than the rubbing.
By this point it was late so their lamp turned off. After a few moments of getting comfortable, they both closed their eyes and went to sleep.... But AGAIN, Kurmas eyes looked puffy/buldged. I thought it was best not to disturb them and let them sleep in peace, but it had me worried.
I got up this morning and, as usual, done the morning check on them both. They were still asleep, and Kurmas eyes were still puffy. I snapped some photos before waiting for them to wake up so I could bath them. As always, as soon as he woke up, the eyes went down and the puffy lids disppeared, but he is STILL rubbing them a lot.
I'm sorry this post got so long, I just wanted to explain the situation clearly. My assumption is that it can't be an infection because surely Guylian would also have gotten it by now, right? I'll include some photos as examples so you can all see what I'm talking about. Does this sound like irritation? Is there anything anyone here could recommend we try to resolve this or narrow down the cause?
Thanks.