Difficulty walking

AzAngel

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Hello tortoise family,

I have not posted on this forum for a while. I have had Bowser (Sulcata) for 5 years now. He has been really heathy and I have had no issues, until today. When he came out of his hut, he was having extreme difficulty walking. It looks like he does not have enough strength to lift himself up. When he tries he gets really shaky and sits back down. This is very sudden has he was walking fine yesterday. I am not sure what happened. I called the vet, but they can not see him until tomorrow, so I thought I would see if anyone experience this before.

I tried to post a video, but it would not post.

Thanks for your help add thoughts
 

Maro2Bear

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Hello tortoise family,

I have not posted on this forum for a while. I have had Bowser (Sulcata) for 5 years now. He has been really heathy and I have had no issues, until today. When he came out of his hut, he was having extreme difficulty walking. It looks like he does not have enough strength to lift himself up. When he tries he gets really shaky and sits back down. This is very sudden has he was walking fine yesterday. I am not sure what happened. I called the vet, but they can not see him until tomorrow, so I thought I would see if anyone experience this before.

I tried to post a video, but it would not post.

Thanks for your help add thoughts

if you want to post a video, the easiest way to do this is to upload your video to YouTube, then post the YT URL here in your posts.

How large of a tort, how large of an enclosure?
 

AzAngel

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He is approximately 35-40 lbs. He lives out doors. His enclosure is mostly grass, has an underground burrow for the summer and a heated hut in the winter. He has free range of our back yard. I am not sure how big it is, but it is a decent size. The pictures are from last week.
 

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Tom

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Some possible causes to think about:
  • Intestinal blockage.
  • Bladder stone.
  • Constipation.
How often do you soak? What do you feed? Are you sure its a male? Can we see a pic of the tail and anal scutes to confirm? Its not likely to be egg binding in July since they are winter layers, but this would eliminate that possibility entirely.

X-ray would go a long way in confirming or denying these.
 

AzAngel

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I am sure he is a Male because he used to drag his male parts around. He did poo in his soak today. I soak him 2-3 times a week for as long as he will stay in his pool.
 

Tom

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If it were a bladder stone. Is there something I can do for that?
Surgery. But if you are soaking 2-3 times a week, then it shouldn't have happened. On the other hand, setting him in his pool and letting him walk out when he feels like it isn't really soaking either.

Does he eat any high protein foods? Like alfalfa or clover? Mazuri?
 

AzAngel

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Surgery. But if you are soaking 2-3 times a week, then it shouldn't have happened. On the other hand, setting him in his pool and letting him walk out when he feels like it isn't really soaking either.

Does he eat any high protein foods? Like alfalfa or clover? Mazuri?


His diet is mainly grass from the back yard. I feed him Matzuri on occasion, but not very often.
I do soak him, but he only stays in there about 10 minutes. He is big enough to climb out himself now and I struggle with keeping him in.
 

Tom

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His diet is mainly grass from the back yard. I feed him Matzuri on occasion, but not very often.
I do soak him, but he only stays in there about 10 minutes. He is big enough to climb out himself now and I struggle with keeping him in.
Time for a bigger soaking tub that he can't climb out of. Stock tanks from a local feed store can work. I have some big giant cement mixing tubs that I use for soaking larger sulcatas.

Also time for an x-ray.
 

Markw84

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I will add that I believe cool body temperatures contributes to the formation of stones and harder urates. There is a very big difference in the solubility of uric acid at 80° vs 65°. Although you are in Arizona, you do let him sleep in a burrow where ground temperatures are much lower than a heated night box. You didn't say when you allowed the transition from heated hut to burrow for nights, but the ground temps in spring in the Phoenix area take quite a while to warm up to even 70°.
 

AzAngel

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I will add that I believe cool body temperatures contributes to the formation of stones and harder urates. There is a very big difference in the solubility of uric acid at 80° vs 65°. Although you are in Arizona, you do let him sleep in a burrow where ground temperatures are much lower than a heated night box. You didn't say when you allowed the transition from heated hut to burrow for nights, but the ground temps in spring in the Phoenix area take quite a while to warm up to even 70°.


He has a burrow, but it is not deep in the ground. Bowser has never been much of a digger. I have let him transition himself to his night time hut.

This morning he is not walking much at all has he has some white mucus around his nostrils. They are not obstructed and no blowing bubbles, but I can see the mucus. Could this be a respiratory infection?

He did pee during the night and there were no white crystals. Could this still be a stone?

I am positive and xray is in our near future. Thank you for your ideas and thoughts. I always get good information on this forum.

Michelle
Michelle
 

Tom

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He has a burrow, but it is not deep in the ground. Bowser has never been much of a digger. I have let him transition himself to his night time hut.

This morning he is not walking much at all has he has some white mucus around his nostrils. They are not obstructed and no blowing bubbles, but I can see the mucus. Could this be a respiratory infection?

He did pee during the night and there were no white crystals. Could this still be a stone?

I am positive and xray is in our near future. Thank you for your ideas and thoughts. I always get good information on this forum.

Michelle
Michelle
RI doesn't seem likely given your climate and current temps. What is the daily high and over night low right now? How deep is the burrow and can you get a thermometer probe down there? We are having an unusually cool June and July here. We are normally near or over 100 this time of year, and highs have only been in the mid to high 80s the last few weeks. We've only broken into the low 90s a few times. We had some days over 100 back in May, but cooler since then. Really weird. How has the season been where you are? Cooler than normal?
 

AzAngel

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I wanted to give a quick up date. Bowser is doing much better today. Yesterday afternoon, after his soak, he started to walk around. He was walking, just having difficulty with one leg. He could not quite get his foot under him so he was walking on the front part of his leg. This morning he is walking around like normal, rearranging everything in his enclosure. :). Vet thought it was a scorpion sting. He recommended yesterday to just watch him over the weekend and if he didnt improve we would do an xray. I will continue to keep a close eye on him but he is moving in the right direction.

Thank you for your help. You have me some things to think about to help better care for him in the furture :)
 

vladimir

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I wanted to give a quick up date. Bowser is doing much better today. Yesterday afternoon, after his soak, he started to walk around. He was walking, just having difficulty with one leg. He could not quite get his foot under him so he was walking on the front part of his leg. This morning he is walking around like normal, rearranging everything in his enclosure. :). Vet thought it was a scorpion sting. He recommended yesterday to just watch him over the weekend and if he didnt improve we would do an xray. I will continue to keep a close eye on him but he is moving in the right direction.

Thank you for your help. You have me some things to think about to help better care for him in the furture :)

Glad to hear it! Please keep us posted and don't hesitate to get the x-ray if needed - even if just for peace of mind.
 
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