enema help

[noallawshe]

i need to give my Sulcata Tortoise and enema and can't seem to be able to get his tail out of the way. also what would be the best enema recipe. he seems to be constipated for some reason.

he eats timothy hay, romaine, grazes in the back yard and occ fruits and veggies

i work as an emergency veterinary nurse, but don't have experience in tortoise medicine

 

[G-stars]

Try cactus pads. They are a natural laxative. Or aloe plants. Soaking the tortoise helps too.

 

[Yvonne G]

Is the tortoise still eating? Mash up some moistened tortoise chow or something similar then mix in a teaspoon or so of mineral oil. Roll this up in a leaf of romaine lettuce so it looks like a cigar. hand feed the cigar to the tortoise, pointy end first. Mineral oil is non absorptive and will coat whatever is in the GI tract, helping it to move. You can put a dropperful of mineral oil up the cloaca too, but I wouldn't go so far as to try an enema.

 

[Tom]

I would not give an enema. If they clamp down their cloaca, you could seriously injure them. I had a leopard female that my vet wanted me to give cloacal fluids to. It work two times and the third time she was on "lock-down". No entry permitted.

Long, warm, shallow soaks in a tall sided opaque container will usually get things moving. How often do you soak this guy? What sort of water source does he have?

The hay and grazing sounds great. Romaine, fruits and veggie, not so much. Check this out:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/for-those-who-have-a-young-sulcata.76744/

 

[Yvonne G]

Two more tricks to get a tortoise to poop:

Take him for a car ride.

Put him into the human bath tub (large area for walking around) with warm water up to the middle of his sides. Leave him in there to scramble around trying to get out for a half hour or more. All the moving and scrambling in the water usually makes them poop.

 

[noallawshe]

he last ate 5 days ago some timothy hay, he has not had a BM for about 10-14 days that i have seen and only urinated once. He is still very strong but does not move around very much since this has started. i have been soaking him daily for the last week.

the radiologist recommend the enemas and car rides

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Cactus. Cucumber.
My only experience with enemas and tortoises required that the tortoise be sedated first.

 

[Aunt Caffy]

he last ate 5 days ago some timothy hay, he has not had a BM for about 10-14 days that i have seen and only urinated once. He is still very strong but does not move around very much since this has started. i have been soaking him daily for the last week.

the radiologist recommend the enemas and car rides

Mine poops like crazy on car rides, which is why I carry multiple lint-free cloths on which to place him in his little carrier.

The mineral oil works well, too. I got mine on Amazon where it was called butchers block oil. I've also gotten it at Bed, Bath, & Beyond and hear you can get it in the pharmacy area at stores. I always keep it around for emergency pooping needs for my animals.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Is it just me, or does any tortoise or turtle start crapping when placed in a box?

 

[Jodie]

The mineral oil burrito has worked every time for me. When my female wasn't eating she would still eat romaine fed by hand. Really long soaks helped her a lot too.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

My vet gave me some liquid drops for Bertha before the enema and I never could use it because you're supposed to put in on food and she wasn't eating.
I still have it. Two bottles with eyedroppers. If you'd like, I will mail it to you. Free.
I'm just going to throw it away............
I'm at work now and I don't recall the name. It's on my old Bertha thread, but I'd have to dig for ages to find that post.
P.M. if interested.

 

[Aunt Caffy]

The mineral oil burrito has worked every time for me. When my female wasn't eating she would still eat romaine fed by hand. Really long soaks helped her a lot too.

For Rowan, it had to be mineral oil on chicken, the only thing he can't resist.

 

[noallawshe]

At this point he has been on 4 car rides of at least 18miles each and has been soaked daily for the past 7 days. He refuses every piece of food i put in front of him.

Why should i not attemt an enema like the radiologist recommend?

 

[noallawshe]

This is all he does now.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I think that the consensus is that without sedation it could easily injure your tortoise.
It wasn't very expensive when my vet did it.
This is one time that it might be wise to spend a buck.
I also resist.

 

[ascott]

This is all he does now.

Is that sand his substrate? How long has that tortoise been on the sand?

 

[deadheadvet]

The biggest issue with an enema is, how do you know you are in the correct location. The cloaca is the opening to the common gutter where rectum and urethra meet. You could end up passing a tube right into the bladder. Push some lubricated mixture into the bladder? Could be big mistake. We would thread a catheter up with a metal stylet and than take an xray and be sure we are in the right location.

 

[Yvonne G]

That's a picture of a very sick tortoise. However, I'm not good at reading X-Rays, and I don't see any masses on the X-Ray. But after seeing the latest pictures, I'm with Ascott. Looks like he may be blocked up with sand. But seems to me we would be able to see that on the X-Ray.???

 

[leigti]

If it was my tortoise I would take him to a vet that knows tortoises. And until then I would soak him often.

 

[noallawshe]

There is no sand impaction and he is getting an esophgostomy tube placed tonight for oral hydration from the tortoise vet.