Atreides
New Member
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2014
- Messages
- 6
Hello all.
We've been reading the forum avidly since we got our tortoise (8 months ago). We unexpectedly have a problem with the baby. It's a Greek Ibera 10-11 months old.
The problem:
Suddenly lethargic and weak. Sleeps a lot, seems to have lots of problems moving/walking etc.
Started about a week ago, seems to be getting worse.
It looks healthy, it eats a lot every day, it poops and pees ok (daily or every other day). Shell is not soft or rubbery.
Conditions before sickness:
Open tortoise table, substrate 2/3 topsoil 1/3 sand. Shallow water dish, several hiding places (including climbing log). Tile as food plate.
Basking spot 95, hot side ~85, cool side 75, night temp ~70
Basking light is mercury vapor heat+UV SolarGlo. Two additional UV lights on sides of enclosure (ReptiGlo 5 and ReptiGlo 10). One ceramic heating lamp on 24/7 on a corner to help keep temps up at night and in case the apartment gets too cold.
One humidifier on 24/7 to keep humidity between 40 and 70% (it's not very stable, it's usually around 50).
Soak every other day for 10 minutes.
Vitamins every other day, on a rotation: Calcium, calcium+D3, miner-all, calcium+multivitamins (don't remember brand). (Example: on Monday he would get calcium, on Wednesday calcium+D3, etc).
Diet: opuntia cactus, dandelion greens and turnip greens mainly. Additionally brussels sprouts, endive, kale. A tiny bit of romain lettuce after soaks as a bribe (because it hates soaks).
Different conditions after sickness:
Substrate changed to bath towels (vet orders, see below).
Keeping apartment heating on, so all temps are about 5-10 degrees higher.
Soak daily.
Vet experience
We took him to the vet (in paper he's very well qualified in exotics) but he said the tort looked fine to him. The tortoise was very excited/scared so it was running around all over the place, therefore it didn't look sick... Just bad luck? The vet thought I was crazy.
He noticed a tinge of blood in feces so he suggested to remove the soil and put him in towels in case he was getting GI tract irritation from it. Keep in observation and return if health declined for x-rays and bloodwork.
He also suggested that we stopped all supplements and stopped feeding cactus and focused more on leafy greens from a list including lettuce, carrot and broccoli leaves etc. We don't agree with these two last suggestions so we didn't do it.
Our own suspicions are mainly three:
a) his UV light is not working properly so he suddenly can't absorb calcium and needs more D3 supplementation.
b) he ate something from the substrate (we try sieving the sand etc. but there are always small pebbles anyway) and it's stuck inside causing pain (even though he poops ok, I suppose food could go around it).
c) something wrong with him because he's a bit overgrown (150g, 8.5 cm SCL) or because we were putting him on a very slight diet from a month ago since we realized he shouldn't be that big.
What to do?
Now we're torn whether to take him to the same vet for the follow up or to another one... And what can we do at home to try and improve our baby's health?
We live close to NYC, so any suggestions (from personal experience) for vets around the NYC metro area, New Jersey, or reasonably upstate NY are appreciated.
Thank you so much in advance!!
This tortoise is like our child, we're extremely sad.
-The Atreides family.
We've been reading the forum avidly since we got our tortoise (8 months ago). We unexpectedly have a problem with the baby. It's a Greek Ibera 10-11 months old.
The problem:
Suddenly lethargic and weak. Sleeps a lot, seems to have lots of problems moving/walking etc.
Started about a week ago, seems to be getting worse.
It looks healthy, it eats a lot every day, it poops and pees ok (daily or every other day). Shell is not soft or rubbery.
Conditions before sickness:
Open tortoise table, substrate 2/3 topsoil 1/3 sand. Shallow water dish, several hiding places (including climbing log). Tile as food plate.
Basking spot 95, hot side ~85, cool side 75, night temp ~70
Basking light is mercury vapor heat+UV SolarGlo. Two additional UV lights on sides of enclosure (ReptiGlo 5 and ReptiGlo 10). One ceramic heating lamp on 24/7 on a corner to help keep temps up at night and in case the apartment gets too cold.
One humidifier on 24/7 to keep humidity between 40 and 70% (it's not very stable, it's usually around 50).
Soak every other day for 10 minutes.
Vitamins every other day, on a rotation: Calcium, calcium+D3, miner-all, calcium+multivitamins (don't remember brand). (Example: on Monday he would get calcium, on Wednesday calcium+D3, etc).
Diet: opuntia cactus, dandelion greens and turnip greens mainly. Additionally brussels sprouts, endive, kale. A tiny bit of romain lettuce after soaks as a bribe (because it hates soaks).
Different conditions after sickness:
Substrate changed to bath towels (vet orders, see below).
Keeping apartment heating on, so all temps are about 5-10 degrees higher.
Soak daily.
Vet experience
We took him to the vet (in paper he's very well qualified in exotics) but he said the tort looked fine to him. The tortoise was very excited/scared so it was running around all over the place, therefore it didn't look sick... Just bad luck? The vet thought I was crazy.
He noticed a tinge of blood in feces so he suggested to remove the soil and put him in towels in case he was getting GI tract irritation from it. Keep in observation and return if health declined for x-rays and bloodwork.
He also suggested that we stopped all supplements and stopped feeding cactus and focused more on leafy greens from a list including lettuce, carrot and broccoli leaves etc. We don't agree with these two last suggestions so we didn't do it.
Our own suspicions are mainly three:
a) his UV light is not working properly so he suddenly can't absorb calcium and needs more D3 supplementation.
b) he ate something from the substrate (we try sieving the sand etc. but there are always small pebbles anyway) and it's stuck inside causing pain (even though he poops ok, I suppose food could go around it).
c) something wrong with him because he's a bit overgrown (150g, 8.5 cm SCL) or because we were putting him on a very slight diet from a month ago since we realized he shouldn't be that big.
What to do?
Now we're torn whether to take him to the same vet for the follow up or to another one... And what can we do at home to try and improve our baby's health?
We live close to NYC, so any suggestions (from personal experience) for vets around the NYC metro area, New Jersey, or reasonably upstate NY are appreciated.
Thank you so much in advance!!
This tortoise is like our child, we're extremely sad.
-The Atreides family.