hello, new member

[nikita]

hello everyone,

my name is nicki and i live in the uk, i have a female herman tortoise called shelly who is aprox 1 yr old, she lives in a 4ft tortoise table, with a seperate hide area, she has a heat lamp which reaches about 32c and a uvb strip lamp. for the past month she hasnt been herself at all, she sleeps most of the day and has very watery eyes which i have to bath every morning with cooled boiled water as she cant seem to open them in the morning, sometimes i have noticed what looks like little bubbles on her eyes i sprinkle calcuim powder on her food every other day, she is feed a mixture of greens, not iceburg lettuce or cabbage and occasionaly we give her tomatoes or melon, as its winter at the moment she isnt eating any weeds and doesn't go outside. another thing that worries me is she hardly drinks a thing. we bath her in warm water once a week (should i be doing this more)
i really dont know what to do to get her better, there isn't a vet where i live that has ever dealt with tortoises!

i hope somebody can help as i really don't know what to do next

 

[Isa]

Welcome to the forum Nikita
What are the temps on the cold and the warm side of the enclosure?
What is the substrate?
You should forget about the cabbage, it is not good for your little Shelly.
Do you have any pics of her?

 

[nikita]

hello isa,

thanks for replying, the temp difference is 32c in the hot spot and 18c in the cold area.
the substrate is a type of vegetable matter which i was told from an exotic pet shop owner was the best for tortoises.
i dont feed her cabbage just a selection of green leafs.
havent got any pics loaded up yet but i will do.
all she seems to want to do is bury herself and sleep!

nicki.

 

[jlyoncc1]

Sounds to me like you need to find her a vet. There is a vet list on here that you might get some info on. Might be an upper resp. infection. She might need a round of antibiotics. I am sure more people will chime in with advice. Good Luck!

 

[Isa]

I agree with Dee, you should find a vet and bring your little one.
Can you find a pic of the substrate on the internet and post the link? Because I do not know what it is?.
18C is a little cold for the cold side, the temps should be more like 22-23.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Nicki:

to the forum!!

I don't know anything about the Hermann's tortoise, but in other species, when their eyes become overly moist or bubbly its usually because the tortoise is being kept too dry.

 

[egyptiandan]

Welcome to the forum Nicki

Does your night time temperature get lower than 18C? How long are your lights on for?

It is possible, like Dee said, that she has a respiratory infection (eye problems can be the start of that) or she just could have an eye infection.

Where are you in the UK? Might be able to find a good vet fairly close by.

Danny

 

[nikita]

thank you,

no it doesn't get below 18c, i was told to put a heat mat under her table so the temp is probably around 20c. i switch the lights on at 7am and they are turned off at around 7.30, she's already asleep and buried at that time!
i really dont know if it could be respiratory infection, how do they get that? when i clean her eyes the bubbles go and her eyes are like shiny black beads again but then after an hour or so they are watery again!
i live close to liverpool, i found a vet earlier in liverpool that deals with exotic pets but no sure if they deal with tortoises as they where closed when i called.

everyone is so helpful on this forum, so glad i found it!!!

nicki.

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here is are some photo's one is of shelly and some of her bedding, the stuff on the left are some kind of vegitable pellets recomended by the pet shop they are ment to be harmless of eaten and break down in water, the stuff on the right we had her in originally, we have recentle put it back in as she can walk on it more easily, i think its call aspen or something.

 

[egyptiandan]

Yup that is aspen bedding and I'm glad you changed from the pellets back to the aspen. Like you've found out, the pellets are very hard to walk on.
I'm suprised your getting 32C under the basking lamp with the open cage around the bulb. Most people use a lamp with a metal dome that reflects most of the heat down and isn't lost out the sides.
Like Isa said the 18C during the day on the cool end is a bit low. 22 to 24C would be better. I'd go without the heat mat and get another hot spot. Is your hotspot a MVB (mercury vapor bulb)?
I'd put a second hot spot that was a MVB at the entrance to the hide. This way you'd get a better day time temperature. This should get her to be more active.

Danny

 

[nikita]

i don't think it is a MVB bulb, all i know about it is it's a 100w red heat bulb.

thank you for the advice, we have a spare bulb, think i'll put that at the entrance to the hide.

going to try and get an appointment at the vets i found in the morning.

nicki