How many days to poo

[Rustyiron]

Please help.

My aldabra (35cm now) always poos once every 3-4 days. This week, she hasn't poo like 10 days now, why? (she pees daily without prob, eats normally) I am so worried. How many days the poos stay inside her is normal? thanks. (she's very heavy this week, with poos inside her)

and how do I get her to poo? any idea? thanks.

 

[Yellow Turtle]

I thought they poo every day, but not really sure. Mine does regularly at his size (16 cm) now.

Do you still soak him regularly?

Your last post is maybe around half year ago, looks like yours have a fast growth. What is his size in June 2012?

 

[luvpetz27]

I hope she has a poo
soon!!!!

 

[Badger]

Hi Rustyiron

So sorry to hear. I have some experience with this once. With my 1 year old aldabra. He couldnt poo for a three or four days and was severely constipated. He strained hard to pass feces but nothing would pass. He then refused to eat and was very slow are tired. It was about three days before he took him to the vet. Gave him laxatives but to no avail.

Could we know your husbandry condition so we can better compare? Specifically the frequency and duration of soaks, substrate, diet, water dish availability, humidity and temperature ranges?

The cause of our problem was the subatrate. I had aspen bedding which he ate. It was dry and hard and blocked up his intestine

Maybe you can try the following (i am a very inexperienced keeper, i only kept two aldabras for two years. Maybe other keepers can chip in here and suggest otherwise...)

1) book an appointment with the vet asap. He or she will likely do an xray to see of there are any obstruction or foreign bodies. Unfortunately compressed food or in my case aspen is quiet hard to identify in an xray. It looks to my untrained eye as just a big mass. But if your baby accidentally swallowed something he shouldnt... hopefully you will be able to spot it.

2) give your baby a good warm soak. Twice a day. For 30 to 40 mins each time. If the water gets cold you can refill or have the soaking tub under the basketing light on one side (so he can turn away if he gets too hot). You can use those eletrolyte powder for reptiles. It helps a bit especially if he is not eating.

3) after soaking. Let him lay a while. This is a kinda crazy idea but after a few times of soaking, take a big enough tub for him to walk around and then put it in the car and then go for a drive. It sounds crazy, but there is perhaps some logic. When he is in the car and feels the car moving, he is likely to struggle and will try to escape. This pacing around is actually good for his bowl movements. Tortoises are simple anatomically, walking about helps with muscle contraction in the intestine (at least this is what my vet told me). This should aid in the passing on feces. Go for a thirty minute drive. See what happens. After my aldabra couldnt poo for a week we took him to a reptile specialist. On our one hour drive he finally managed to poo!

One final thing. After my aldrabra finally managed to poo we thought we were in the all clear. He got better for a few days and then got rapidly worst a week later. He wouldnt eat or move though he would still poo. What we suspect had happened was the impaction got so hard over time that it caused a tear in his intestine causing infection. His white blood cell count went through the roof to 50. We took action in time and give him antibiotics injections for two weeks. His companion living in the same enclosure also came down ill. Not to cause you to worry.... just wanted to share my experience (limited). Maybe you could ask your vet whether a blood test is necessary to check for infection. My story did have a happy ending and both fully recovered.

Good luck! Hope this helps.

 

[Rustyiron]

Finally, I lost my patience, I tried everything to get her to poo but failed. Just now, I flipped her over, upside-down, and blew warm heater air toward her tail, her tail moved left and right, and after 15 minutes, five pieces of poos came out, they were not hard, only medium-hard, and moist. Thank you guys. problem resolved, I'm relieved... phew....

 

[luvpetz27]

That's great!!
I am sure she feels much
better!! She is very lucky
to have you!