My little Russian is sick

[SArchieIII]

Hello Forum.
My tortoise has Vit A deficiency.
I got her as a hatchling, 12 months ago.
I remember weighing her and she was 38.2 grams (1.34 ounces), she now weighs 90.2 gr and she has grown well (calcium intake, good green variety)
4 weeks ago she sort of "hibernate" (aestivation? is the spring/summer one, right?) and when I picked her up last week to see if all is going ok, one eye was closed (although appearing with the movement of blinking) and the other I can see a 3 mm black eye peacking from the eye closed.
The vet saw her last week (reptile expert that is now on a "normal pets" vet so he didn't have all the things at hand that Archie neded) and gave her an antibiotic, and a doggo pouch of electrolytes to bathe her in from Friday until today twice a day 30 min.
We took her today again, she got a vit A shot, and another 3 day antibiotic, and this time he had proper electrolyte for tortoise (yayy no more chicken liver smell)
Archie has been bathing fine, sometimes she opens her mouth and seems to be drinking a little, and "walk" like to move out of the bowl she is in (she can't see outside and it's too talk for her), when she is not being bathed she digs her way and stays there until I pick her up for her bath.
today she pooped, which I am taking as a good sign (?)
I was browsing other posts concerning this, and there was a suggestion to help tortoise not eating with a carrot puree bath, and I will try this tomorrow, as today she had all her bathing and I feel like she had enough hand handling for today,

she is one year old... I am not sure I could "force-feed" her.
The vet knows she has not been eating, beside the carrot bath, is there anything you can suggests?
temp basking 32C 89.6 Fand opposite side 24C 79.2F(natural room temp)
Bulbs and tubes are 1 month old

 

[SArchieIII]

 

[wellington]

First get the basking temp up to 95-100F around 38c I believe.
All over temp 80F night temp room temp or not lower than 60F.
@Yvonne G can help with the vitamin A shot. I know it's bad for some torts not sure if all of them or not.

 

[SArchieIII]

Alright, those temps seem high for a horsefield. I will review and check with my vet again. (sorry I dont mean to sound annoying)

thanks a lot.

 

[Cathie G]

Alright, those temps seem high for a horsefield. I will review and check with my vet again. (sorry I dont mean to sound annoying)

thanks a lot.

Hello and welcome. 🤗I have an adult horsefield so I wouldn't presume to give you advice on a 1 year old. I've not raised a baby Russian but many people here have. They have different needs. So what you could be seeing online is the needs of an adult and not a baby. Babies need higher humidity and temps. There's many successful breeders here that know what they're doing that can answer this way better then me. And by the way You're not annoying.😊

 

[SArchieIII]

Thank you so very much 😊
I've been reading this forum for years and you are absolutely right there's a plethora of knowledge within these virtual pages.

Thanks

 

[Sarah2020]

View attachment 358492

There is a massive risk feeding food on stones as they can ingest them. Nice bowl but clear it and only put fresh food in one and water changed twice daily in another bowl with small pebbles not gravel around the edge to help ingress and egress.

 

[Sarah2020]

The tortoise is growing as you can see growth lines. As mentioned check temp, set up to see if you get more activity. They can sleep for 14 hours in a day so as long as setting correct I say let them sleep and be a tortoise.

 

[SArchieIII]

thank you Sarah! I agree with you, it was a first attempt at adding a bit of height to make sure she can cross the lip, I since removed them and add pebbles. I have increased the temp. and continue with the bathing with electrolytes.

 

[Yvonne G]

I used to operate a turtle and tortoise rescue. One type of rescue I took in most often was box turtles with swollen shut eyes.

Turtles and tortoises get their vitamin A from what they eat, and when they stop eating, for whatever reason, the first symptom is swollen shut eyes.

I learned about strained carrot human baby food. If you add 50%/50% warm water and strained carrot baby food to a bowl with a smallish footprint, but with tall sides, you can soak the baby in this solution for about an hour. I set the bowl back into the enclosure NEXT where the light beam hits the floor of the enclosure, NOT directly under the light.

After soaking like this for three days I almost always saw improvement.

 

[SArchieIII]

thank you very much Yvonne.