A Carson
Active Member
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2015
- Messages
- 101
Forgive me for the length of this. I'm new to this and did tons of research before getting a Russian tortoise. I have a captive bred baby 9 months old. I've had him for three months and have had tons of trouble i had him shipped from Nevada and i live in Minnesota. Within the first week he started having problems. I changed substrates several time with different Advice. First using coconut coir and coconut fiber.(the pet store said to use these apparently they didn't know it was the same thing lol and neither did i until now) then he got sick. Puffy eyes, Runny nose, not eating, lethargic...when i brought him in the vet thought he had an upper respiratory infection. And wanted me to give amikacin injections every 72 hours for five doses. He was getting way better. But not 100% so the vet said two more doses. By dose six he seemed better. So they said to stop at dose 7. I ended up switching substrate to coconut coir/play sand 50/50 by weight.within a few days he has a full blown RI only this time worse. The substrate was moist,humidity around 50%. The vet told me to dump it and use Timothy hay for now and felt like the substrate was irritating her more, her eyes and everything else. So i dumped and used Timothy hay. But he still went backwards and eyes were bad. So now he's wanting all possible irritants out. When i started using Timothy hay the vet had me giving eye drops ciprofloxacin. He wasn't getting better worse. So now the vet has me using paper towel to eliminate irritants until we figure it out. Wants me to continue eye drops and start up giving amikacin again this time 10 shots. I soak him every day while getting the injections. I just started giving the injection today per the vet. He's been on paper towel for three days. He eats spring mix, kale, dandelion greens, cactus pad, and now I'm growing chia for him to try. I use tnt powder every other day. All bulbs are since I've had him. Basking spot it 95 the cool side is around 78. I keep the heat on per the vet. The uvb is the long hood style. I would like to get a powersun bulb as I've seen great reviews. He has a hide and water dish that he's never gone in ever! But i soak him almost daily. I feel like I'm missing something. But it's been three long months. Im sure the antibiotics will help as they did the first time but now I'm scared to put him in that substrate. I wonder if there's an alternative. If i missed something let me know. I also use heat at night, around the same temps with ceramic heat emitter. I turned heat off with temps around 68 but that's when he's start back with a runny nose. Please help I'm desperate to get my baby better with normal eyes that he can open and no runny nose, or sneezing, biting his tongue. Thank you in advance and sorry for the long post.
Last edited by a moderator: