New 3yr old Leopard Tortoise - runny nose

[Mich]

I just purchased a 3yr old female leopard tortoise a week ago and am noticing she has a bit of a runny nose. I’ve read up on RNS but also see that things such as housing/diet/stress can cause it and when it comes to her ALL of that was incorrect prior to me taking it in. She was kept on a good sized tortoise table but the substrate was only dried wood shavings (aspen), there was a heat light only (no UV, no water dish in the enclosure, no stress free place to hide). She was fed only grocery store prepared spring mix greens (no gasses or hay) and was used frequently as part of this persons reptiles shows, birthday parties and has also traveled hours to expos. Her breathing sounds ok, no raspy .. she eats well and when allowed to safely free roam it is very active. I have it housed on a tort table with 10% UV, heat is 90-95 in the warm end and drops down to 70 in the evening. Her diet is still some spring mix but I am trying to add dandelion, collard, endive, fresh grasses and timothy hay in the hopes of getting it switched over to a better diet (so far she turns her nose up at it). The shell itself seems to be nice and firm but does have pyramiding. Now that her set up is correct should I wait and see if the runny nose clears up on it’s own (and if so how ling do I wait) or should I take her to a vet immediately? I’ve also read that increasing vitamin A and C through crushed tables would help but am too nervous to try that until I head some more expert opinions on it..

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

 

[wellington]

Hello and WELCOME. The more experienced with this kind of thing should be along soon.

 

[Neal]

A little runny nose is common from time to time with any tortoise. Unless it hangs around for a long time, it is usually nothing to be concerned about. So, at this point just keep an eye on her. Keeping her warm and well hydrated will go a very long way in improving overall health. I would recommend bumping up the temperatures to 75 or 80 on the cool end and see if that helps the runny nose to go away quicker.

If you are able to get her outside at all, that could be one of the best things you could do. I'm not a vet, but judging from how the rear scutes look, the tortoise MAY have or have had slight MBD...which makes sense if the previous owner didn't provide adequate UVB, but it sounds like you have her set up well!

Good luck! Ask questions and share pictures whenever you can.

 

[l0velesly]

Spring mix is actually a good diet.. but you can definitely add more variety to that. You might want make sure the temps stay above 75deg just because he's having a runny nose.

 

[Mich]

Sorry, my msg about the temps I can see was a little confusing. I was trying to pack all needed info into my msg without it being the length of a novel LOL The "cooler" end daytime temps are higher for sure, I meant the night temp was 70 .. and the warmest daytime spot was 90-95. I'll keep an eye on the runny nose .. yesterday it almost looked creamy white in color but today it is clear.

I'm from Ontario, Canada. It is not warm enough yet to take her outside but it will be soon. And I'm searching hard to find some grazing tort seed mix that I can grow indoors in the winter (most available places are in the US and don't like to ship across the border). The spring mix we have here is ok .. pre-chopped, goes bad fast, usually contains leaf lettuce and spinach. But I buy a TON of fresh produce for my other herps so she gets some of the better quality store bought greens that our spring mix doesn't include like collards/endive/kale, ect .. she'll happily eat that stuff but from what I've read her diet should be 70% grasses and hay but right now she won't eat a single bite of it so I'm hoping to eventually have her accept it.

 

[dmarcus]

Hello and welcome to the forum...

 

[ascott]

What substrate are you using? Do you wet that substrate?

 

[Jacob]

Just keep on eye on it and see if it worsens, if so if he makes noises or starts gasping for air it could be a Rns.
The Diet needs to change to a varied natural diet, store bought greens are great to add in for variety and change SINCE
its been living off store bought greens as a staple diet.
You can feed things such as cactus, grasses, mazurui, hibsiscis, Mulberry leaves the list goes on!
You can even buy tortoise seed graze and plant it

 

[Zamric]

Welcome to the Forum!

 

[Mich]

What substrate are you using? Do you wet that substrate?

My substrate is 50/50 ecoearth/play sand. It is drier on the surface but if she burrows down it is cooler and a little damper below (NOT wet). There is soil humidity but not a lot or air humidity and she doesn't sleep on cool or damp surfaces ever.

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Just keep on eye on it and see if it worsens, if so if he makes noises or starts gasping for air it could be a Rns.
The Diet needs to change to a varied natural diet, store bought greens are great to add in for variety and change SINCE
its been living off store bought greens as a staple diet.
You can feed things such as cactus, grasses, mazurui, hibsiscis, Mulberry leaves the list goes on!
You can even buy tortoise seed graze and plant it

I have some mazurui (which I actually just learned about very recently) and she gets many other suggested foods off the tort food list and edible plants/weed lists. I have bearded dragons, an iguana and some other herps so I'm very familiar with ca charts and that sort of thing, I give her the greens with high calcium and low protein and phosphorus. I've looked into trying to get the grazing tort seed mix but it is impossible to find here, I have a list of some plants and weeds it normally contains and will try out local garden centers to see how many I can possibly find individually.

She isn't "gasping" and her breathing doesn't sounds rasp but it does sound like she is making clicking or sucking noises from time to time.