Hi everyone!!!
Two weeks ago from yesterday, my boyfriend and I bought a baby sulcata from someone on Craigslist. My boyfriend has had hands on experience with several different kinds of tortoises growing up and we had a great deal of interest in raising one together for a while, so we decided we'd buy the baby sulcata when we found the ad online. The woman we got him from swore he was in "great tip-top health", but when we got him home and settled in to his new "container", it didn't take us very long to see that he was pretty far from being in good health. The little man's (too early to tell its sex, but we're referring to it as a male, and we named him Buddy, hence the username, lol...) shell is very soft, and from the moment we took ownership of him, even before that at the previous owner's home, his little beady eyes were glued shut. It appeared as though he was trying to open his eyes, as if he wanted them open, but just couldn't. After a good 24 hours of letting him rest and "do his own thing" we noticed he didn't move very much at all from where we left him in his container...and he had no appetite.
Oh, I suppose I should mention what we're keeping him in, as far as as his container goes...He's in a clear 40-quart size tote from WalMart (the kind you'd put Christmas/Holiday gift wrap in...), alfalfa hay substrate, two log-replica "hides", and a heat lamp-- We've been keeping the basking zone between 90-95 degrees. But this is where I'm sort of looking for advice. We've read several different temps for the basking temperature online for babies and the guy who owns the pet store near where we live said to keep the basking temp around 85-90, and no more than that. He said any higher than 90 in the basking temp, and his little guys don't move around much, and that it makes them lose their appetite. But other sites will say to keep the basking temp as high as 105 or so. I'm sure each degree added does affect them differently, I just wish I knew what is THE BEST basking temp / cool zone temp to keep the little guy at, without cookin' him or freezing him...
My boyfriend and I took him to a highly recommended vet in our area last Wednesday (we had to wait a full week before that vet could get us in for an appointment, but we heard he's like the best of the best in our area for herpetelogical stuff, so we decided it was going to be worth the wait). The vet told us what we already knew, in regard to his shell being soo soft and having little to no movement and appetite-- that Buddy has a very severe calcium deficiency. The vet gave him a high dose (don't know the exact amount, but he said it was a good strong dose for his size) of calcium, injected into his little back leg. Then the vet inspected his eyes, which were still glued shut. At that point, only every once in a great while, Buddy could open his left eye for a short period of time, but not his right eye at all. The vet then squirted both of his eyes with some water-pique device, to get any impurities out that might have been in there, and to see if squirting his eyes would help them to open. It helped with the left eye, but did absolutely nothing for the right one. The vet then somehow pried open Buddy's beak-like mouth, very fast and easily! Looked inside for infections and discolorations, but he said it looked free and clear in there. He sent us home with a small bottle of antibiotic eye drops (a few drops in each eye, a couple times a day), and a small bottle of liquid calcium syrup with a few syringes. The vet said to give Buddy 3mL of this liquid calcium 2x a day until the bottle of syrup is gone. Sure, that sounds easy-peasy, and the vet made it look like a piece of cake as fast as he got his fingers to open Buddy's mouth...But when my boyfriend and I tried it at home, umm....well, apparently the vet can make it look easy because he's a professional. It's been almost a week since that vet visit, and my boyfriend and I have only been successful in getting Buddy's beak-mouth open for the liquid calcium just a few times. It's soo hard to do-- he's so little that he sucks his head and arms inside of himself because he's scared and confused, and when we do get a decent grip on his little head to get his mouth to pop open with our fingernail (we do it very gently, trust me...), he slides from under our fingers and retreats back into his shell. It's very frustrating because we know he needs to swallow this stuff to make him feel better (the vet said it could take up to, if not more than a full month before the calcium injection he gave him goes fully into effect)...but to him, he sees it as torture. There's no other way to get it in his mouth than to pry his beak-mouth open. He eats soo very little (only tiny, tiny bites when my boyfriend lures him around the living room floor with different veggie slices and greens) when he gets small bursts of energy, which only happens every few days. Does anyone have any experience with giving their baby liquid medicine like this, on how to successfully get their mouth to open?
Also, when we got Buddy, the lady said he was "several months old", but when we were at the vet's, I happened to ask how old he thought Buddy was. He said 6-8 weeks at most. He was weighed before we left, he weighed in at 63 grams.
The eye drops seem to be helping his eyes--He can now open both eyes, but sometimes they still seem to be "glued" shut, but on the bright side, they do both open for a while, especially right after giving him the drops.
It seems like his energy comes in small, short little blasts, since the calcium injection was given last Wednesday. When we notice he gets a little burst of energy, we take him out of his "container" and set him on the living room floor (carpeted) and he roams all over and this is usually when his appetite sparks up for a few minutes. Shortly after, he falls asleep mid-roam, and we set him back in his home.
I forgot to mention, we do soak him regularly. Not sure if there is such a thing as "over-soaking" him, but we soak him 2-3x a day, for about 15 minutes each soak, and every time, he seems to love it. He drinks a lot during each soak (I see this as a good thing, since he's not eating all that much)...and then poops almost every single time in his soaking container....which is another confusing thing. How does he keep pooping when he's not really taking that much food in? Unless he's eating while we're at work...Also, after his soakings, that also seems to be when he's most perky and energetic.
I apologize for our first post on this forum being so long-winded, I just wanted to let you know all the details of our little man, who we love dearly, but are also worried about, since the vet did say a lot of sulcatas die early on, they just "don't make it"...
By the way, I had been looking at different tortoise forums over the past few days, but I finally decided to join this one because it seems to be the best rated & recommended among all the forums out there!
We are Buddy's Parents: Danielle and Nick...and we love Buddy very much and look forward to hearing from any/all of you!
Two weeks ago from yesterday, my boyfriend and I bought a baby sulcata from someone on Craigslist. My boyfriend has had hands on experience with several different kinds of tortoises growing up and we had a great deal of interest in raising one together for a while, so we decided we'd buy the baby sulcata when we found the ad online. The woman we got him from swore he was in "great tip-top health", but when we got him home and settled in to his new "container", it didn't take us very long to see that he was pretty far from being in good health. The little man's (too early to tell its sex, but we're referring to it as a male, and we named him Buddy, hence the username, lol...) shell is very soft, and from the moment we took ownership of him, even before that at the previous owner's home, his little beady eyes were glued shut. It appeared as though he was trying to open his eyes, as if he wanted them open, but just couldn't. After a good 24 hours of letting him rest and "do his own thing" we noticed he didn't move very much at all from where we left him in his container...and he had no appetite.
Oh, I suppose I should mention what we're keeping him in, as far as as his container goes...He's in a clear 40-quart size tote from WalMart (the kind you'd put Christmas/Holiday gift wrap in...), alfalfa hay substrate, two log-replica "hides", and a heat lamp-- We've been keeping the basking zone between 90-95 degrees. But this is where I'm sort of looking for advice. We've read several different temps for the basking temperature online for babies and the guy who owns the pet store near where we live said to keep the basking temp around 85-90, and no more than that. He said any higher than 90 in the basking temp, and his little guys don't move around much, and that it makes them lose their appetite. But other sites will say to keep the basking temp as high as 105 or so. I'm sure each degree added does affect them differently, I just wish I knew what is THE BEST basking temp / cool zone temp to keep the little guy at, without cookin' him or freezing him...
My boyfriend and I took him to a highly recommended vet in our area last Wednesday (we had to wait a full week before that vet could get us in for an appointment, but we heard he's like the best of the best in our area for herpetelogical stuff, so we decided it was going to be worth the wait). The vet told us what we already knew, in regard to his shell being soo soft and having little to no movement and appetite-- that Buddy has a very severe calcium deficiency. The vet gave him a high dose (don't know the exact amount, but he said it was a good strong dose for his size) of calcium, injected into his little back leg. Then the vet inspected his eyes, which were still glued shut. At that point, only every once in a great while, Buddy could open his left eye for a short period of time, but not his right eye at all. The vet then squirted both of his eyes with some water-pique device, to get any impurities out that might have been in there, and to see if squirting his eyes would help them to open. It helped with the left eye, but did absolutely nothing for the right one. The vet then somehow pried open Buddy's beak-like mouth, very fast and easily! Looked inside for infections and discolorations, but he said it looked free and clear in there. He sent us home with a small bottle of antibiotic eye drops (a few drops in each eye, a couple times a day), and a small bottle of liquid calcium syrup with a few syringes. The vet said to give Buddy 3mL of this liquid calcium 2x a day until the bottle of syrup is gone. Sure, that sounds easy-peasy, and the vet made it look like a piece of cake as fast as he got his fingers to open Buddy's mouth...But when my boyfriend and I tried it at home, umm....well, apparently the vet can make it look easy because he's a professional. It's been almost a week since that vet visit, and my boyfriend and I have only been successful in getting Buddy's beak-mouth open for the liquid calcium just a few times. It's soo hard to do-- he's so little that he sucks his head and arms inside of himself because he's scared and confused, and when we do get a decent grip on his little head to get his mouth to pop open with our fingernail (we do it very gently, trust me...), he slides from under our fingers and retreats back into his shell. It's very frustrating because we know he needs to swallow this stuff to make him feel better (the vet said it could take up to, if not more than a full month before the calcium injection he gave him goes fully into effect)...but to him, he sees it as torture. There's no other way to get it in his mouth than to pry his beak-mouth open. He eats soo very little (only tiny, tiny bites when my boyfriend lures him around the living room floor with different veggie slices and greens) when he gets small bursts of energy, which only happens every few days. Does anyone have any experience with giving their baby liquid medicine like this, on how to successfully get their mouth to open?
Also, when we got Buddy, the lady said he was "several months old", but when we were at the vet's, I happened to ask how old he thought Buddy was. He said 6-8 weeks at most. He was weighed before we left, he weighed in at 63 grams.
The eye drops seem to be helping his eyes--He can now open both eyes, but sometimes they still seem to be "glued" shut, but on the bright side, they do both open for a while, especially right after giving him the drops.
It seems like his energy comes in small, short little blasts, since the calcium injection was given last Wednesday. When we notice he gets a little burst of energy, we take him out of his "container" and set him on the living room floor (carpeted) and he roams all over and this is usually when his appetite sparks up for a few minutes. Shortly after, he falls asleep mid-roam, and we set him back in his home.
I forgot to mention, we do soak him regularly. Not sure if there is such a thing as "over-soaking" him, but we soak him 2-3x a day, for about 15 minutes each soak, and every time, he seems to love it. He drinks a lot during each soak (I see this as a good thing, since he's not eating all that much)...and then poops almost every single time in his soaking container....which is another confusing thing. How does he keep pooping when he's not really taking that much food in? Unless he's eating while we're at work...Also, after his soakings, that also seems to be when he's most perky and energetic.
I apologize for our first post on this forum being so long-winded, I just wanted to let you know all the details of our little man, who we love dearly, but are also worried about, since the vet did say a lot of sulcatas die early on, they just "don't make it"...
By the way, I had been looking at different tortoise forums over the past few days, but I finally decided to join this one because it seems to be the best rated & recommended among all the forums out there!
We are Buddy's Parents: Danielle and Nick...and we love Buddy very much and look forward to hearing from any/all of you!
