Please Help

[AmandaoftheBulls]

I've never owned a tortoise before. Day before yesterday we bought my 6 year old daughter's dream pet; a redfooted tortoise she dubbed, "Rose".

Rose was active and hale the evening we took her home. The next day her diet consisted of a mound of collard greens, an eighth of an apple, a baby carrot and one rasberry. She vomited after eating the rasberry, and then vomited a small amount of fluid later in the evening, but was active the whole day. She was soaked and had fluids all day as well.

This morning I found her in the corner of her enclosure and went to mover her. She urinated alot (I had read that was a sign of stress?) and proceeded to poop... The poop was easily identified as undigested apple. I called the herp shop we had purchased her from and he said it was most likely stress and perhaps she had become chilled. I was told to not feed her today and to not handle her and keep her very warm. I did so, keeping one side of her enclosure at 80 and the other side around 90. She stayed on the warm side all day. I misted her enclosure several times and when I put the water in front of her she would drink. Her eyes look "off" to me. She keeps rubbing them, and her left seems to be bothering her quite a bit. She has not gotten better over the day and had a gassy, mucusy (sp?) poo a little bit ago.

This seems to be more than, "just stress" to me. However, I don't want to overreact and fly to a vet over what may be a simple issue. I was told she was recently wormed, and my aunt owns 2 adults purchased at the same time; they are fine.

Please let me know how deep my concern should be!! Thank you very much!

 

[dmmj]

Tortoises don't normally vomit over stress, I IMHO would take her to a vet I think she may be sick.

 

[Laura]

COuld very well be stress...stress is very serious..
what kind of lights and heat do you have? Some lights can actually damage thier eyes.. and redfoots and forest torts and odnt do well with lots of light. warmth is needed.. but darker...

 

[dmmj]

I reread your post I did not notice you said she was wormed recently, it might account for it, but normally they don't vomit.

 

[HarleyK]

How big is Rose? Describe your setup because the eyes not looking normal can be because of the CFL spiral lights or very low humidity levels. I'd probably stay away from fruit and feed the tort the collards and maybe some rose petals to get her appetite going again.

 

[egyptiandan]

It is time to get Rose to the vet. It looks like she has a protozoan problem. The vet should prescribe Flagyl for that.

Danny

 

[Jacqui]

I too, would like more information before giving too many thoughts. Right now it could be something as "simple" as stress, the worm meds, too low humidity, too much light, wrong kind of light, even an allergy to the substrate... or something much more serious. It worries me, that this happened so quickly. Did you also have a long ride home? Was she handled a lot? Constantly checking up on her? Little quiet time? Did she perhaps get chilled on the way home, too? Were the adults in the same enclosure with her at the store?

 

[Shelli]

Did your apple have seeds still in it? I have read they are toxic to torts..

((())) I hope she feels better soon!

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Amanda:

It sounds to me as if your substrate is causing the problem. What kind of substrate do you have her on? Pine is toxic.

---

Oh, and welcome to the forum!!

 

[AmandaoftheBulls]

Thank you so much for your replies!
To answer some of the questions;
Rose is 6-7 inches long.
She was handled alot yesterday. We let her roam around the backyard for a while. No chemicals have been used on the grass since I moved here a year ago. Before that I do not know. The temp here was around 80ish while she was out.
She has a night time heat bulb and a daytime 100 watt in one of those reflector light things. It is the same thing she had in the store.
Yes the adults where in the same enclosure.
No seeds in the apple.
Substrate is cypress mulch.
The enclosure itself is a 50 gallon long rubbermaid container with dark blue walls. Or plans where for her to "winter" there and to build a tortoise garden for her in the spring as I had heard redfoots flourish in or SC summers.
I had been focusing on "warm" so much I did not think of the lights being disruptive to her eyes. What can I do to help heat?

 

[Shelli]

For the heat look up Ceramic Heat Emitter, when you go to buy one don't buy less than 100W I found they don't emit as much heat as the same watt light bulb..

 

[Madkins007]

If we ignore the vomiting, I would say this was mostly just simple stress- some warmth and quiet would be my recommendation.

The vomiting, however, COULD have been just a bit too much stress or it could be parasites, infections, or other bad things.

If this was one of my torts, I would warm, calm, and monitor it for a bit. Any more vomiting, any diarrhea, or odd behaviors and I would take it to the vet.

I'm not a big fan of folk remedies, but I myself would follow one here- offering some dampened whole-wheat bread. It is supposed to help with protozoans, and my torts usually like it. While offering raw grains is not a good idea (mostly because it passes them without any digesting- just like seeds, etc.), bread is processed and more digestible- but is not a significant part of my normal diet.

 

[tortoisenerd]

I agree with Danny on this one and think a vet visit is warranted. Bring a fecal sample to have tested for parasites. Vomiting is usually very serious in torts. I would ask the pet store for reimbursement for the vet. Good luck and congrats on the tort! Keep us updated.

 

[AmandaoftheBulls]

Thank you all so much for the replies. I did indeed take Rose to the vet after seeing no improvement. She was apparently not wormed quite right the first time... So wormings are in order. The herp shop works closely with the vet I took her to and after speaking to them and learning the error in thier timing for the wormings they are reimbursing the vet visit. Rose is getting better already!! Thank you all again!

 

[Kristina]

Glad to hear Rose is doing better, and that you are getting a break on the vet visit!

Keep us updated, and we would love to see pictures.

 

[Jacqui]

You just have to love happy endings.