Poop Question.

[Liquidpoop]

Hey my russian tortoise just pooped and i notice like a little slug thing in it, i had a close look wouldnt say a full examination but it doesnt look like anything he could have ate.

(if you cant see it very well try )

any ideas guys i hope he hasnt got any parasites or anything, i think he was a WC tort cause he was V.cheap (wasnt aware at the time) . should i take a sample to the vets?

thanks
Lp

 

[Kristina]

I would definately take a sample to the vet. All wild caught torts harbor parasites. In the wild, because they have such a wide range it usually doesn't become a problem, but in captivity it does. The stress of being caught and imported severly weakens their systems and can cause unchecked growth of parasites. Because captive torts are kept in relatively small areas, the chance for reinfection and reingestion of parasites increases expotentially, to the point where a parasite burden can prove deadly. The crowded conditions they are kept in before being sold to pet homes increases the chance for infection.

Anything bug or worm like that comes out in the feces has passed through the digestive tract whole, which means it was resistant to digestive acids, and is most likely a parasite. The parasite is attempting to complete it's lifecycle, hoping to be ingested by some other hapless animal.

I know my vet only charges $18 USD for a fecal, and to me it is well worth it.

Kristina

 

[Liquidpoop]

i dont mind the costs i just didnt want to waste my time, thank you very much ill ring the vets immediatley
thanks

 

[Isa]

Good luck & keep us updated please

 

[Liquidpoop]

right... i took him the vets, she said what i was looking at was a bit of grit which was good news but, she also found 2 types of parasite eggs she has given us some panacur which we have to give him 1 drop every fortnight and hopefully he will be better, weve got to take some more poop down in about a month.

quite happy tho the vet wished us luck trying to feed it to him, but i came home, mushed up a bit of cucumber and put it on and he happily scoffed the lot.

just out of interest has anybody else had parasite problems. were you prescribed panacur. it says dogs and cats on the label but she read up on what dose to give such a tiny tort so i assume its normal to give them that. i do trust the vets but she did advise us that if he got really sick we would have to take him to a specialist vet.

thanks again u lot just glad i managed to get him in this afternoon

Lp

 

[Yvonne G]

just out of interest has anybody else had parasite problems. were you prescribed panacur. it says dogs and cats on the label but she read up on what dose to give such a tiny tort so i assume its normal to give them that.

Panacur IS the de-wormer of choice for turtles and tortoises. Panacur kills the types of parasites you can see with the naked eye (hook worm, round worm, etc.). For the amoeba-type parasites the vet would prescribe Flagyl. NEVER, NEVER give a turtle or tortoise Ivermectin de-wormer. It is fatal to chelonia.

Yvonne

 

[Liquidpoop]

hey...dont mind me asking but whats 'chelonia'.

i cant remember what the vet said they were called but she had to look under a microscope to see them, but she only found eggs so chances are there is something bigger in there thats laying them he has lost quite alot of weight over 2 weeks, i thought it was my scales at first. we got him checked and weighed at the vets and he was 80 grams, then i took him home and after about a week i weighed him and he was 73 grams, we took him today and he weighed 75 grams. it seems like quite alot but i wouldnt know what a drastic weight loss would be.

do you think he'll be ok? how can these parasites affect him, i dont want him to get poorly.. or worse
do the parasites just steal his food or do they eat him? gettin a bit worried now

 

[tortoisenerd]

Chelonia=An order of reptiles, including the tortoises and turtles, peculiar in having a part of the vertebræ, ribs, and sternum united with the dermal plates so as to form a firm shell. The jaws are covered by a horny beak.

Hope your tort feels better soon!

 

[Liquidpoop]

thanks mate, and thanks for the info. makes me wonder where you lot get it all from i was lost with bertie untill i found this site and id bought books and all sorts and all were quite useless and not specific enough.

i like trevor for a name i wanted to call bertie, trevor or henry but the missus decision is final . not so sure that bertie is a boy now tho we got told he was when we got him but the vet has now said he is a she, ive compared to some pics i found and i still cant decide due to mixed opinions on pics. i dont mind waiting and i dont think he/she will mind being called bertie.

 

[tortoisenerd]

I'm just going with the assumption that my little hatchling was temperature-sexed correctly...Trevor could turn out to be a girl in a few or five years. That would be rather funny though. There is all sorts of bad pet care info out there--I had an old turtle and tortoise book from years ago and even I knew that it wasn't accurate.

 

[Liquidpoop]

temperature sexed? is that like the egg temp or the incubation temp or what. sorry to keep asking questions just seems like every time you post something i find out something else i didnt know.

*duh* on a roll today

Lp

 

[tortoisenerd]

The temperatures some species' eggs are incubated at will determine the sex of the hatchlings. There have been studies that with a certain temperature range you'll get female, another range you'll get male, and an in between range you'll get a mix. Incubating at the extremes of the range can get almost certainty. Some species are easier than others to do this with and I don't know much more than that (you can probably search for incubation temperature on Google). I wanted a male because they stay a little smaller on average.

 

[Liquidpoop]

so they develop differently according to the temperatures. no way thats pretty cool, you can selectively breed just by turning up the heat.

thanks again
Lp

 

[tortoisenerd]

There is a little more information at this link, but hopefully someone else will come along if you have more questions.

http://www.russiantortoise.org/breeding.htm

 

[Liquidpoop]

im not planning on breeding or incubating or anything like but thanks its all really interesting