Possible Respiratory Problems

[Tsarina27]

Hi, my three year old RT has been doing some things lately that have me concerned. First off, he does this thing where he'll be eating, or standing, and he'll stop what he's doing and puff air out of his nose so loud that you can hear it from a few feet away; after this, he will go right back to eating (which honestly doesn't surprise me -he's a fatty). And second, my boyfriend noticed last night that he was acting funny; he told me that Tortomir stuck his head out, then pulled it back in really far (so far that his leg skin was starting to cover his face) and while his head was in there, he opened his mouth very widely and held that position for a few seconds, then stopped, then did the same thing again. He did this only twice, but he's never done it before and it worries me. Any ideas why he's doing this, and what I can do to help? Any advice/suggestions are appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Yvonne G]

A tortoise's nares flow into the roof of the mouth, not down the throat into the lungs. So the puff you occasionally see might just be him clearing food off the roof of his mouth.

Open mouth breathing or gasping usually means the nose it plugged up. Since they really aren't built to mouth breathe, if their nose ever gets pluggged up, the have to open their mouth and gasp in a breath of air. You can use a eye dropper or syringe without the needle and squirt some sterile saline up each nostril to try to clear them.

If you think its a respiratory infection, you need to take him to the vet.

 

[Tsarina27]

Okay, that makes sense. He's our first tortoise, so I don't really know what symptoms to look for when it comes to a respiratory infection. I haven't had any experience with it before.

 

[Tsarina27]

Are there any symptoms I should look for (that indicate respiratory illness)?