Russian tort always inch her eyes by friont leg

[ssha_miami]

Hello, I noticed my Russian tort always inch her eyes by front leg. I am worry if her eyes has some problem, the outside of her eye looks a little bit swell, but eye ball is still clear and clean. Should I buy some medicine? Her bedroom was substrate with soil and sand mix at the bottom, and dry pit moss as bed. But she usually stay in between of moss and soil/sand mix. I guess pit moss dust was the bad thing, because one day I notice it has a lot dust if get dry. Any suggestions? Thanks.

By the way, I plan to drop pit moss and use Timothy hay (dry rabbit grass) on the sand/soil mix as the floor of her bedroom. Is that ok? I found this girl does not burrow soil a lot, but like to sleep with something cover her. So, I am looking for another material very loose, can cover her when sleeping, low dust in her bedroom.

 

[arotester]

Firstly,what kind of bulb do you use(is it coiled)?
The coiled bulb can cause irritation to the tort eyes.If this is not the reason then there might be something stuck into his eyes,so try soaking him longer so that the foreign particle gets enough chance to come out of the eye.If this doesn't improve the situation then find a vet ASAP.
Finally you mentioned that you are thinking about timothy hay as substrate,so i wouldn't recommend it as it hardly holds moisture and starts to decay very fast.

 

[Spn785]

Firstly,what kind of bulb do you use(is it coiled)?
The coiled bulb can cause irritation to the tort eyes.If this is not the reason then there might be something stuck into his eyes,so try soaking him longer so that the foreign particle gets enough chance to come out of the eye.If this doesn't improve the situation then find a vet ASAP.
Finally you mentioned that you are thinking about timothy hay as substrate,so i wouldn't recommend it as it hardly holds moisture and starts to decay very fast.

Agreed. Do you spray your enclosure with water every now and then? What is your humidity? If the moss dries out, I think you might be keeping your enclosure too dry which can cause irritation to the eyes.

 

[ssha_miami]

yes, that might be the problem. I move the moss out and change the sand to reptile soil. Gave her a soak. After soak, I think she is ok now. No, I do not use coil bulb. Thank you for the suggestions.

Btw, I think I used to have a misunderstanding of humidity. I learned Russian tort need dry environment, that might means to keep the soil humid but the air dry. so I will spray water to her floor from now on.

 

[Spn785]

Russians need a semi-dry environment with humidity between 40 and 60%. If it gets below 40% you need to spray more.

 

[Tom]

Are you using a coil type UV bulb overhead? I have seen these cause eye irritations many times.

Dry peat moss could also be a cause of eye irritation, but I would suspect the sand first and foremost. I recommend against using any sand because I have seen it cause intestinal impaction and eye irritation many times.