Rye update

[uilani104]

Rye has a respiratory infection...and so does Ryne I took Ryne along just for a check up but apparently he/she also has a respiratory infection. I noticed nasal discharge a week ago but didn't see it later. Both were prescribed baytril.
The vet suggested something odd...he said "no substrate" use newspaper, astro turf, or rocks and to keep their environment dry. So I am stumped in what to do. I try to follow Tom's care sheet to a T and my vet has got me sooo confused. I don't want pyramiding to happen to my babies...advice needed please

 

[Tom]

Usually URTIs are caused by dampness and cold at the same time. What are your temps and how are you measuring them? What is the absolute coldest temp in the coldest part of their enclosure at night? What are you using to provide night heat? We all tend to think of HI as warm and tropical all the time, but there is snow on some of the mountains, I just recently learned. I didn't know that such a small amount of land in the middle of the sea had such a large variety of climates. Which one of those climates do you live in?

As far as what to do now, its a personal choice. The old standby, as repeated by your vet, is to keep them warm and dry to help them recover from it. If you choose to go that route, just soak them daily and remove them from the enclosure for several shell sprayings a day. This will get you through with a minimal impact on whether they pyramid or not, AND it will make your vet happy that you are taking his or her advice. Lately however, I have seen a few cases where people said they had much better luck treating URTIs with warmth AND humidity. I've never had a tort with a respiratory infection, so I have no idea which way works better.

Either way, your torts will benefit from an increase in temps. Try for 85 around the clock with a 100 degree basking spot for 12-14 hours a day.

 

[uilani104]

Usually URTIs are caused by dampness and cold at the same time. What are your temps and how are you measuring them? What is the absolute coldest temp in the coldest part of their enclosure at night? What are you using to provide night heat? We all tend to think of HI as warm and tropical all the time, but there is snow on some of the mountains, I just recently learned. I didn't know that such a small amount of land in the middle of the sea had such a large variety of climates. Which one of those climates do you live in?

As far as what to do now, its a personal choice. The old standby, as repeated by your vet, is to keep them warm and dry to help them recover from it. If you choose to go that route, just soak them daily and remove them from the enclosure for several shell sprayings a day. This will get you through with a minimal impact on whether they pyramid or not, AND it will make your vet happy that you are taking his or her advice. Lately however, I have seen a few cases where people said they had much better luck treating URTIs with warmth AND humidity. I've never had a tort with a respiratory infection, so I have no idea which way works better.

Either way, your torts will benefit from an increase in temps. Try for 85 around the clock with a 100 degree basking spot for 12-14 hours a day.

Hi Tom, thank you for a reply. Yes HI isn't as tropical and warm, December/January was unusually cold here. Especially since we did have snow this winter. I live on the south end of the Big Island. I get both hot and cold, I live on the slope of Mauna loa and our temperatures can get as low as 50 degrees.

I spoke the the vet about this, it could be due to vog also, there's no way to work around it since I live on a island that has a active volcano.

Currently the enclosures temperature is 85 and the basking spot is 95, I'll lower my CHE to get a 100 degrees. I have a thermometer in the enclosure to . I leave the CHE light on at night.

I personally like your method and so do Rye and Ryne (they tend to dig them self a little hole and sleep). I might do half orchid bark and the other half dry. Do you think that will do?

 

[onarock]

Very Interesting

 

[Dizisdalife]

My Vet told me to use paper towels or newspaper when my yearling sulcata was being treated for a URI. The reason he gave me was to prevent reinfection. I was told it would be easy to clean up the enclosure and to replace the paper. So, what I did was to use a minimal depth of substrate (about 2 inches) and clean the enclosure every week, tossing the old substrate. The substrate was kept moist as usual. I just could not see using paper and drying out my tort like that. Other than cleaning the substrate frequently I didn't change much. I kept the temps above 80, even at night, and the basking spot above 100. When my tort's appetite diminished I relied on Mazuri pellets to get him through. Everything went fine and today my tort has no URI symptoms. I hated giving all those injections.

Good luck.

 

[tortoisenerd]

It seems most vets I read about encourage no substrate (newspaper/paper towels), full time. I think the pyramiding/humidity thing hasn't reached them....but of course I'm talking about vets who treat a variety of animals (exotic vets), so I don't expect them to be experts on any one species, and I'd hope they would focus on the medicine part more than the husbandry, although they go hand in hand.

At our first vet visit a couple years ago, it was suggested to us to replace the coconut coir with newspaper or paper towels indefinitely (for cleanliness and to prevent impaction)....one of the few things I disagree with her on. This was a couple years ago and I haven't asked again though. The coir wasn't working out anyways (too damp & cold of an environment), and since my Russian didn't need a moist substrate, we switched to aspen. Told her at the next visit and she didn't argue with it.

I think for a hospital enclosure for a short time its just fine to use newspaper or whatever, but its the owner's choice what they think is the right decision. Good luck, Melody!