Sick Sulcata

[zgoldsmith23]

Hey guys, I'm Zach. I am happy to finally join this forum but not under these circumstances. My Sulcata, Doc, is about 5 - 6 months old. About a week ago, he was very active and always had an incredible appetite but lately, he has been much less active and hasn't been eating. He is at 87 hot spot with UVB lighting. He gets fed daily with a mixture of hays, greens, squash, a carrot or two and a little sliver of fruit every month or so. His stomach has gotten abnormally soft. He has constant access to fresh water (not too deep). I dust his food with Calcium and Vitamin supplements. I soaked him earlier today for about 15 - 20 mins in lukewarm water. He can open one eye fully but not the other. This is my first winter with him, could that have anything to do with it?

Please help my little guy out!

Thanks so much,
ZG23

 

[Isa]

Welcome to the forum
What kind of substrate is in the enclosure? and what kind of light do you use?
What kind of greens do you feed him? Squash should be feed every week but not everyday. I only feed my Hermann carrots once a month (a treat ). What kind of fruit do you feed him? I offer food to my Hermann really rarely.
Maybe the substrate or the lights are the problem.

 

[Candy]

I would get him to a tortoise vet asap. If you need to find one in your area we have a list of vets on the first page of this forum.

 

[Yvonne G]

Calcium doesn't work on its own. It has to have either the sun or a UVB light bulb in order to make it work. Because the little guy's plastron is soft, I'm guessing that you either don't have a UV light, or the light is old and not emitting the UV rays any longer.

There is a liquid calcium you could use to get calcium into the tortoise faster, but, like I said, it won't work unless the tortoise gets the UV rays from the sun or from a light.

 

[tortoisenerd]

Welcome to the group! Sorry it is not in better circumstances. I agree this little tortoise needs to get to an experienced tortoise vet right away. Look at our list on the home page as a starting point. Yvonne has great advice about the calcium and UVB. Something is not right. Once hatchlings are exhibiting these types of symptoms many times it is too late, so you really need to act quickly.

Your hot spot for basking should be 95, with the rest of the enclosure a gradient of from the 70s up to 95. Night temperatures of 65-75 are good. You need a hide near the basking spot to entice the tortoise, because if the tortoise doesn't feel safe to bask they won't, and then they hardly get any UVB so far away from the light. They need to be in the 80s to digest food. Check if you have a tube light it is no more than 6 months old, and if you have a Mercury Vapor Bulb it is no more than 12 months old. What type of heat/light/UVB do you use?

Daily calcium plus good UVB should have been sufficient, but some hatchlings just don't make it despite the best husbandry and despite doing well at the start. If he is not eating he is also not getting the calcium at this point. How long since he has eaten?

This shouldn't have anything to do with it being winter, it is just how fragile hatchling tortoises are. There is something called Hatchling Failure To Thrive, a form of Metabolic Bone Disease, which fits his symptoms: soft shell, not eating, eyes closed, inactive. The outlook is very poor without quick and knowledgeable care, and even then it is tough to save them.

http://www.sulcata-station.org/pdf/hatchfail.pdf
http://home.earthlink.net/~fridjian/id13.html

Best wishes.