Sulcata tortoise watery eyes

[rob morgan]

Please can any one help!

I have a 3 month old Salcata and he is eating perfectly well on grass and weeds with a supplement added 3 times a week, has UVB lighting and a bulb for basking and is on a soil and calcium substrate with grass. he is also very active and is soaked in water every day.

My problem is that he has little bubbles of water coming from his eyes and they are watery most of the time can any one help?

One other thing he also has one spur on the soft part of his skin near his shell at the top, but at the front of his body by his head!
has any one seen this before?

Regards

Rob

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Rob:

to the forum!!

The sulcata has been called "the crying tortoise" because it sometimes has tears or bubbles in its eyes. It might just be that his substrate is too dry. You say you use soil, calcium and grass as substrate. If you use the calci-sand, I would remove that part. It sometimes causes impaction when they accidentally ingest it on their food. Do you moisten the substrate?

I would be interested to see the spur you are talking about. Can you post a picture?

Yvonne

 

[rob morgan]

Hi Yvonne

Thank you for your reply it’s very much appreciated, it’s not calci-sand that he is on but when I get home I will let you know what its called as I have another bag of it. I do spray the substrate in the mornings.

What substrate would you recommend? I am just worried about substrates that could catch on fire under the heat lamp!

I will also try to get a photo of the spur, he is very small so it may not show up.

Thanks again.

Rob

 

[Crazy1]

Are you sure it is a spur on his head area and not a tick? A pic would greatly help.
Oh and welcome to the forum.

 

[rob morgan]

Are you sure it is a spur on his head area and not a tick? A pic would greatly help.
Oh and welcome to the forum.

Thank you for the welcome.

I have taken him to the vet’s and they have looked at it under a microscope and it’s definitely the same texture and colour as the spurs on his rear end.

I will try and take a photo and post it.

Thank you for your help

---

Hi Rob:

to the forum!!

The sulcata has been called "the crying tortoise" because it sometimes has tears or bubbles in its eyes. It might just be that his substrate is too dry. You say you use soil, calcium and grass as substrate. If you use the calci-sand, I would remove that part. It sometimes causes impaction when they accidentally ingest it on their food. Do you moisten the substrate?

I would be interested to see the spur you are talking about. Can you post a picture?

Yvonne

Hi Yvonne

Thank you for your reply it’s very much appreciated, it’s not calci-sand that he is on but when I get home I will let you know what its called as I have another bag of it. I do spray the substrate in the mornings.

What substrate would you recommend? I am just worried about substrates that could catch on fire under the heat lamp!

I will also try to get a photo of the spur, he is very small so it may not show up.

Thanks again.

Rob

 

[Yvonne G]

Some of the folks here use a mixture of Play sand (purchased at a home improvement store for kids' sand boxes) and coconut coir (purchased in compressed brick form at any pet store). You soak the coir until it falls apart, then mix it with the sand.

But I like to use either the fine grade orchid bark or cypress mulch. Orchid bark is clean of pesticides and fertilizers and is processed for people to grow orchids in. Orchids are pretty temperamental and won't thrive unless they have a pure product. Orchid bark is from fir trees, which are NOT an oily tree like pine. You definitely DO NOT want to use pine bark. Cypress mulch is readily available on the east coast, but here in the west we have to buy it in smaller bags at the pet store sometimes called Jungle Floor or Cypress Bed, etc. Reason I like these two products is you can wet it, and keep moistening it every day and it doesn't get sour.

Yvonne

 

[Maggie Cummings]

Hi Rob and welcome...I have a 10 yr old Sulcata named Bob, you can see his pictures here on the forum. He constantly has bubbles in the corners of his eyes and if I wipe them off they reappear in a few minutes. He spends most of his days outside and I used to fret over the bubbles but they don't seem to signify anything. At times he actually has tears running down his face and those times he is warmer than usual. I think your substrate is too dry, for a small Sulcata you want the substrate moist to wet. I use either orchid bark or cypress mulch and I pour water over it every other day or so. You want the ambient humidity at about 80%, so at the substrate level you want it pretty moist. Remember, in the wild they dig long burrows and they poop and pee in them creating humidity...

 

[rob morgan]

Hi Rob and welcome...I have a 10 yr old Sulcata named Bob, you can see his pictures here on the forum. He constantly has bubbles in the corners of his eyes and if I wipe them off they reappear in a few minutes. He spends most of his days outside and I used to fret over the bubbles but they don't seem to signify anything. At times he actually has tears running down his face and those times he is warmer than usual. I think your substrate is too dry, for a small Sulcata you want the substrate moist to wet. I use either orchid bark or cypress mulch and I pour water over it every other day or so. You want the ambient humidity at about 80%, so at the substrate level you want it pretty moist. Remember, in the wild they dig long burrows and they poop and pee in them creating humidity...

Hi Maggie,

Thank you for your reply, i have changed the humidity and substrate over the weekend and now he seems perfectly fine so thank you for your help.

Regards

Rob

---

Some of the folks here use a mixture of Play sand (purchased at a home improvement store for kids' sand boxes) and coconut coir (purchased in compressed brick form at any pet store). You soak the coir until it falls apart, then mix it with the sand.

But I like to use either the fine grade orchid bark or cypress mulch. Orchid bark is clean of pesticides and fertilizers and is processed for people to grow orchids in. Orchids are pretty temperamental and won't thrive unless they have a pure product. Orchid bark is from fir trees, which are NOT an oily tree like pine. You definitely DO NOT want to use pine bark. Cypress mulch is readily available on the east coast, but here in the west we have to buy it in smaller bags at the pet store sometimes called Jungle Floor or Cypress Bed, etc. Reason I like these two products is you can wet it, and keep moistening it every day and it doesn't get sour.

Yvonne

Hi Yvonne

I have changed this arround as you and others have suggested and over the past few days he seems much better so thank you for your advice and help.

Rob