Toby goes on hunger strike

[TobyTortoise]

Hello all,

I'm new to the forum and have signed up as getting information on tortoises seems to be quite difficult. Our local vets have had very little contact with Tortoises and so any help would be greatly appreciated.

The family tortoise is Toby (he's a Greek tortoise - my Mum had him when she was a child) and he must be well into his 50's now.
He hibernates every winter and wakes up when he feels ready, which this year was about 4 weeks ago.
Normally he is very slow moving when he first comes out of hibernation and he won't eat anything until he has done his first poo of the summer. This would normally happen within a couple of weeks, and after that point, he starts eating.

Up to now, he hasn't done a poo and he has shown very little interest in moving about and hasn't eaten a thing.
We're worried as it isn't the norm. We live in the UK so the weather has been quite warm these past few weeks and this would normally provoke him to move about more too.

2 years ago he had a terrible problem with worms which we managed to cure with medicine injected into his food, but it took most of the summer as he was in quite a bad state. Last year, the worms didn't return but he didn't seem to eat as much as he normally would.

He looks so sad and we're really worried about him but daren't take him to the vets yet as he hates it and gets very anxious.

If anyone has any ideas what could be wrong with him, or has had the same problem, some advice would be gratefully appreciated.

Thanks in advance

TobyTortoise

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Toby Tortoise:

Welcome to the forum!!

May we know your name?



Put some warm water in a dish pan or tub of some sort and let Toby sit in the water for about 15 minutes. Do this every day for a week or so. This will ensure that he's warmed up clear to the core. If he's still not eating after that, try offering him something yellow or red. It doesn't matter if its a good food item or a bad food item. If you can get him to eat...anything...he will be on the mend.

 

[TobyTortoise]

Hi Emysemys,

Thanks very much for the welcome and advice. I'll definitely give the warm water a try. How deep should the water be that he's sat in?
Maybe after a soak he'll be ready for some food as at the moment he is not at all interested. The vets really is a last resort.
Is it likely that he just isn't warm enough to get started on his summer of eating yet?

Regards,
Sharon

 

[dmmj]

whenever you soak a tortoise the water should come up to it's plastron, for most tortoises no more than an inch or two, you want him to be able to easily lift his head out of the water, if he needs to.

 

[TobyTortoise]

Thanks dmmj, that's great. I'll give it a try tomorrow when the sun is out and see how he reacts to that,

Regards
Sharon

 

[Tom]

Hello and welcome.

Is he just living outside? I would set up a large indoor enclosure with hide boxes, a water bowl and all of that good stuff and bring him in. Get a mercury vapor bulb and adjust the height of it to give him a basking spot of 95-100 degrees. A week or two of that routine, along with the soaks the Yvonne suggested, should get him back on track and healthy again. I had a couple of animals that didn't seem to want to wake up from hibernation either and after a couple of days in my heated reptile room they were up and running just fine. Once he's felling better, I would still bring him in at night and on cold days.

By the way, it is never a good idea to hibernate a tortoise that is not 100% healthy. If he was a little "off" in any way I would have kept him warm and up for the winter. This doesn't hurt them in any way and it could save their life.

Lastly, I'd have another fecal done to be sure he's clean of worms. They sometimes have a habit of squirming back in.

Good luck and please keep us posted.