Tortoise blood in Urine

[Jasondugo]

My Tortoise is a Indian Star and 4 years old I had no problems with her up to yet but today she has what looks like blood in her urine, she eats a lot of dandelions but this is never happened before is it something I need to worry about?

I have attached a picture.

I forgot to say she had a big poo before she urinated.

 

[Tom]

Where are you?
What do you feed her?
How is she housed?

 

[Jasondugo]

I'm from UK, she has dandelion leafs and flowers, some days petunias with Nutrobal on her food 3 days a week.

This is her enclosure

 

[AmRoKo]

It might just be your giving too much dandelion, dandelion can make urine a dark orange/red color.

 

[Jasondugo]

It might just be your giving too much dandelion, dandelion can make urine a dark orange/red color.

I read that online but she always had a lot of dandelions and never happened before can it just happen like that?

 

[AmRoKo]

It could be a build up of the beta-carotene pigment that dandelion has a lot of, I would stop feeding the dandelion and see if it goes away and if it goes away then we will have figured out that is what it was and you can continue to feed dandelion again. It could also be a combination of the beta carotene and not enough water though.

 

[Jasondugo]

It could be a build up of the beta-carotene pigment that dandelion has a lot of, I would stop feeding the dandelion and see if it goes away and if it goes away then we will have figured out that is what it was and you can continue to feed dandelion again. It could also be a combination of the beta carotene and not enough water though.

Okay thank you very much I will leave her off them for a while see if it stops.
I soak her in her bath every morning for 15 minutes which she seems to drink a lot then and does her business but she never seems to go in her water bowl that in her enclosure.

 

[Yvonne G]

It does look like there is a bit of blood in that poo. I would just watch and see if anything about her demeanor changes and if so, take her to the vet.

 

[AmRoKo]

Yeah like Yvonne said make sure you watch her in case she does start acting differently, you can also take a sample to the vet sometime for them to check if anything else is wrong.

 

[Jasondugo]

Thank you so much everyone I will keep a close eye on her.

 

[johnreuk]

It does look like fresh blood.... And that looks like a concretion of urates to me....? It may be that it caused some irritation to the bladder/cloaca, hence the blood. This is just postulating obviously!! If she is otherwise fine, I would keep an eye on her, and ensure she is well hydrated with continued soakings.... But definitely take her to a vet if it happens again or anything changes with her.

Hopefully all will be fine.... Where in the UK are you? I am also in the UK, and have an Indian star.

Regards
John

 

[Jasondugo]

"concretion of urates to me....?" It's like chalky not sure how to explain it otherwise.

I'm from Staffordshire may I ask what do you feed yours?

 

[johnreuk]

If it is chalky, then sounds like it is urates... usually they are creamy, but can potentially be gritty, hard or excessively chalky if the tortoise is inadequately hydrated.... Do you know what the humidity/temperatures are in your enclosure?

Mine was fed on mainly weeds....... Broad/narrow leaf plantain and dandelion formed the main basis, with things like sow thistle, bristly ox tongue, vetch, clover (not much) and bindweed..... Depending on what I can find!! Also hibiscus leaves and flowers, dandelion flowers, pansy and nasturtium flowers.

As he's gotten older (he's now 2), he will more readily accept grasses, so these form the bulk of his diet now, with smaller amounts of the above weeds etc added daily. He will clear a slate tile of lawn grass pretty fast!!

I do feed some salad leaves etc when weeds are scarce, such as through winter, but only to bulk out the diet, and never as the main component.

I have offered some pelleted diets before, such as mazuri/nutrazu/zoomed grassland tortoise food, but he doesn't like them much anyway, so I don't usually bother now.

Hope that's helpful
John