Tortoise has Runny Nose Syndrome

[Giannis]

Hello,

our 5 year old tortoise seems to have runny nose syndrome since we see bubbles coming out of his nose. We have purchase him from a pet shop 3 weeks ago and when we took him to the vet two days ago (that is when we realised he was sick) he told us that he is underweight, dehydrated and has rhinitis and tracheitis and so he is on antibiotics now (I am waiting for the vet to open to call and ask what antibiotics he gave us).

We have him house in a large box with Exo Terra wood chips, a bark of a tree to hide in, a shallow container with water, a shallow container for food and an infra-red heat lamp now 24/7 on.

After night and days of reading up the internet we have the following questions:

1. We know we should get a UVB light and we are on it, did this have a detrimental effect on his health?

2. He is sleeping all day and night. Is this normal? Heat lamp is on 24/7

3. He is a bit unresponsive after the antibiotics injection each day at 5 PM. By unresponsive I mean he sleeps deeper. Is this normal?

4. He doesn't eat at all even though yesterday he took 3 bites out of a cucumber. Can we do anything about it?

5. He seems to drink water when we bathe him twice a day. Is this a good sign or is it expected of him?

6. Can we put any supplements in his bath so as to help recovery? Vitamins? Electrolytes?

7. We have noticed that when the vet gave him the injection and held him head down, there was clear liquid coming out of his nose. Even though this is stressful for the tortoise, will this help him if we do it everyday? Meaning will the removal of this liquid aid in his recovery?

Any suggestions are more than welcome!

Thanks

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi, and welcome to the Forum!

It would help if we knew the species of tortoise you bought...for example, leopard tortoises show an allergic reaction to Baytril (the drug of choice for respiratory infections in tortoises).

The nostrils in a tortoise don't go down the throat like they do in other creatures, they end up in the roof of the mouth. So the liquid you see coming out the nose is coming from the tortoise's mouth, and won't do any good one way or the other to encourage it to escape.

Most likely the tortoise is sick because of all the moving around it has gone through lately. He needs to be set up in a roomy habitat, with heat and lights, and left alone to become familiarized with his new environment. Since he's sick, you should make sure the habitat is overall above 80F degrees. And drinking while on an antibiotic regimen is good because antibiotics are hard on tortoise kidneys.

It's ok for him to sleep a lot. Like I said above, antibiotics are hard on tortoises.

For your #3, we need to know what kind of tortoise it is, as mentioned above.

Don't get him started eating cucumber. They seem to want it to the exclusion of everything else, and cucumber is mostly water. Buy some Spring Mix or Santa Barbara Mix - packaged ready made salads. Just don't buy the ones that are mostly iceburg lettuce. Eventually, after the tortoise is well, to the packaged salad you can add leaves and weeds from outside.

Good luck getting your new tortoise well. Can we see a picture of him and his habitat? We may have other tips for you once we see that.

 

[Giannis]

Hello and thanks for the answer!

The tortoise is a Greek tortoise. As for nutrition I tried everything with him from toetoise food to dandelions to lettuce which was what he qas being fed...

Here is his home





Thanks