I know most of us already know this, but I'm going to tell you a story just to reaffirm and reinforce the knowledge:
I received a phone call this a.m. from a guy who adopted several RES from me a few years ago. He told me that his two sulcatas "woke up dead" this morning. (I know this sounds funny, but its what he said, and it really isn't funny) I said oh no...what happened? He said that about 3 days ago he noticed that the female had prematurely aborted all her unformed eggs all over the yard and that her eyes looked like they had blood weeping from them. The male had been in their house for several days. When he discovered them dead, the male also had blood weeping from his eyes.
The male tortoise was approaching 100lbs and the female weighed in at 120lbs.
I asked him if he had put down any poison or done any spraying and he said, "Well, he had the exterminator out about 10 days ago." Was he in the backyard spraying? Yes.
This guy didn't think it would do any harm because the exterminator was spraying for slugs and snails and bugs, not for tortoises.
This is another story with an unhappy ending and but no resolution:
Another person emailed me several days ago asking for advice. Her 35lb sulcata wouldn't go into the dogloo by himself. He wanted to stay outside in his burrow (here in my town). Every night they had to put him into the dogloo. She said some nights he was pretty cold because he had stayed outside all day with no sun. So before she emailed me she found him outside in one spot and he was pulled totally into his shell. She had never seen him in that position before. He stayed there all day. When she picked him up to put him into the Dogloo, he hissed and moved his leg, but stayed tightly inside the shell.
I had no advice for her except to make sure the temperature inside the dogloo was ok, not too hot. In my opinion, there was something wrong inside there why he didn't want to stay inside, but she had to be a detective and try to figure out what it was.
When she went to check on him the next day he was also dead.
She has no idea what was wrong because far as she knew there was no poison sprayed in her yard and no toxic plants he might have eaten. The pig blanket showed 80 degrees. There were no black widows, wasps or bugs inside. No clue why he died.
This might be a neighbor who had sprayed and the poison drifted across to her yard, but we'll never know. It almost sounded to me like some sort of bite or sting because the tortoise was pulled so tightly into his shell.
I hate these kinds of stories. But I think we all need to occasionally hear them to better educate ourselves and try to keep our own tortoises safer.
I received a phone call this a.m. from a guy who adopted several RES from me a few years ago. He told me that his two sulcatas "woke up dead" this morning. (I know this sounds funny, but its what he said, and it really isn't funny) I said oh no...what happened? He said that about 3 days ago he noticed that the female had prematurely aborted all her unformed eggs all over the yard and that her eyes looked like they had blood weeping from them. The male had been in their house for several days. When he discovered them dead, the male also had blood weeping from his eyes.
The male tortoise was approaching 100lbs and the female weighed in at 120lbs.
I asked him if he had put down any poison or done any spraying and he said, "Well, he had the exterminator out about 10 days ago." Was he in the backyard spraying? Yes.
This guy didn't think it would do any harm because the exterminator was spraying for slugs and snails and bugs, not for tortoises.
This is another story with an unhappy ending and but no resolution:
Another person emailed me several days ago asking for advice. Her 35lb sulcata wouldn't go into the dogloo by himself. He wanted to stay outside in his burrow (here in my town). Every night they had to put him into the dogloo. She said some nights he was pretty cold because he had stayed outside all day with no sun. So before she emailed me she found him outside in one spot and he was pulled totally into his shell. She had never seen him in that position before. He stayed there all day. When she picked him up to put him into the Dogloo, he hissed and moved his leg, but stayed tightly inside the shell.
I had no advice for her except to make sure the temperature inside the dogloo was ok, not too hot. In my opinion, there was something wrong inside there why he didn't want to stay inside, but she had to be a detective and try to figure out what it was.
When she went to check on him the next day he was also dead.
She has no idea what was wrong because far as she knew there was no poison sprayed in her yard and no toxic plants he might have eaten. The pig blanket showed 80 degrees. There were no black widows, wasps or bugs inside. No clue why he died.
This might be a neighbor who had sprayed and the poison drifted across to her yard, but we'll never know. It almost sounded to me like some sort of bite or sting because the tortoise was pulled so tightly into his shell.
I hate these kinds of stories. But I think we all need to occasionally hear them to better educate ourselves and try to keep our own tortoises safer.
very sad stories but thanks for the reminder Yvonne.
