Hello everyone,
This morning, I noticed small urate stones for the first time on my 21 year old Russian tortoise's slate that he must have passed last night. He has otherwise been acting completely fine, & is active & eating as normal. I gave him a 90 minutes soak today in which he pooed & he has since passed normal consistency (toothpastey) urates.
He lives in a 8x3ft vivarium filled with Reptibark. He always has access to a terracotta saucer of water & has a diet of frisée, lamb's lettuce, radicchio, chicory, red & green leaf lettuce, coriander & kale which I supplement with ZooMed Grassland twice weekly & dried flowers/weeds on the remaining days.
I normally soak him twice weekly for 45-60 minutes & dampen his bark once weekly. However, we have had some family health issues & lately, I've only been soaking him once weekly & dampening his bark less often. Other than today, his last soak was the day before he passed the stone whereby over the hour he pooed & there were no noticeable gritty urates - I'm wondering if this hydration triggered him to release the stones. The only other husbandry change I've made recently is that I turned his CHE thermostat up from 68F to 75F during the daytime & 63F to 70F at nightime.
- How many times a day & for how long should I soak him for the time being?
- At which point can I be reassured that he is okay & go back to just soaking him twice weekly?
- Do I need to make any other changes to support him now & prevent this from happening again? I will ensure I'm stricter about sticking to his twice weekly soaks & dampening his bark more regularly in the future.
Thanks in advance!
This morning, I noticed small urate stones for the first time on my 21 year old Russian tortoise's slate that he must have passed last night. He has otherwise been acting completely fine, & is active & eating as normal. I gave him a 90 minutes soak today in which he pooed & he has since passed normal consistency (toothpastey) urates.
He lives in a 8x3ft vivarium filled with Reptibark. He always has access to a terracotta saucer of water & has a diet of frisée, lamb's lettuce, radicchio, chicory, red & green leaf lettuce, coriander & kale which I supplement with ZooMed Grassland twice weekly & dried flowers/weeds on the remaining days.
I normally soak him twice weekly for 45-60 minutes & dampen his bark once weekly. However, we have had some family health issues & lately, I've only been soaking him once weekly & dampening his bark less often. Other than today, his last soak was the day before he passed the stone whereby over the hour he pooed & there were no noticeable gritty urates - I'm wondering if this hydration triggered him to release the stones. The only other husbandry change I've made recently is that I turned his CHE thermostat up from 68F to 75F during the daytime & 63F to 70F at nightime.
- How many times a day & for how long should I soak him for the time being?
- At which point can I be reassured that he is okay & go back to just soaking him twice weekly?
- Do I need to make any other changes to support him now & prevent this from happening again? I will ensure I'm stricter about sticking to his twice weekly soaks & dampening his bark more regularly in the future.
Thanks in advance!
