I thought my 2 1/2 year old Russian tortoise Shelly had shell rot and too-sunken eyes in November, so I took him to see the exotic pet doctor at the animal hospital here in San Francisco at the start of December (earliest appointment I could get).
She thought his eyes looked fine and she treated the minor pits on his shell (the plastron) with a course of antibiotics, and the pits look smaller and shallower now. The technicians also gave Shelly a fluid injection and an A, D, and E vitamin shot on December 2nd, to ensure he wasn't dehydrated.
His eyes continue to look more and more sunken in to me but over the course of the antibiotic treatment (that ended 12/17/20), I asked a few times and was told they looked fine. His health is good otherwise.
I soak him every other day for 20-30 minutes. He's active. He goes to the bathroom regularly and his fecal matter and urates look normal. I switched his UV bulb recently so it's stronger again. I change it every 6 months. He has a ceramic heat emitter that he hangs out under at times. (Someone recommended a basking light instead, which I may still do, but I don't know if that is relevant to my current concern.) His cage is temperature-controlled with a thermostat, and is usually at 80 on the cool side and around 94 on the warm side, occasionally as high as 100. The cage is 4 (length) x 2 (width) x 1.5 (height) feet. There is a cool hide and a warm hide. He's 2 1/2 years old. His eyes are bright and alert, but sunken in, and it worries me.
I feed him a mixture of things: Mazuri pellets, dandelion greens, radicchio, red leaf lettuce, frisee, escarole, cactus when he'll eat it, alfalfa sprouts, endives, dried mulberry leaves, and Zoo Med pellets (with carrots and sweet potato chunks). I put liquid calcium drops in his water because for a while there he would not eat food if it had any powder on it. I previously used Repashy Calcium + Vit D powder. He also has a cuttlefish bone in his cage and he chews on that regularly.
Some new things are that I have had him in aspen shavings since I noticed the shell rot because of not wanting humidity in his cage to encourage any shell rot for now. I am going to switch him back to orchid bark and coco coir, though, because of his eyes, since that will help with moisture, I think. Also I started adding flowers to his diet (from those edible flower packets from Whole Foods) and he seems to like them. I also got new RepCal multivite powder for him, and need to get a new thing of Repashy Calcium + Vit D for him. He's been eating food this week with the RepCal powder on it and his appetite is good.
Is there ever another cause for sunken-in eyes that's less troubling? Vitamin deficiency seems to be one thing that came up in search results, so I'm working on that with the powder in his food again. Is there something else I should be doing to prevent / address sunken eyes? Should I take him to another vet for a second opinion? This vet seems very knowledgeable and gave a lot of her time to him and me, so I believe she knows her stuff, but I'm also still seeing his eyes and they just seem so sunken in, compared to earlier last year. He seems healthy, aside from his eyes being sunk in. The main exotic pet vet I used to take him to has been out on medical leave for over a year, and because of the shell rot and treatment and whatnot, I'm out about 300 or 400 dollars on him. And we have a cat who also had health problems which put us out about 700. To me, these two animals are my kids, so I only mention the money to show that I'm trying to do right by them. We also got him this larger home in 2020, so that was another big chunk of change. If another vet seems like the right call, though, then I'll probably do it, because he's important to me.
Here are two recent pics of Shelly where you can see his eyes. The one where he's on me is from 12/24. The one where he's burrowed in his substrate is from today, 1/3.
She thought his eyes looked fine and she treated the minor pits on his shell (the plastron) with a course of antibiotics, and the pits look smaller and shallower now. The technicians also gave Shelly a fluid injection and an A, D, and E vitamin shot on December 2nd, to ensure he wasn't dehydrated.
His eyes continue to look more and more sunken in to me but over the course of the antibiotic treatment (that ended 12/17/20), I asked a few times and was told they looked fine. His health is good otherwise.
I soak him every other day for 20-30 minutes. He's active. He goes to the bathroom regularly and his fecal matter and urates look normal. I switched his UV bulb recently so it's stronger again. I change it every 6 months. He has a ceramic heat emitter that he hangs out under at times. (Someone recommended a basking light instead, which I may still do, but I don't know if that is relevant to my current concern.) His cage is temperature-controlled with a thermostat, and is usually at 80 on the cool side and around 94 on the warm side, occasionally as high as 100. The cage is 4 (length) x 2 (width) x 1.5 (height) feet. There is a cool hide and a warm hide. He's 2 1/2 years old. His eyes are bright and alert, but sunken in, and it worries me.
I feed him a mixture of things: Mazuri pellets, dandelion greens, radicchio, red leaf lettuce, frisee, escarole, cactus when he'll eat it, alfalfa sprouts, endives, dried mulberry leaves, and Zoo Med pellets (with carrots and sweet potato chunks). I put liquid calcium drops in his water because for a while there he would not eat food if it had any powder on it. I previously used Repashy Calcium + Vit D powder. He also has a cuttlefish bone in his cage and he chews on that regularly.
Some new things are that I have had him in aspen shavings since I noticed the shell rot because of not wanting humidity in his cage to encourage any shell rot for now. I am going to switch him back to orchid bark and coco coir, though, because of his eyes, since that will help with moisture, I think. Also I started adding flowers to his diet (from those edible flower packets from Whole Foods) and he seems to like them. I also got new RepCal multivite powder for him, and need to get a new thing of Repashy Calcium + Vit D for him. He's been eating food this week with the RepCal powder on it and his appetite is good.
Is there ever another cause for sunken-in eyes that's less troubling? Vitamin deficiency seems to be one thing that came up in search results, so I'm working on that with the powder in his food again. Is there something else I should be doing to prevent / address sunken eyes? Should I take him to another vet for a second opinion? This vet seems very knowledgeable and gave a lot of her time to him and me, so I believe she knows her stuff, but I'm also still seeing his eyes and they just seem so sunken in, compared to earlier last year. He seems healthy, aside from his eyes being sunk in. The main exotic pet vet I used to take him to has been out on medical leave for over a year, and because of the shell rot and treatment and whatnot, I'm out about 300 or 400 dollars on him. And we have a cat who also had health problems which put us out about 700. To me, these two animals are my kids, so I only mention the money to show that I'm trying to do right by them. We also got him this larger home in 2020, so that was another big chunk of change. If another vet seems like the right call, though, then I'll probably do it, because he's important to me.
Here are two recent pics of Shelly where you can see his eyes. The one where he's on me is from 12/24. The one where he's burrowed in his substrate is from today, 1/3.
