Gennifer11
Active Member
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2015
- Messages
- 138
I bought a baby leopard tortoise who seemed to be very shy, I figured he just needed to relax and open up to his new home. Little did I know, he had a blood infection called septicemia.
My tortoise was about 5 months old (30g) but had shown no growth, he was lethargic, his eyelids were puffy he refused to eat or bask in the sun and his shell was continually getting softer. After a few weeks of failing to get the poor guy to eat, stay awake, or do pretty much anything, he started to bruise on his tummy so we took him to the vet.
Immediately the doc diagnosed him with septicemia. This sickness in general is very deadly due to its rapid spreading nature, but in a baby tortoise it will consume the poor little guy in no time. He was also diagnosed with vitamin deficiencies (which I expected from the lack of appetite). Our vet doctor told us our tortoise was in critical condition without much chances of survival.
He was given a shot of antibiotics (1 of 3) but showed no progress before the next shot date. So we decided to surrender our baby leopard tortoise to the vet in hopes that they could help the little guy out better than we could.
I am making this post in hopes that It can help someone recognize septicemia and take immediate action. The attached photos are in chronological order, as you can see... Pip (our leopard) was very timid but still had some energy, this slowly diminished to sleeping all day and refusing to open his eyes. If I forced him to walk around, he would do so blind, which was a danger all in its own.
My tortoise was about 5 months old (30g) but had shown no growth, he was lethargic, his eyelids were puffy he refused to eat or bask in the sun and his shell was continually getting softer. After a few weeks of failing to get the poor guy to eat, stay awake, or do pretty much anything, he started to bruise on his tummy so we took him to the vet.
Immediately the doc diagnosed him with septicemia. This sickness in general is very deadly due to its rapid spreading nature, but in a baby tortoise it will consume the poor little guy in no time. He was also diagnosed with vitamin deficiencies (which I expected from the lack of appetite). Our vet doctor told us our tortoise was in critical condition without much chances of survival.
He was given a shot of antibiotics (1 of 3) but showed no progress before the next shot date. So we decided to surrender our baby leopard tortoise to the vet in hopes that they could help the little guy out better than we could.
I am making this post in hopes that It can help someone recognize septicemia and take immediate action. The attached photos are in chronological order, as you can see... Pip (our leopard) was very timid but still had some energy, this slowly diminished to sleeping all day and refusing to open his eyes. If I forced him to walk around, he would do so blind, which was a danger all in its own.
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