My son said Dozer hasn't been opening his eye fully in the last five days or so. (He just told me this today.) I took a look at it and it doesn't look goopy or swollen... he opened it a sliver and it looked watery inside. The other eye looks fine.

a) we do have one of the UVB bulbs that has been causing eye problems, but that would affect both eyes, wouldn't it? his is at abotu 13" so I'm doubtful that is

b) his hide is over Orchard Hay-Kob... could it by irritation from the hay?

c) my other thought is that, when he was being a crazy guy and trying to scale the walls, he kept flipping over, and I'm wondering if he might have scratched his eye trying to flip himself over with his head.

He is still eating daily, and basking, but has been pretty calm and "blah" all week. That doesn't worry me as much because after he is really active for a day, he generally is a bit more blah for a few days, but my son thinks he's more "blah" than normal.

Thoughts?

sorry to hear that Kelly-I hope he'll be ok.

What did you mean by the UVB bulbs causing eye problems? What bulb?

If he didn't get something in his eye he may be to dry.

Try flushing his eye with saline solution a few times a day. You can also use Teramycin ointment on his eye. You can purchase it without a prescription online, at a feed store or from your vet. If the eye gets worse or he isn't active at all bring him to your vet.


Misty

it is very dry in there, I'll have to get the humidity up

You also said that you were using a mixture of hay and "kob" in the hide. Would that be corn cob bedding? I wouldn't use that. If he happens to eat it, it could cause impaction.

Buy a couple tubes of Terramycin eye ointment either from your vet or a feed store or online and just keep it on hand. It really is a miracle drug. If you put some on the eye at the first sign of eye trouble and use it three times a day for a couple days, the eye problem clears right up.

It has been my experience that USUALLY (not always, but usually) if the eye isn't injured, a swollen eye is because the substrate is too dry.

Yvonne

I don't know... oh and I said Orchard Grass but it's Timothy Hay-Kob... it's so much softer than the other hays... I don't know if it's bad for them???

We'll get the humidity and moisture up and give him some extra soaks and see if that does the trick! Thanks!~

what substrate are you using in the whole enclosure?

bed-a-brick in half of it, then part of the other half is sand (altho that was just put in yesterday so the sand isn't the issue), and the hide part is hay

This post was last modified: 02-11-2008 04:08 AM by cvalda.

i wouldn't use sand or hay to be honest both could irritate. i do use sand/topsoil mix but it is mixed together at a ratio of 70/30. Does bed-a-brick go dry and dusty?

Hi Kelly: You're supposed to mix the Bed-a-beast WITH the sand, not have it on one side and the other. Personally, I'm afraid to use sand because I've seen too many little tortoises with sand impaction. I also don't like the Bed-a-Beast because they walk it all over their food. I use fine grade orchid bark. You can get it wet or use it dry, and you can reach a happy medium where the top is dry but if you dig down it is damp. On some of my more sensitive animals I use oat hay pellets. But if you use pellets you have to provide humidity in other more creative ways. I have to soak those animals more frequently.

Yvonne