Hi All!

Sorry this is long.

Happy to finally find an active Star forum. I have 3 Indian Star's, Lyra F 3.5 yrs, Orion M 3.5 yrs & Ringo M 7 yrs. This post concerns Ringo.

I recently adopted Ringo and am his 3rd caretaker. I was told that he was blind in his left eye from an infection he had gotten a year prior and that he frequently had an inflamed right eye. (pic 1) He was not eating and his female companion had recently died. He was kept with a Russian tort. The last owner's vet treated him with Baytril injections and Baytril spray (never have heard of spray) into his good eye just prior to me picking him up in the beginning of Dec.

When I took him out of his traveling box I noticed that he had what looked like pine wood shavings (confirmed after receiving email reply from the former owner) crammed down into his neck and leg areas. His left eye was extremely swollen, inflamed and he had a good size hole that was filled with dried over puss. (pic 2 & 3) His right eye was slightly red.

I immediately got advice from two long time tort keeper friends and started treating him with teramycin powder/water soaks for several days, flushed his eyes with saline and applied teramycin ointment twice a day. I got him into my reptile vet within a few days. By this time the puss scab had fallen off from the ointment and he had an open hole which looked to be where the eye had bin. The vet scrapped out the remaining puss, thought that the eye was gone and recommended that I continue with my treatment and schedule an appointment to cut out the remaining infected tissue and stitch his lid shut. This would have required sedation. Home we went where I kept him on a sterile substrate of paper towels to help keep anything form getting into the wound.

Within a week Ringo began eating again and one morning I had a wonderful surprise of an eye peaking out from a now functioning lower lid. Within 2 weeks there was noticeable improvement in the inflammation and swelling. We returned for our follow up vet appointment and the Doc was pleasantly surprised with Ringo's improvement and the fact he had an eye after all. He noted that the retina looked to be in good shape when viewed.

It is now 2 months later and I still treat him twice a day. His upper eye lid is healing over, the redness is down but he still has a much larger than normal eye area. His lids function. He still does not seem to see out of the eye. He is a good eater and is very active. He is now with the other Star's and on coconut bark. I may try aspen bedding as it's less expensive. (pic 4)

Have any of you seen something like this before? How did you treat?

I am assuming that the upper lid will scab, eventually fall off and that he will have new skin growth underneath?

What are your thoughts concerning his regaining site in the eye?

Do you think this could have been caused by long term exposure to pine shavings or just improper husbandry.

Thanks,
Misty

This post was last modified: 01-22-2008 08:50 PM by AWAaviatrix.

pic 1


pic 2


pic 3


pic 4

This post was last modified: 01-22-2008 08:47 PM by AWAaviatrix.

Wow Misty, that looks painful! Glad you are taking such good care. I can't offer any advice but welcome to the forum he is beautiful!

Misty, you done good. I think it was due to both bad husbandry and being keep on pine. I avoid any soft wood substrate like the plague for any of my animals. Keep up the good work, I think he has a good home now.

aw what a sweetheart! no advice here, either, but you should be proud of what you've done for him!

You've done a great job with Ringo. I too think it was the husbandry and the pine shavings that did that.
You might now want to swith to Vetropolycin for his eye. It's an antibiotic eye ointment. I use it and it works great.

Danny

I was using coir/sand mix with all my smaller torts but finally got tired of them always having the stuff in their food. On a whim I changed over to coconut bark in Dec. The Star's and Leo's seem to like it as they'll bury themselves halfway in under the heat lamp or in their hides. Expensive so not sure I'll continue using it.

What do you use as a substrate?

This post was last modified: 01-23-2008 06:35 AM by AWAaviatrix.

Hi Danny,

Have you used the Vetropolycin with Hydrocortisone? Ringo's still has quite a bit of swelling around the eye area so I'm thinking the steroid might be beneficial. Can you purchase this online without a prescription?

Thanks,
Misty

I use hay over reptile carpet though I won't suggest it for Ringo right now with the eye infection. Have you tried cypress or hardwood mulch (organic of course).

No I've never used it with hyrdrocortisone. I don't think you can get it on-line, but I've never looked as my vet always has it and it's not very expensive and the vet is 5 minutes away.

I use shredded aspen as a substrate.

Danny