# how to treat Desert tort with runny nose/wet



## terracolson

This guy was walking the streets and after a month of looking no owner has claimed him. 

The rescue doesnt want to keep him here, i am taking him to Riverside tomorrow and i am hoping his nose stops being moist.

i did see buggers one time. i wiped his nose and they never came back


now he is going to stay with a friend, till we figure out what to do with him. She is a foster home and we will get her all the papers soon. She may keep him forever, but we got to do the paper work first.

If i understand, his nose may be wet due to my conditions here.. temp conditions for a week, so its very dry. outside in the dirt part of the yard, his choice, on wood chips/bark his choice, he hasnt been eating alot but its his first week here and he is leaving so stressed he is.

eyes look fine..

so when does the new owner take him to the vet?

Consider new place
new temps
so when should he eat?

i tried to post a pic...but it told me it was spam..
how nice

trying again




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## terracolson

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## jimeerey

My desert tort recently had the same symptoms. I took him to a vet here in Long Beach, CA. The vet said they are prone to occasionally get respiratory disease. He gave me anitbiotics. My vet said I was lucky to bring him in because if they are sick and go into hibernation they might not wake up. There are a lot of websites that provide good information...do some searching 

Good Luck


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## DeanS

Terra...If you are going to keep him inside (and I presume you are), my only suggestion would be to use a MVB...probably 100W. This worked when my babies...only a few months old when winter kicked in last year...developed a little runny nose. Within a couple of weeks of switching to MVB...everything cleared up. No meds...no vet!


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## Maggie Cummings

Be sure to make his habitat warmer than usual. Keep the substrate moist and soak the tortoise in the yellow antibiotic powder. That way he's getting an antibiotic without the Vet and it has worked just fine for me.
I buy the powder at the feed store, they use it for cattle but I can't tell you how many desert torts it has cured from a runny nose...


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## terracolson

He went to Southern cali and hasnt had a problem since he got there. 

It was just cold here, i think.


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## Yvonne G

I thought I'd put this info on this thread for anyone who might read the thread in the future:

I get a lot of desert tortoises through my rescue...mostly big males. Quite often they get a runny nose soon after I adopt them out. Some of the folks will take them to the vet and the vet always wants to start them out on antibiotics. They see the runny/bubbly nose and without any testing, decide it must be a respiratory infection.

Most of the time its is simply because the tortoise is stressed out. Its quite hard on an adult desert tortoise to be uprooted from his home and plunked down in a new one...doesn't matter how wonderful the new home is, its NOT his old home, the one that he's lived in and been used to the past years. Stress is sometimes exhibited as a runny/bubbly nose.

If you just leave the tortoise alone, don't handle him, make sure his new home is sufficient to suit his needs with plenty of space and hiding places, the symptoms will clear up on their own with no intervention from the vet or from antibiotics. 

If the fluid turns yellow and thick and the tortoise won't eat, that's when the vet and antibiotics are needed. But 99% of the time, the clear fluid and bubbles go away and the tortoise shows no ill effects from it.


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## Madortoise

jimeerey said:


> My desert tort recently had the same symptoms. I took him to a vet here in Long Beach, CA. The vet said they are prone to occasionally get respiratory disease. He gave me anitbiotics. My vet said I was lucky to bring him in because if they are sick and go into hibernation they might not wake up. There are a lot of websites that provide good information...do some searching
> 
> Good Luck



Hi--just curious which vet in LB did you take him to?


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