# Can Torts catch human sicknesses (cold, RI, etc..)



## BigBiscuit (Mar 22, 2009)

Hello all,

My 4 yr old son, my 3 month old daughter, my wife and I have all had some "Cold" like crud in our chest the past week. Our kids sickness turned into an ear infection for the both of them.

This morning, I was feeding Smiley, and she sneezed a couple of times and I saw what looked like a bubble in her nostril. Granted, it was only a couple of sneezes, I have never seen her do it before. 

Is is possible that my family gave her something? I have just seen and heard a lot on the forum about torts with Respiratory Infections.

Also, can any vet deal with this? I supposedly live next to the top Vet school in the country, but they said they wouldn't have an exotic vet until April.


Thanks for any and all input,

Evan


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## Yvonne G (Mar 22, 2009)

I don't KNOW for sure, but my common-sense guess would be that no, a tortoise can't get a cold or R.I. from a human. As to your other question, no, most vets aren't equipped to deal with tortoise problems. The majority of their practice deals with mammals, so that's the area they continue to study and keep up-to-date on. Just call around and ask if the vet in this practice knows tortoise vet. medicine. You might surprise yourself and find one. However, I don't think your tortoise is ill, so April isn't too long to wait for the school's new vet. The "other end" of a tortoise's nose doesn't go down into his lungs like it does in mammals. It goes into the roof of his mouth. So lots of times you might see a little moisture or a few bubbles. It might not mean anything. Also, when a tortoise drinks, he puts his nose under the water too, and besides sucking up water through his mouth, he "breathes" it in through his nose.

Here's how I deal with upper respiratory infection. This is ME...and I'm not a vet. I get lots of tortoises with bubbly noses. And since I know that stress causes bubbly nose, I just set the tortoise up in a natural-type setting and try to leave him alone. If he's eating and acting other-wise normally, I don't worry about his bubbles. Sometimes, if it seems quite a bit of discharge, I will soak in Terramycin water. You can buy Terramycin from a feed dealer. Its packaged up for swine and cattle, but its the same stuff you would get from your vet...a yellow powder that you mix into warm water. I soak the tortoise in this water for a good hour or more. The medication looses its efficacy after about an hour, but the long soak seems to do the tortoise good. I do this every day for about 3 days. Then I leave the tortoise alone to just be a tortoise. They usually settle down and lose the bubbles after a week or so. However if the bubbles turn into thick mucous or change color, and if the tortoise stops eating, then I bring out the Baytril injections. This would be when you would take him to the vet. Baytril is the antibiotic of choice for tortoise respiratory infections. Its quite strong and very invasive. It stings BAD! and the tortoises hate it. So I use it as a very last resort. I also mix a solution of 1 part Baytril to 9 parts sterile saline and squirt this in each nostril twice a day. This seems to get the medication to the source of the problem and clears it up nicely.

It is my opinion that most new or fairly new tortoise keepers worry too much about upper respiratory infections. And vets don't do cultures on the mucous to see if there really is an infection going on...they just start the Baytril. If your tortoise is eating and seems other wise healthy, just leave him alone and let him be a tortoise. Too much handling causes stress and stress brings on the bubbly nose.

Yvonne


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## BigBiscuit (Mar 22, 2009)

Thank you, Yvonne, for calming my nerves.


Evan


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## Crazy1 (Mar 23, 2009)

Here is the list of Zoonotic diseases (those diseases we can give to animals /or animals can give to us). Salmonella is the ones torts are most feared for.
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~devo0028/zoonos.htm
http://medicine.bu.edu/dshapiro/zoo1.htm


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