# liquid calcium



## terracolson (May 9, 2010)

So i have seen some names of uk stuff
zolcal d
trex bone aid
yatta yatta............

I am thinking about my female russian that is very underweight ...

she did eat some mazuri tonight, but if i could drop some liquid vitamins in her bath water.. since her eating is sparatic...

I am of course wanting to rule out worms, but i am sure she needs calcium....


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## Stephanie Logan (May 10, 2010)

And I don't have your answer, but I have seen liquid calcium referred to on this forum before...


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## terracolson (May 10, 2010)

no worries, i see no one wants to answer me

i found tons on ebay

It seems that my girl might pass

she has gone blind

Its the weather i know


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## Yvonne G (May 11, 2010)

Do you have her indoors, Terra? When they're sick its best to set them up individually in hospital pens and raise the temperature. The weather shouldn't be a problem indoors. I can't remember if you've de-wormed the tortoise? Maybe you can use "Critical Care" by Oxbow, add some liquid calcium to it and tube feed her. Don't give up on her.


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## terracolson (May 11, 2010)

She is inside, thats why i was asking about the calcium, i wanted to find out where to get it at.
I didnt worm her, Since she is acting very ill. A friend I have "craig" told me I should wait to worm her until she is acting better. It seems that her Russians are doing the same thing.

So she is chillen on a nice heating pad and I can hand feed her. She has a great appetite it just seems her eyes that are open are not working


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## Yvonne G (May 11, 2010)

I just recently bought a big bottle of liquid calcium online. I don't remember where I got it, but when you switch your GOOGLE search engine over to "shopping" then put in liquid calcium, you'll get many hits. Just pick one. I paid around $25 for a large bottle.


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## terracolson (May 11, 2010)

oh "shopping" i never used that one..
thx


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## Yvonne G (May 11, 2010)

I just looked up my receipt. I bought it from Vitacost, a company in Las Vegas. Its a 32oz bottle of liquid calcium citrate and it cost $12.99 with 4.99 shipping. Several years ago I bought a pint bottle of Neo-Calglucon (Calcium glubionate) from my local pharmacy for $44.01. I don't know which is absorbed better, the glubionate or the citrate. I don't know if the glubionate works better since it cost more or not.


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## terracolson (May 11, 2010)

what about me going to walmart today and getting the liquid calcium soft shell pills?

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Spring-Va...-1200-Vitamin-D-150-ct/10324941#ProductDetail


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## Yvonne G (May 11, 2010)

It would be easy for a tortoise to spit out a pill. I don't know about using those.


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## terracolson (May 11, 2010)

no i would snip it!
i could sqeeze it into her mouth

my question is, is that calcium trust worthy? safe?


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## GBtortoises (May 11, 2010)

Anytime I need to administer pills to tortoises I pulverize them into a powder form with a good old fashioned mortar and pestle, add a small amount of water, mix it up and put it in a syringe with a tube on it. I then open the tortoises mouth slide the tube down the throat and pump the liquid in. The whole process takes less than 5 minutes and you're assured that the tortoise got the medication/supplement.


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## terracolson (May 11, 2010)

well these are liquid filled pills. I was thinking nipping the edge and squirting it in her mouth and in her bath water...


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## Sudhira (May 11, 2010)

http://www.opentip.com/Pet-Supplies/Calcium-Glubionate-Ounce-p-657154.html


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## terracolson (May 11, 2010)

i see that, but i am thinking i need something now i dont have time for shipping

i need to pick something up right now, as in really right now..

so the question still remains, for a temp fix till i get the expensive stuff, will nicking the calcium pills work?


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## Tom (May 11, 2010)

I think I'm missing something. I'm not understanding why you want to give calcium to a sluggish adult Russian that just came out of hibernation. What makes you think that calcium deficiency is her problem? If she's getting warm water soaks, sunshine(weather permitting) and eating well, I think you'll be okay. I would be more worried about stressing her unnecessarily and messing with her digestive processes. If she's eating, why don't you just sprinkle some calcium carbonate on the food. The Mazuri is supposed to be pretty good for the Calcium too. Plus the protein will probably help put the weight back on.

If she's having eye problems, my first question is what kind of bulb are you using for indoors and how much is she basking under it?


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## GBtortoises (May 11, 2010)

Tom-you read my mind, I was curious about the same thing.


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## Sigmar (May 11, 2010)

What does your vet say? I talked with mine last week, he feels that calcium supplements can cause more harm than good. Its better for them to get it naturally then arbitrarily dosing them with it. Many plants are high in calcium, you need to balance it against their phosphorous intake.


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## terracolson (May 11, 2010)

it was a thought, she is outside all the time. so no bulbs, she is much better today..eating with out missing.. last night she couldnt bite her food,. i had to hand feed her.

She is under weight, i am sure she didnt get calcium last year, so i was wanting to give one tiny calcium boost. Seriously she has been out of hibernation since Feburary!

She ate some cactus, i am just trying to think of what else i can do...

the problem is the weather too.. its 80 in the days and like last night 38!

so every one is having issue.. i think it is only going to be 50 tonight.. oh yeah and its been raining..

so it seems that the other russian keepers have the same problems with there russians, except theirs aren't 200 grams lite...

am i very moody, sorry, i just want her to be fine!!!!!!!!!! I wish you could tell how hard i hit that key


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## Stephanie Logan (May 12, 2010)

Poor Terra, I know how you feel about crappy weather bringing you down...

Soon it will be bright and sunny and your tortoise's health and mood should improve.

Taco's in a funk today too...she cannot go outside as there is SNOW on the ground, so she hasn't eaten anything and keeps scratching on the sides of her pen...it's too cold to even let her wander around in the sunporch...

I feel like scratching the walls, too!!!


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## terracolson (May 12, 2010)

Well last night she was outside and you couldnt even tell she was sick the day before!!

Some one send me nerve medicine


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## danielledelynn (May 12, 2010)

Terra, how big is your sick one? I know Buddy is still in his "baby stage" but as you know, he only had about 5% of health left in him when we took ownership of him a little over a month ago. When we took him to the vet, he gave us a small bottle-full of liquid calcium. Actually, the exact medical name of the stuff is Calcionate Syrup and the dosage (and vet) said to give 3 units orally every 12 hours. The first couple of times we gave it to him, we actually tried to pry his little mouth open (as the vet said to do), but it scared the living bejeezus out of him, so we stopped doing that and just put the doses on his lips right after he got a warm bath/soaking-- he'd get it on his lips and then swallow (you can tell by his expression that the taste of it must be pretty horrible)... This liquid calcium stuff (which, the vet gave us little syringes to squirt on/in his mouth) and the eye drops he gave us (medical name: Gentamicin Sulfate Opthalmic Solution) REALLY helped Buddy a LOT! Do you have a regular vet that specializes in tortoises/reptiles? The whole visit and medicines came to a total of $55, which, I was actually expecting it to be much higher than that...I thought that was a pretty decent price. I know I'm a new tortoise parent, so I don't know a whole lot, but maybe taking your tort to a vet to get real medicine/diagnosis would be better than buying something off the internet? Heck, maybe there isn't anything "wrong" with her, but taking her to a vet could offer you peace of mind? Just a thought...

Oh--- And the crappy weather has put Buddy into a funk the past couple of days too. It feels more like December outside, rather than May...Even though Buddy can't actually see what the weather is like outside, Nick and I sort of have a hunch that he is longing for bright sun-shiney days outdoors, and since he "knows" that it's not nice enough for him to go out there, he's being a little grump-butt....But it's supposed to warm up next week here, so soon tortoises will hopefully turn their frowns upside down!


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## terracolson (May 12, 2010)

She was a apt tortoise for 10 years and came to teh rescue under weight.

The vet did a pick her up she feels heavy she is fine thing.

I am more about numbers.. she is actually 200 grams under weight per Danny.

She is better today, i did giver her a little bit of the calcium from a soft gel pill. Since it had been many years she didnt get it before i got her in November. The rescue strongly advises against vets here and i normally take my tort to the experts i have on hand.

Then i compare what they say to what you guys say, and make my decision. 

So anyway, she ate last night 6 pebbles of mazuri and ate another 10 this morning, so i think she is fine now


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## Maggie Cummings (May 12, 2010)

Terra, I am sorry but I think most of us didn't realize you were asking any questions in your first post.
If she were mine I would bring her in. I would set her up beautifully with a UVB light and a heater. *IF* you don't have a UVB light I would create a small warm place for her outside and put her out for a couple of hours daily in the warm sun. I personally think she is consistently too cold. I would never allow my Russian (Fat Nat) to get that cold. I would feed her broad leaf weeds and some regular greens, I would add 3 or 4 softened Mazuri pellets and a softened piece of yellow or orange squash every day trying to put some weight on her. I would add a little calcium carbonate but I think you are singling out calcium as her problem and it's not. She's not soft she is just too light. So warmth and food is what she needs in my personal opinion...

I hope you now feel you got enough advice, but if you'd reread your first post you would see that you kinda didn't ask any questions. We would never ignore you...but we would misunderstand your post, so I apologize to you from the group.
In reread all the posts I see she is inside so I don't understand why all the nighttime temperatures you were writing about, which are what threw me off, but I am not going to change my post as I am sick and it is frankly too much trouble. My advice to you would be to stop worrying about calcium and concentrate on keeping her warmer and feeding her too much. I feed too much and get a fat tortoise, so feed her too much. 

Why do you think she has an eye problem? Is she under a coil light? Are her eyes open and she can't see? Explain to me what's with the eyes as that's kinda my circle of almost expertise, I am good with eyes...


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## terracolson (May 12, 2010)

Well i wish some one would just smack me when i dont explain things well enough.

Maggie you are so sweet. 

She is back outside and 100% better, i think its cause she is a outside tort and the weather changes have really effected her. I brought her in for the rain and cold a few nights. No lights then, just sleeping in a rubbermaid tub.

I think CoCo was stressing her out. I just get off on a wild idea and i need some one to tell me NO TERRA YOUR WRONG...hince the calcium, but alli wanted to do was make sure she was getting some since she wasnt eating.. and i was like well.....i could....

Anyhow her eyes were wide open, but she didnt respond to my fingers, sudden move ment, it was like she just went blind, snapping at her food and missing, bitting her leg a couple times...

I hand feed her tons of mazuri, and 36 hours later, 3 feedings and a drop of calcium, in her mouth, she is going at it outside.. oh yeah and a hour warm soak with a small jar of carrots, so basically carrot juice.

oh yeah and a heating pad on her belly..

and then again a huge big big big poop, i swear a baby suclata visited...


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## K9KidsLove (May 13, 2010)

Hi...Just wondering how your baby is doing today?
Patsy


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## terracolson (May 13, 2010)

Just fine, she is running wild outside, thx for asking


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