# Baby Leo Sudden Death?? :(



## TKL (Apr 24, 2014)

This morning as soon as the lights came on my baby was out and about waiting for his food. A few hours later when I came to give him his soak he wasn't moving, totally stiff, and completely unresponsive.

I am completely heartbroken and utterly confused. It has been exactly one month since i brought him home and I have been doing my best to raise him right in accordance to what I've read on this forum. I don't understand, he had been eating and drinking well, gaining weight steadily. I was keeping him in a W2'xL4'xH2.5' closed chamber. Temps were: 105f basking, 90f hot side, 82f cool side, and 82f night time. Humidity generally stayed around 83-85%, never dropping below 75%. For heat I used an 100w powersun mvb 18" above the substrate during the day and two che's a 60w and a 100w on a thermostat at night. UV was provided by the mvb as well as a reptisun 10.0 tube bulb on the cool side of the enclosure. Substrate is eco earth with sphagnum moss dispersed in different places throughout. Diet was dandelion collard greens, spring mix and occasionally zoo med grassland tortoise food.

The only behavioral change that I had observed is that last night fairly close to lights out he was running around like crazy, almost out of control. However, he did eventually calm down and was behaving normally this morning.

Please, if anyone has any insight into the how and why this may have happened I need to know


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## Maggie Cummings (Apr 24, 2014)

I think that if you only had him for a month, he was sick when you got him. They hide the symptoms of being sick as they are prey animals, and being sick is being weak. So they are sick a long time before they die. I'd be for contacting the place you got him from and getting a replacement. Sounds like 'failure to thrive' a condition that hatchlings get...
I'm sorry that happened to you...


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## Yvonne G (Apr 24, 2014)

I'll bet last night's performance is a clue to what was going on, however, I'm not able to decipher the clue. I'm so sorry you lost your little guy. That's really a hard pill to swallow.


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## Team Gomberg (Apr 24, 2014)

I'm sorry. 
Contact the seller and let them know.

It's possible this baby was started out too dry and suffered internally from dehydration. 
It's possible it was something else all together.

If the seller doesn't soak the babies daily, offer water dishes and keep them on an "eathy type" substrate, then I'd suggest you don't buy another one from the same source.


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## lovebugaphid (Apr 24, 2014)

I'm so sorry for your loss  where did you get the baby from?


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## pam (Apr 24, 2014)

So sorry for your loss


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## bouaboua (Apr 24, 2014)

I'm so sorry.


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## shanu303 (Apr 24, 2014)

i'm sorry for your loss  condolence ...


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## Laura (Apr 25, 2014)

I agree with Yvonne.. running around.. something happened.. overheated.. or got bit?


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## Tom (Apr 25, 2014)

Laura said:


> I agree with Yvonne.. running around.. something happened.. overheated.. or got bit?


Add me to this list. That frantic running around indicates some sort of problem.

If it was not that, then this might offer a clue:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/hatchling-failure-syndrome.23493/


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## happyjoyjoy (Apr 25, 2014)

I lost a leo about 3 months ago and it was the same situation but a week before she stopped eating so I did get a chance to take her to the vet and found out her kidneys were not functioning properly ..... the vet said due to chronic dehydration from before the time I got her. Reading this struck me because my baby did the SAME thing the night before she passed, running around like crazy..... I'm sorry for your loss  it's not easy. Def contact the seller. I did get a replacement but he ensured me it was from a different distributor. I've certainly learned from all this that you have to ask a lot of questions and that a lot of these sellers don't know how these babies are being cared for before they get them................. sketch.


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## TKL (Apr 25, 2014)

Thanks everyone for your kind words.

@happyjoyjoy I'm sorry to hear that you had to deal with the same situation. At least now I know the probable cause for what happened, and it wasn't something that I was doing wrong. I was so frustrated because I was following all the guidelines that I've found from this great site.


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## Dorrie Siu (Apr 26, 2014)

I'm sorry for your hurt and your loss. But at least it seems like you may have an answer. Tom, that was an excellent article you wrote. Thank you for that.


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## guille24 (Apr 26, 2014)

That's really sad I'm really sorry :/ last year one of my tortoises was running around like crazy ! Doing weird stuff it seamed like he was choking or something I was about to take him to the vet when I picked it up and i was trying to calm him down I was speaking to him , put some water on his carapace when he popped on me ! Was the biggest, nastiest ,smelliest and so disgusting poop ever it was so warm and weird looking I wanted to vomit , after he did that he stopped acting weird ! I gave him a bath and he was acting normal again ! I think he was overheated or something but my little friend really scared me !!


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