My tortoise ate a cigarette butt help!!

[Brookn178]

Hi! Kind of emergent question!! I was letting my sulcata tortoise graze outside of his enclosure with some supervision and I looked away for a split second and he ate a cigarette butt (mother in laws not mine lol), I looked it up on google and it says it's quite the emergency and to contact a vet asap, but on the tortoise forum (in this forum) a guy in the same situation said the vet can't do much but to watch for drooling and shaking. What should I do? He's about 5 years old and the size of a football. Pics of him seeing snow (we live in Florida) and post strawberry snack for attention/to not get lost. Any advice is appreciated!

 

[Brookn178]

Hi! Kind of emergent question!! I was letting my sulcata tortoise graze outside of his enclosure with some supervision and I looked away for a split second and he ate a cigarette butt (mother in laws not mine lol), I looked it up on google and it says it's quite the emergency and to contact a vet asap, but on the tortoise forum (in this forum) a guy in the same situation said the vet can't do much but to watch for drooling and shaking. What should I do? He's about 5 years old and the size of a football. Pics of him seeing snow (we live in Florida) and post strawberry snack for attention/to not get lost. Any advice is appreciated!

 

[zovick]

Hi! Kind of emergent question!! I was letting my sulcata tortoise graze outside of his enclosure with some supervision and I looked away for a split second and he ate a cigarette butt (mother in laws not mine lol), I looked it up on google and it says it's quite the emergency and to contact a vet asap, but on the tortoise forum (in this forum) a guy in the same situation said the vet can't do much but to watch for drooling and shaking. What should I do? He's about 5 years old and the size of a football. Pics of him seeing snow (we live in Florida) and post strawberry snack for attention/to not get lost. Any advice is appreciated!

There is probably no need to panic. How much tobacco was left on the butt? Probably not very much.

I would suggest feeding the tortoise a good amount of "laxative" type foods and watching the stools to see when it passes the butt (no pun intended).

Good foods to use would be green and yellow squash, cucumbers, romaine lettuce, opuntia cactus pads, radishes, tomatoes, and most types of melon.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Hey friend! Good to see you’ve joined us on the forum too

Totally agree with zovick, pretty much gave the same advice over on fb, I know it’s kinda gross, but you may have to glove up a few times to check the stool and make sure it’s passed

 

[Tom]

I agree with Zovick too. It will likely pass without incident.

Tell MIL not to throw butts in the tortoise's pen. Sheesh. Better yet, tell her to quit inhaling smoke. It's not good for you. Jeez. Doesn't everyone know this?

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

I agree with Zovick too. It will likely pass without incident.

Tell MIL not to throw butts in the tortoise's pen. Sheesh. Better yet, tell her to quit inhaling smoke. It's not good for you. Jeez. Doesn't everyone know this?

Someone in another fb group convinced them to book a vet appointment, I’ve asked how it’s gone, I probably wouldn’t have rushed there personally as the tortoise has been eating and acting ok last I saw on their posts, but guess a check up won’t have hurt

 

[Tom]

...but guess a check up won’t have hurt

Unfortunately, sometimes it does hurt them. A lot of vets are ignorant of tortoise care and misdiagnosis, followed my mistreatment is sadly common. In some cases, the animal is literally better off not going to the vet, Certainly not the case with a competent experienced tortoise vet, but I've found relatively few of those.

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Unfortunately, sometimes it does hurt them. A lot of vets are ignorant of tortoise care and misdiagnosis, followed my mistreatment is sadly common. In some cases, the animal is literally better off not going to the vet, Certainly not the case with a competent experienced tortoise vet, but I've found relatively few of those.

Yeah I definitely hear you on that, unfortunately there hasn’t been any update

 

[Brookn178]

Unfortunately, sometimes it does hurt them. A lot of vets are ignorant of tortoise care and misdiagnosis, followed my mistreatment is sadly common. In some cases, the animal is literally better off not going to the vet, Certainly not the case with a competent experienced tortoise vet, but I've found relatively few of those.

Sorry guys since I don’t receive notifications that pop up on my phone screen I always forget to check this forum! We did end up going to the vet, I saw the exotic veterinarian at Animal Hospital Of Pensacola and they do see tortoises regularly and seemed pretty knowledgeable. Since he’s never been to the vet for a checkup they went ahead and did one of those, and since he does have pyramiding from his previous owner (brother in law unfortunately) they did an x ray to make sure it wasn’t causing any issues, and it wasn’t! (He does get regular soaks each day since I’ve had him. They gave Ned 2 shots in one of his legs, they gave us charcoal for the cigarette butt and he never exhibited any symptoms from the butt! They also found that Ned had the beginning of a respiratory infection and gave us medication for that as well. He has a UVB light he lays under and gets supplemented calcium, and I follow the diet guide that’s on here so I’m unsure of what caused it. He wasn’t displaying any symptoms of the respiratory infection but they said they can develop small dots under their eyes when they have a respiratory infection, which is what they saw. Just to clear some things up, my MIL smokes on the back porch and does discard the butts in a container, but my SIL and her family visited and brought their rambunctious 1 year old puppy and she jumped over the table on the back porch and knocked over what the butts were in! They thought they picked all of them up but they missed one that went into the grass and Ned found it!

 

[TammyJ]

What strikes me from your post is the line about "small dots under their eyes". This is certainly news to me!

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

What kind of medication did you get for the respiratory infection?

 

[COmtnLady]

What were the "two shots"? Why?

You took a healthy tortoise in to be assured that it wasn't going to be blocked intestinally because it ate a cigarette butt. Why give it injections? This is what we caution about. Vets may claim to know tortoises, but this certainly sounds like they saw you coming and did all they could to charge up more things.

Hey everyone, have you heard of "dots under eyes" indicating RI? ...Indicating anything? @zovick @Yvonne G @Tim Carlisle @Tom

You use charcoal to mitigate poisoning, which is possible nicotine could do - but it would have shown up before you got to the Vet's. Not sure this was appropriate.




Kudos on daily soaks!

 

[Brookn178]

What kind of medication did you get for the respiratory infection?

84 SMZ/TMP (240mg/5mL) Oral Suspension

 

[Brookn178]

What were the "two shots"? Why?

You took a healthy tortoise in to be assured that it wasn't going to be blocked intestinally because it ate a cigarette butt. Why give it injections? This is what we caution about. Vets may claim to know tortoises, but this certainly sounds like they saw you coming and did all they could to charge up more things.

Hey everyone, have you heard of "dots under eyes" indicating RI? ...Indicating anything? @zovick @Yvonne G @Tim Carlisle @Tom

You use charcoal to mitigate poisoning, which is possible nicotine could do - but it would have shown up before you got to the Vet's. Not sure this was appropriate.




Kudos on daily soak

What were the "two shots"? Why?

You took a healthy tortoise in to be assured that it wasn't going to be blocked intestinally because it ate a cigarette butt. Why give it injections? This is what we caution about. Vets may claim to know tortoises, but this certainly sounds like they saw you coming and did all they could to charge up more things.

Hey everyone, have you heard of "dots under eyes" indicating RI? ...Indicating anything? @zovick @Yvonne G @Tim Carlisle @Tom

You use charcoal to mitigate poisoning, which is possible nicotine could do - but it would have shown up before you got to the Vet's. Not sure this was appropriate.




Kudos on daily soaks!

I was advised on a Facebook group to take him to a vet, i wasn’t sure what to do. I briefly research it on google, what I should do, how toxic it is, etc. and it said to visit a vet asap, and that it can be very toxic and lead to death because of the nicotine & could cause a blockage. He ate the cigarette at 5pm and he saw a vet at 9am the next morning. I was also given advice on here and Facebook to give him foods that would make him go to the bathroom a lot to try to get it out of his system, which I did. And he soaked for quite a while. The 2 shots were just fluids. It was a better safe than sorry, situation for taking him to the vet. I did get answers on Facebook quite faster than here so I acted with the information I had at the time!

 

[zovick]

What were the "two shots"? Why?

You took a healthy tortoise in to be assured that it wasn't going to be blocked intestinally because it ate a cigarette butt. Why give it injections? This is what we caution about. Vets may claim to know tortoises, but this certainly sounds like they saw you coming and did all they could to charge up more things.

Hey everyone, have you heard of "dots under eyes" indicating RI? ...Indicating anything? @zovick @Yvonne G @Tim Carlisle @Tom

You use charcoal to mitigate poisoning, which is possible nicotine could do - but it would have shown up before you got to the Vet's. Not sure this was appropriate.




Kudos on daily soaks!

I have no clue as to what the "dots under the eyes" would be, nor in nearly 70 years of keeping tortoises have I ever heard of that condition in a tortoise, either with or without a respiratory infection.

 

[Brookn178]

I have no clue as to what the "dots under the eyes" would be, nor in nearly 70 years of keeping tortoises have I ever heard of that condition in a tortoise, either with or without a respiratory infection.

I found this on Google “Small bubbles of mucus may form in the corners of the eyes or around the nostrils, which is a common sign of an Upper Respiratory Tract Infection (URTI).” so not dots but bubbles. The vet described it to me as dots so that’s my bad.

 

[zovick]

I found this on Google “Small bubbles of mucus may form in the corners of the eyes or around the nostrils, which is a common sign of an Upper Respiratory Tract Infection (URTI).” so not dots but bubbles. The vet described it to me as dots so that’s my bad.

OK, thanks for the clarification. I have seen the bubbles over the years.

 

[Markw84]

I found this on Google “Small bubbles of mucus may form in the corners of the eyes or around the nostrils, which is a common sign of an Upper Respiratory Tract Infection (URTI).” so not dots but bubbles. The vet described it to me as dots so that’s my bad.

Unfortunately a google search ( which is normally now an AI search ) is that it is almost always going to contain wrong information especially about tortoises. It simply searches the internet and compiles a summary of the info found. Most of the information on the internet is old, outdated information. So you get a summary of that old outdated information! In this case, those who really know sulcatas, know that they commonly get watery eyes with little bubbles forming often. They are called the "crying tortoise" for this reason. They come from areas where it can be extremely hot and dry. This is a natural protection for their eyes. Totally normal in sulcatas.

DO NOT trust a google search or AI assist to get information about tortoises! Google/AI does not rank the expertise or accuracy of the information, or the research, if any, done for the claims it finds. It simply compiles the bulk of the matches for its summary and answer.

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

84 SMZ/TMP (240mg/5mL) Oral Suspension

I am not familiar with this antibiotic used in tortoises, zovick can probably comment on it.

 

[wellington]

FB stands mostly for Fake Book. Do not take info from the tortoise FB groups as knowledgeable information. Many members from this forum have tried for years to correct all the wrong on those FB groups. You will be much better off waiting for an answer here from one of the long time hands on experienced members like Tom, Mark, Yvonne, Zovick, they have many many years and many tortoise experiences.
Hope all stays well with your tortoise. I'm afraid your vet isn't all that knowledgeable as they want to think they are sadly.