Russian brumating or dying?

Hi! Jimmy is a 7 year old Russian and we've had him since late August. He was always super active; a good eater (eating daily, but somewhat picky); very social with his head always out and looking around. The last few weeks he has eaten very little and the last week nothing at all. While soaking on a Saturday in chin deep water, he dunked his head in and drank for a very long time. I had never seen him put his head so deep. For the first time he didn't poop/pee in the soak. Then he blew bubbles out his nose for quite a while and sat under his basking light for hours. The next day he barely moved. The following day, he was very deep inside his shell and I took him to the vet. They gave him a Vitamin A injection and tube fed him. He became a little more active (a little) A week later, still not eating anything, still not moving much. He went back to vet for another Vitamin A injection and a tube feeding. He is on antibiotics now in case he has pneumonia or something else since he really took a dramatic turn after the soak where he was blowing the bubbles out of his nose.

I have read threads about how they do slow down naturally when the daylight hours change. The temps and lighting have not changed in his enclosure though he is in a room with windows so would be exposed to a change in natural light.

The vet thought he was a bit dehydrated so we are soaking him more often since the heat is now on in the house. He hasn't pooped in over a week. ! The vet wanted a stool sample, but she is not getting one. The warm side was about 92-94 and she said to get it closer to 100. Does that sound right? Is that ambient temp or basking spot only? Cool side is about 72. Entire house is about 72-74. I spray the substrate a couple times a week but truthfully, I don't know the humidity level.

Thoughts? Thank you!

Don’t take it back to that vet. Vitamin shots are very dangerous for torts, but vets that are not knowledgeable use them as a ‘cure’. And giving antibiotics without knowing if he has something is also very bad.

It sounds like your tort was just starting to try to hibernate due to cooler temperatures. In order to stop this, just let the lights on for 1-2 hours longer than usual, as well as bumping up his basking temp only to 95-100 degrees. Maybe even give him warm soaks every other day until he goes back to normal, which is what I do for mine. It is an instinct for them to slow down around this time, so even though you didn’t change his lighting situation he will still try to hibernate.

You’re tortoise is being misdiagnosed and treated. He just trying to hibernate. Next time when you take your tortoise make sure it’s a vet that specializes in tortoises. Most vets use there general knowledge and don’t know accurate information for treatments and diagnostics.

Experienced a similair situation with my tortoise. In August I went for a short vacation and let my parents care for my tortoise. When I came back he has slowed down alot: not eating nor basking, and sleeping the whole day in her hide. Turns out that my parents had triggered him to hibernate by shorting his light cycle (they have the habit to turn off her lamps to save electricity bills).

Didn't realize he was trying to hibernate, so I took him to the vet assuming he was sick. No results in his stool sample, but the vet gave her a baytril injection anyway, because this anti biotic 'heals everything'. The vet told me told give a daily injection for a week. Was very sceptical in giving her anti biotics while the problem wasn't clear. The injections didn't help. Hell, he was looker weaker and weaker with every injection. At one point he even started to puke because of the anti biotic. Turned out that baytril injections are lethal to (non sick) tortoises.

I seeked help on these forum. Got some great feedback from experienced tortoise keepers. Bumped up her temps, let the lights run longer (13-14 hours), daily warm soaks and hand feed him his favorite snack like dandelions.

After a month he started to look better and started being active again.

Hope your tortoise is doing well.