irohthetortoise
Member
Interesting. Also I’ve been doing the Gerber soaks for over a week now and his eyes didn’t open until the vet gave us that gel. Also about the force feeding do you have any suggestions?
New tortoise owner, help please, red swollen sores
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Interesting. Also I’ve been doing the Gerber soaks for over a week now and his eyes didn’t open until the vet gave us that gel. Also about the force feeding do you have any suggestions?
An adult can go a long time without eating . force feeding is a very invasive procedure , often not so stressful on a really sick animal , they often seem beyond caring and don't have a lot of fight to them ...….I think force feeding is for animals in secondary stages of starvation , which may be the case right now , no one has any idea the last time this animal ate , your vet has seen a lot of tortoises ……it is a fact a vit B or vit A deficiency can be fatal …. I’d guess she gave her a shot of vit B , it does stimulate appetite ……. If she gave her vit A , I’d think it was A D E …… I've had many turtles given vit A through injection , an overdose is toxic , I assure you any vet worth seeing knows that , any vet should , a vitamin A overdose can kill a dog . While tortoises are less frequently affected by A deficiencies than turtles , a long term anorexic animal is most likely suffering from deficiencies in just about everything ……….. I do know the vet you are going to , there are many really smart experienced folks here on this forum with great ideas , when it comes to advice on my sick turtles or tortoises , I’m taking hers over anyone here’s , including mine …if she’s treated 4 turtles or tortoises a week over her career , that’d have her having treated around 8000 sick turtles or tortoises over the last 30yrs , believe me she’s way beyond that number , reptiles is what she is interested in , one of the first vets I knew would see them , her father was an exotic animal vet since like 1940 …… the fact your tortoise is opening his eyes is a good sign and he may start eating now that he can see …… if you don’t see continual progress , and any sign of regression , take her up on the forced feeding …….. if his enclosure has no natural sunlight , make it as bright as you possibly can and offer him everything you can think of , even stuff that isn’t good for him just to get him to eat , cat food , worms , fish , fruit , squash , sweet potato …………. I have two 48x24x24 aquariums I rais hatchling in , each has 4 fluorescents , two 6500k , uvb , one 2800k bulbs , one plant bulb , and a basking light , along with a che. they are BRIGHT……… the bins I use are maybe 36x18 , they have 4 flourescents , same bulbs , and a basking bulb along with a che , they are daylight bright , I use them to get turtles eating out of hibernation ………. there is a physiological basis for light therapy …...
irohthetortoise
Member
It wasn’t really the vet who offered force feeding. We brought it up. The vet suggested we get a small syringe and try and open his mouth and push in a purée. What kind of purée would we have to use or make? He’s still not eating.
Take your greens and chop them up into tiny pieces. Then shred a bit of cucumber - not much, just a couple teaspoonsful. Mix the cucumber with the greens until all the greens are coated with cucumber juice and pulp. This sometimes entices them to eat.
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irohthetortoise
Member
Okay I’ll try that and report back
irohthetortoise
Member
Hey everyone, so it’s been two months. Iroh still doesn’t really eat and he just sits in the corner. He poops occasionally which makes me think he’s eating something, but his food always looked untouched. I’m so happy he’s still with us but again it’s been two months and he’s still not eating from what I’ve observed. I tried all the advice given on here, from the vet, and other online sources. Is there anything other advice you all can give me?
Does he seem to wake up more when he has outside time?
irohthetortoise
Member
Not really when I bring him outside he just burrows into the grass then stays in the same position until we go in
irohthetortoise
Member
Hey so here we are two months later and the other day I said I still hadn’t seen him eat WELL, today I chopped up some zucchini for myself for dinner and I tossed some small bits in his enclosure to see what what would happen. I even rubbed some of the store bought pellet mash on it and then picked up up and I pretended to eat it myself haha then I put him down to bask and when I came back he was going to town on the zucchini bits! Literally the first time I’ve ever seen him eat and he was really loving it. So that brings me tot he question, what are your thoughts on zucchini? I’ve read a few things on them and none bad, but I feel like they have so much water in them like cucumbers that it wouldn’t be best to have them be part of his regular diet. Thoughts?
matheny00
Member
I have followed this story and never before have I seen so many people care so much for a little animal. I am so lucky and glad I found this group.
Plus great news on him finally eating
Plus great news on him finally eating
Gamera the Marginated
Member
Great news!
I generally always include a bit of grated zucchini when chopping up food for my babies.
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