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We got him into the exotics wing at ACCESS in Culver which kept him for observation and a CT scan. He's been on antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and a nerve pain med and so far the episodes of thrashing when he's at rest have completely subsided. He still, however has difficulty walking on his...

Have calls out to Dr. Molnar, Dr. Greek in Yorba Linda - and a couple VCA hospitals with exotic departments in Los Angeles. Gort's been seen by two vets now, both think it's something neurological but both say further diagnosis is beyond their capabilities. In the meantime he's on...

Not particularly, no

The vet said the elevated blood levels could be indicative of a lot of things from inflammation, to parasites, to brain legions, to cancer - and tell us that there's definitely something he's fighting but not specifically what it is. We're still waiting on him to pass stool so they can check for...

I got the blood work back. WBC, Lymphocytes, Monocytes, Eosinophils and Azurophilic Monocytes we're all high. They haven't called me with what that means yet, so currently I'm not entirely sure what I should be doing. But hopefully will get a call and better understanding soon.

Would something stuck in his throat show up on X-ray?

And I think the "watering" on the cams is just the shinier parts of his skin reflecting and looking wet on the cams. He definitely has no eye or nose discharge

Took him to our vet - who said the behavior is extremely odd but physical examination everything looked great. Same with xrays. No impaction or any signs of respiratory issues. No signs of bites or mites or any skin irritations. Waiting on blood results, but the vets only ideas was something in...

While we've mainly seen him do this only while he's asleep, we did catch him doing it this morning with his eyes open (but while lying down) and he also did this weird behavior at the end of the video where he tries to bite his leg:

We have an appointment tomorrow. Our vet was stumped the last time we took him in for this - although this time it's way more pronounced and way more frequent.

So we brought him inside overnight to see if it was due to anything in his hide outside - and he still did this behavior, pretty much every 5 minutes or so - ALL night long. I can hear a breathing sound when he pumps into his shell each time too. I don't think this is ant or pest related:

I think the thing that's 'jumping' is just some substrate rustling as he scratches his head against it.

This is outside in his tortoise hide that we shut him in at night. There are bugs and ants in the yard (we can't for the life of us get rid of them without resorting to pesticides). We don't think there are any particularly in his hide, but we haven't taken it completely apart to clean out...

No real changes to diet. Our friend has brought him over a lot of hibiscus from their yard lately to feed him but we've checked and they don't use any pesticides or spray anything on their flowers. We have digital temps that probe both inside his hut and outdoors. Our days have gotten up to the...

So our 28 year old desert tortoise has been very restless at night lately. Pretty much all night long he does this intermittent wild neck stretching and head pumping thing. We've taken him to the vet for this type of behavior before (although that time he wasn't stretching his neck out as far -...

Thanks Yvonne! Good to know! And on that same note - just heard back from the vet who agreed it looked like the penis and was only concerned if it comes out and stays out. Since this video he has been flagging a lot. Must be the season..

Thanks!!! Glad to hear it looks more like his penis than something internal that's more dangerous for him. Keeping up with soaks and already started him on aloe and cucumber in the meantime. Still waiting to hear back from the vet, but he's a herp vet and has desert torts of his own, so should...

So lately our male desert tortoise has been prolapsing while he's pooping. I can't tell if it's his penis or something else, but most of the times when he poos something else comes out with it and generally retracts immediately afterwards. We've also noticed sometimes when he starts to poo he'll...

Thanks! Looks most likely like ants. Cleaned out his hut. Hopefully they stay away! Getting some diatomaceous earth as well. We've been giving him soaks with all the heat lately, though he's usually pretty good at soaking drinking on his own as well.

So our 26 year old desert tortoise has been doing a lot of head pumping in his sleep at night lately: Video1 Video2 Anyone know what this is? Is this weather related (it's been hot lately)? Digestion? Breathing? Aside from this behavior (that he's just started the last couple days) he seems...