A bladder stone?

bella&george

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AZ
Today I noticed this white-looking clump of what seems to be hard urates while giving my 3-year old sulcata George a soak in the tort's kiddie pool. I'm worried that it could be a bladder stone. It is quite hard but can chip away pretty easily if I poke at it with a stick. Any advice or help is greatly appreciated.1EE8F2F3-D516-44CA-A47F-6F903F6C458F.jpeg
 

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Tom

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Today I noticed this white-looking clump of what seems to be hard urates while giving my 3-year old sulcata George a soak in the tort's kiddie pool. I'm worried that it could be a bladder stone. It is quite hard but can chip away pretty easily if I poke at it with a stick. Any advice or help is greatly appreciated.View attachment 328793
Soak more often. Let him burrow in summer, or help him if he doesn't do it on his own. Spray the food with water. Feed more opuntia. Be sure you aren't feeding high protein foods like alfalfa.
 

bella&george

Member
Joined
Jun 22, 2021
Messages
59
Location (City and/or State)
AZ
Soak more often. Let him burrow in summer, or help him if he doesn't do it on his own. Spray the food with water. Feed more opuntia. Be sure you aren't feeding high protein foods like alfalfa.
Thank you for the reply, Tom. He is currently in a temporary habitat with a burrow that we created by digging a hole, putting a large storage box with a hole cut out for entry, and covering the top with the dirt that we dug out. He is able to dig farther if he wishes, but so far he stays near the front. I usually soak him every 1-2 days for 10-15 minutes, but I will be sure to start soaking him more often. He gets a mix of some store-bought spring mix, collard greens, dandelion greens, occasional squash, few fruits every week, lots of moringa leaves and flowers, or romaine lettuce once a day, and 2 big batches of cut grass from an area around our pool or 1 batch and a pile of soaked timothy grass hay along with the greens. Before I found the forum and made some big changes to their diet, they did get fruits often, but I've changed that since now. I haven't had any access to opuntia but I will try ordering some online. Do you think that if there is more stones that they could pass on their own? And I don't think I have any vets specializing in tortoises in my area but would it be good to get him x-raye even so?
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 9, 2010
Messages
63,270
Location (City and/or State)
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Thank you for the reply, Tom. He is currently in a temporary habitat with a burrow that we created by digging a hole, putting a large storage box with a hole cut out for entry, and covering the top with the dirt that we dug out. He is able to dig farther if he wishes, but so far he stays near the front. I usually soak him every 1-2 days for 10-15 minutes, but I will be sure to start soaking him more often. He gets a mix of some store-bought spring mix, collard greens, dandelion greens, occasional squash, few fruits every week, lots of moringa leaves and flowers, or romaine lettuce once a day, and 2 big batches of cut grass from an area around our pool or 1 batch and a pile of soaked timothy grass hay along with the greens. Before I found the forum and made some big changes to their diet, they did get fruits often, but I've changed that since now. I haven't had any access to opuntia but I will try ordering some online. Do you think that if there is more stones that they could pass on their own? And I don't think I have any vets specializing in tortoises in my area but would it be good to get him x-raye even so?
If he's passing them, I don't think you need a vet yet.

I'd cut out the fruit entirely.

Soak for 40-60 minutes every other day.

The grass sounds great, but switch from Timothy hay to orchard grass hay or Bermuda hay.

There should be tons of spineless opuntia all around you there in AZ.
 

bella&george

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Location (City and/or State)
AZ
If he's passing them, I don't think you need a vet yet.

I'd cut out the fruit entirely.

Soak for 40-60 minutes every other day.

The grass sounds great, but switch from Timothy hay to orchard grass hay or Bermuda hay.

There should be tons of spineless opuntia all around you there in AZ.
Alright. I'll get that hay soon, as we're almost out anyway. I haven't found any spineless opuntia pads in any of my local markets yet.. but hopefully if I look around i'll find a source. I appreciate your help a lot, Tom. ?
 

bella&george

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Jun 22, 2021
Messages
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Location (City and/or State)
AZ
Update: Cut out the fruit except for a bit that I used as a bribe to get them out of their burrow for feeding and soaking. I've been trying to soak them like you said, but it's been hard having to sit there for 40+ minutes because the only thing I have to soak them in is a kiddie pool- they can look over the edge so they constantly try to climb out of it... but, if I couldn't soak long enough one day I just soaked again the next. It has helped a lot, and their urates are no longer as gritty as before! 29C6BD39-FCC2-4A75-8082-F946EE1C62EE.jpeg
George has passed 2 other small stones in the past 2 weeks or so, for a total of 3.
529E2251-9A16-4156-8B9B-B16E9AF6E334.jpeg
They've been as active as ever, they eat and trample all over their food whenever I put it on their platforms.
I've kept up with the diet too. For the past week I switched to botanical hay, but today I picked up orchard. I gave them some squash throughout the week too, and that seemed to help them poo. Another thing- today we were looking around for some markets when we passed by a small house with a HUGE opuntia cactus patch. Lucky! We knocked and the lady was happy to get rid of some of it and even told us we could come back. So- we now have a local supplier. It's going quite well. Thank you for the great advice. ?
 

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