A friendly reminder and a couple of recommendations

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Neal

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All of my heat lamps and lights are on timers, I usually check them every day when I initially set them up, then hardly ever once I am confident they’re working properly. A few days ago my relatively new timer (2 months) pooped out. The gears inside somehow got stuck and the dial wasn’t rotating. Unfortunately it was for the CHE in my hatchling sri lanka star tank. I didn’t notice it wasn’t working for about 2 days, which were particularly cold. The temps were about 70, but of course I was keeping the humidity high and those two things equal bad news. I replaced the timer, but the damage was done and last night I thought I was going to lose the two hatchlings. They were in BAD shape, both were squeaking and opening their mouth gasping for air. One was completely sprawled out laying his head on the ground. I soaked them in some baby food, made an appointment the next morning with the vet and put them in the incubator for the night. I woke up this morning expecting to find dead tortoises, but shockingly they were up and crawling about in the incubator, I soaked them and they were breathing and behaving normally. A quick check up by Dr. Richard Funk confirmed that they were in relatively good shape considering their condition last night. Seriously, I thought they were goners.

Now, if you feel the need to claim I’m neglectful or whatever, please PM me about it as this isn’t the point of the thread. My first point is to encourage everyone now that it’s winter to check all their equipment EVERY night! In my case it was the stupid timer of all things. If anything it’s worth the peace of mind to check frequently.

Second point – for anyone in the Phoenix area, Dr. Funk is an incredible vet and is a turtle and tortoise owner himself. Some of us that went to the TTPG conference heard him speak and I know other people on here go to him as well.

Third point – I have never heard of anyone putting their tortoises in an incubator when they are showing signs of respiratory illness. This is really my first case of illness I have had to deal with; I didn’t think using a humidifier would be effective in the space they are in. So, I thought the incubator was a good idea at 90ish degrees farenhieght and 90% humidity. They went from dying to almost normal overnight. Dr. Funk recommended leaving them in there for a few days until I’m sure they are back to 100%. Anyone have any thoughts on this either for or against? I would always recommend that a vet visit ASAP is the best idea for a very sick tortoise, but in my case at the time this happened I had to wait overnight and if that’s all I had the incubator for it would be worth the expense.
Sorry for the long post.


Here is the website of the vet hospital Dr. Funk works at.
http://www.vcahospitals.com/mesa-az
 

Yvonne G

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I know there were other factors involved, but let's give a hip, hip, hooray for another good baby food soak story!! ;)

I use the incubator occasionally for sick babies. I also fill the water reservoirs to keep it humid in there. Its something I've forgotten and never mention. Glad you've mentioned it and glad your babies made it ok.
 

Edna

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I'm glad your babies are better, Neal, and thanks for the reminder. I had a much less dramatic experience with equipment a few nights ago. I was checking the temps in my enclosure, and noticed that it was cooler than planned so I dug in the substrate and felt the heat cable. It felt.... room temp? lukewarm? I bumped up the setting on the rheostat, but the temp didn't change, so I checked the plug in, and sure enough, it was unplugged. Simple to remedy, wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't been doing my nightly check.
 

Kristina

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Neal, the really great owners are the ones that can not only admit they made a mistake, but post about it so that others can learn. I have had things happen that were down right embarrassing, and made me feel like a newbie again. We have all had those "facepalm" moments.

Kudos to you, both for pulling them through and also for telling us your story!
 

Terry Allan Hall

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Neal Butler said:
All of my heat lamps and lights are on timers, I usually check them every day when I initially set them up, then hardly ever once I am confident they’re working properly. A few days ago my relatively new timer (2 months) pooped out. The gears inside somehow got stuck and the dial wasn’t rotating. Unfortunately it was for the CHE in my hatchling sri lanka star tank. I didn’t notice it wasn’t working for about 2 days, which were particularly cold. The temps were about 70, but of course I was keeping the humidity high and those two things equal bad news. I replaced the timer, but the damage was done and last night I thought I was going to lose the two hatchlings. They were in BAD shape, both were squeaking and opening their mouth gasping for air. One was completely sprawled out laying his head on the ground. I soaked them in some baby food, made an appointment the next morning with the vet and put them in the incubator for the night. I woke up this morning expecting to find dead tortoises, but shockingly they were up and crawling about in the incubator, I soaked them and they were breathing and behaving normally. A quick check up by Dr. Richard Funk confirmed that they were in relatively good shape considering their condition last night. Seriously, I thought they were goners.

Now, if you feel the need to claim I’m neglectful or whatever, please PM me about it as this isn’t the point of the thread. My first point is to encourage everyone now that it’s winter to check all their equipment EVERY night! In my case it was the stupid timer of all things. If anything it’s worth the peace of mind to check frequently.

Second point – for anyone in the Phoenix area, Dr. Funk is an incredible vet and is a turtle and tortoise owner himself. Some of us that went to the TTPG conference heard him speak and I know other people on here go to him as well.

Third point – I have never heard of anyone putting their tortoises in an incubator when they are showing signs of respiratory illness. This is really my first case of illness I have had to deal with; I didn’t think using a humidifier would be effective in the space they are in. So, I thought the incubator was a good idea at 90ish degrees farenhieght and 90% humidity. They went from dying to almost normal overnight. Dr. Funk recommended leaving them in there for a few days until I’m sure they are back to 100%. Anyone have any thoughts on this either for or against? I would always recommend that a vet visit ASAP is the best idea for a very sick tortoise, but in my case at the time this happened I had to wait overnight and if that’s all I had the incubator for it would be worth the expense.
Sorry for the long post.


Here is the website of the vet hospital Dr. Funk works at.
http://www.vcahospitals.com/mesa-az



Agree that checking the heating daily is very wise...Murphey's Law and all that!

And that was an excellent idea about using the incubator for chilled babies...good thing to remember! :cool:
 

bettinge

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I just had a bulb go out yesterday! I know it worked over the weekend, so they were a day without the "sun", no wonder the food was untouched.

Many days I leave for work before the lights are on and come home after they're off, so I might not know of a problem for many days. I guess I'm lucky that the species I keep will not be harmed by a couple days of cool.
 

Neal

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kyryah said:
Neal, the really great owners are the ones that can not only admit they made a mistake, but post about it so that others can learn. I have had things happen that were down right embarrassing, and made me feel like a newbie again. We have all had those "facepalm" moments.

Kudos to you, both for pulling them through and also for telling us your story!

Yeah, I think some people might feel too embarrassed to share their experiences so they don't and we'll never know if someone could have learned something from it.

Terry, that's a great picture in your signature. That should be the motto for this forum.
 

Terry Allan Hall

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Neal Butler said:
Terry, that's a great picture in your signature. That should be the motto for this forum.

Yeah, I found that pic while googling for something else, and liked it a lot, although Ive had a mild complaint about it being too large...looking for a smaller version, though. :cool:

May have a T-shirt made w/ it, too, for the next meeting of the D/FW Turtle and Tortoise Club. :)
 

Tom

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Nice save Neal. Thanks for the info.

I found the incubator info interesting. I've been toying with the idea of a "closed" chamber for housing hatchlings. Of my three EOP babies the one who hid in the hide box the most was the smoothest AND largest. The other too turned out really good, but not "perfect". Now, with the onset of winter, my heaters have kicked on and I'm really having trouble maintaining humidity again. I'm dumping around 4 gallons of water a day in a 12x20' room, running two humidifiers, keeping substrates wet, covering tanks, and still the room is staying in the low 40% range while the enclosures are 60-70% at tortoise level.

I'm seriously considering ways to build something like a giant incubator with very restricted air flow.
 

Balboa

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The incubator idea is a great one, thanks Neal, and so glad you caught it in time!

I never really thought about it that way, but essentially that's what I tried to make for my torts, a really big incubator.
 

Marty333

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Terry Allan Hall said:
Neal Butler said:
Terry, that's a great picture in your signature. That should be the motto for this forum.

Yeah, I found that pic while googling for something else, and liked it a lot, although Ive had a mild complaint about it being too large...looking for a smaller version, though. :cool:

May have a T-shirt made w/ it, too, for the next meeting of the D/FW Turtle and Tortoise Club. :)

Just go to Picnik.com sign up its free and you can resize it. I love using their editing tools and when I have to resize a photo for my sig I use Picnik.

@Neal I am so happy that your little stars made it I thought I was about to read a really sad post but then it turned in to a happy story! Thanks for the reminder. Plus I dont think I have seen any pics of your babies yet.
 

onarock

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Nice catch Neal. I never use those mechanical timers. I always pony up the extra 5 bucks and get the digital ones with the battery backup. In case of a power outage it wont be able to power the light on, but it will keep track of time and on/off settings.
 

Neal

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onarock said:
Nice catch Neal. I never use those mechanical timers. I always pony up the extra 5 bucks and get the digital ones with the battery backup. In case of a power outage it wont be able to power the light on, but it will keep track of time and on/off settings.

They sure are worth it. I was going by the 'it hasn't happened to me yet' mentality with these dial timers. After the years of using them this is the first incident, and I'm not taking any more chances with em.

Marty333 I have some posted somewhere in the pictures folder. Finals are this week so no pictures until next week!
 

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Neal, glad to hear the outcome was a good one.

A BIG +1 for Dr. Funk !!!!! I think he's great.

Thanks for relating the incubator info, I wouldn't have thought to use it that way but will keep it in mind for sure.

I know it wasn't your CHE that went out, but I quit using them (CHE's) and only use lights now, so that I do have a quick visual check and know they are on.
 

Terry Allan Hall

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Marty333 said:
Terry Allan Hall said:
Neal Butler said:
Terry, that's a great picture in your signature. That should be the motto for this forum.

Yeah, I found that pic while googling for something else, and liked it a lot, although Ive had a mild complaint about it being too large...looking for a smaller version, though. :cool:

May have a T-shirt made w/ it, too, for the next meeting of the D/FW Turtle and Tortoise Club. :)

Just go to Picnik.com sign up its free and you can resize it. I love using their editing tools and when I have to resize a photo for my sig I use Picnik.

Thanks, Miss Marta, will give it a try.

Placed an order to have 3 "No Tortoise Left Behind" T-shirts made at a friend's shop...one in black w/ white graphics, one in green camo w/ white graphics and one in "Tye-died" w/ black graphics...perhaps I'll just start a fashion line for the tastefully dressed tortophile... :p
 

exoticsdr

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I don't know how most setups are arranged, but here is what I do. My torts winter in their normal summer location, a greenhouse in the yard with attached fenced yard of about 900 sq ft. Heating in the greenhouse include a radiant heating system and a pig blanket surrounded by bales of hay under the potting bench. Both the pig blanket and radiant heater are plugged into a power strip that also contains a simple night light plugged into it also. On those nights that are going to dip down into colder temps, I make a habit of looking out the window and if I can see the night light glowing in the greenhouse, I know all is well with the heating systems.
 

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Glad to hear the little guys made it ok!

I apologize if this is inappropriate but .

Dr. Richard Funk sounds like it should be a band from the 1970s opening for George Clinton.
 

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If you could see him you would think 70's for sure. :)

Very laid back and very cool Doc.
 

Jacqui

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kyryah said:
Neal, the really great owners are the ones that can not only admit they made a mistake, but post about it so that others can learn. I have had things happen that were down right embarrassing, and made me feel like a newbie again. We have all had those "facepalm" moments.

Kudos to you, both for pulling them through and also for telling us your story!

I couldn't agree more!

I have one of my heat emitters that I believe gets enough vibration, that it wiggles loose and even tho everything "looks" good, it's only be either observing the sulcatas behavior in that enclosure or getting you hand near enough to feel the lack of heat that you realize the truth. :(



Neal Butler said:
. Third point – I have never heard of anyone putting their tortoises in an incubator when they are showing signs of respiratory illness.

I would never have thought of it, nor have I ever heard of any one saying they had used one in such a way. It's a great idea!!

So glad this story had a happy ending.
 
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