Advice (too cold during hibernation)

abirose25

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hi, I'm new here, owner of a 9 year old Marginated tortoise called Paddy, every year for the past 3 years we have hibernated him in our fridge and monitored the temperature everything, made sure he got air etc. We put him in for his hibernation Tuesday evening, Wednesday evening we came back from a party and it looks like our fridge had malfunctioned and the temperature had dropped a lot, bottles of water in the fridge were frozen, we took him out right away and put him under the stairs where he lives, we've had his light on him for a few hours a day trying to warm him up etc. But he's not moving at all, I'm so worried that he's died, he's not stiff at all and his legs tail and head is tucked away in his shell, I don't think his eyes look sunken in but they are closed. Can anyone give me any advice/has any experience? Safe to say if he pulls through we won't be putting him in the fridge again!! Thanks in advance
 

Yvonne G

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I think putting him under a light was a mistake. You should just leave him at room temperature with no lights. Hopefully he's ok and just taking a long time to wake up, but if the water in the same fridge was frozen, it doesn't bode well for his eyes, etc.
 

abirose25

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I think putting him under a light was a mistake. You should just leave him at room temperature with no lights. Hopefully he's ok and just taking a long time to wake up, but if the water in the same fridge was frozen, it doesn't bode well for his eyes, etc.
Oh no I feared as much, I won't put the lights on anymore!! Thanks for your reply, I'll keep hoping he wakes, I don't know what I'll do if I lose this little fella :(
 

abirose25

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Have included a picture of him, I've just been tickling his back (his fave thing) and nothing :( I feel awful

image.jpg
 

Yvonne G

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I think he's been disturbed for a long enough time that if he were still alive, you would see some signs that he's waking up. I don't hold out much hope.

Let him be room temperature for the rest of today and all of tomorrow, then on the next day place him in warm water, the temperature of water you would bathe your human baby in, and leave him sitting there for about a half hour. Make sure the water doesn't cover his nose. If after all this you still don't see any movement, I'm afraid he has gone.

This was a total accident. You had no way of knowing your fridge would get so cold. You can take some comfort in the fact that he just went to sleep and was more than likely unconscious when it started to get too cold.

I'm so very sorry.

But please keep us informed. I'd love to be wrong.
 
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abirose25

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Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it!

I'll try him in the water today and keep everything crossed
 
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