Ask for suggestions. Finally I think my Sulcata caught the cold or Respiratory infection.

qiangzhu

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He is about 8 inches. He started to have weird sound 1-2 months ago. Recently he started to have running nose and open mouth to breathe. I don't feel he is good. He is still active and eat and poop well. But I can feel he is hard to breathe sometimes.

I started to open his sealed enclosure to let him breathe more fresh air. But I still maintain the temperature in his enclosure and even higher, about 95F in most parts to the enclosure and 105 F in the basking area. I think usually high temperature can help in the cold recovery. I also added the percentage of the dandelion, plantain plant, mint and basil in his daily meal which are used to cure cold and respiratory in some traditional medicine (like Arabic, China or Indian traditional medicine). I started to do this for 3 days but still don't see any sign he is recovering. I still soak him in warm water every other day.

Are there any other suggestions I can do?

I watched some youtube video which suggested to use anti-biotic baytril. But it requires vet prescription. Do I need to take him to a vet? Is there any good vet suggested in Seattle area?

Thanks
 
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KarenSoCal

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Is there any improvement today?

Is the enclosure humidity at least 80%? That temp is high and could dry him out fast.

It sounds to me like he needs to see a vet. We have a list of vets here in the forum. Here's a link to the ones in WA.

 

Maro2Bear

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Greetings. I agree with Karen, it does sound like it’s time for a vet visit. I really don’t think providing “more fresh air” helps, in fact, you might be doing more harm by letting the nice warm moist air escape & introducing a cooling draft.

Im assuming your enclosure is inside?

good luck!
 

qiangzhu

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Location (City and/or State)
Washington
Is there any improvement today?

Is the enclosure humidity at least 80%? That temp is high and could dry him out fast.

It sounds to me like he needs to see a vet. We have a list of vets here in the forum. Here's a link to the ones in WA.

Looks better today and yesterday. Running nose is less now. Also he started to use nose to breathe again. But I still feel he has stuffy nose since he breathe with a sound just like the sound I will make when I have the stuffy nose.

Humidity is down. Since he is large and I moved him to a larger enclosure a few months ago and it is hard to be fully sealed. So I used a reptile humidifier to boost the humidity in his enclosure. He sometimes like to sleep just under the humidifier fog pipe. Actually the fog flow from the pipe is pretty cold and I am doubt that is one reason why he caught the cold. So I stopped the humidifier. But I do soak him every day now (I used to soak him every other day) and put a water bowl in his enclosure to let him not dehydrate. I will put the humidifier back again once he is fully recovered.
 

Tom

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So I used a reptile humidifier to boost the humidity in his enclosure. He sometimes like to sleep just under the humidifier fog pipe. Actually the fog flow from the pipe is pretty cold and I am doubt that is one reason why he caught the cold.
That might be why he got sick. They shouldn't be breathing water vapor. Sitting right under the tube is even worse.

Humidifiers should not be used. Maintain humidity by using a closed chamber. Even for larger tortoises.
 

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