Baby sulcata skin falling off neck

[Tom]

Hello, so Bronzlee is still alive!! Never knew what the third eye was until this morning. I read that soaking her every 3 hours will bring down the swelling under her shell, which it has. I soaked her in 1/2 water and pumpkin with some dandelion leaves mashed in it. After each soak she has wanted to eat, even with calcium on it. Her head color has darkened and her breathing is very deep (don’t know how to explain it) I am at loss what to do, she looks like on the edge of death on second but after soaking her she is wondering around. Today was the warmest day we have had in Washington so I took her outside, she explored for one hour. She is still really swollen under her shell, eyes are like little black bb’s. I am afraid if I don’t soak her she might die, I am taking her to the vet first thing in the morning. Question I guess, is all the soaking bad? Should I continue throughout the night? Is she in pain? She hasn’t peed. I one poop this morning and a little diarrhea. Thank you again for everything

-Soaking is not harmful. You can do as much as you want.
-I don't have any way of knowing if the tortoise is in pain.
-They pee clear liquid in the soak water when they are well hydrated. You won't see it.
-There is nothing a vet can do, and they mostly misdiagnose the problem and do the wrong things that make it worse. They think it is calcium deficiency and inject calcium, or they give the tortoise a "vitamin injection". Both of these are totally unnecessary, and their already strained little systems can't handle it. Vets do not know tortoises in most cases. There are few exceptions.

 

[Bronzo]

-Soaking is not harmful. You can do as much as you want.
-I don't have any way of knowing if the tortoise is in pain.
-They pee clear liquid in the soak water when they are well hydrated. You won't see it.
-There is nothing a vet can do, and they mostly misdiagnose the problem and do the wrong things that make it worse. They think it is calcium deficiency and inject calcium, or they give the tortoise a "vitamin injection". Both of these are totally unnecessary, and their already strained little systems can't handle it. Vets do not know tortoises in most cases. There are few exceptions.

Yeah they gave her a vitamin a shot from the beginning. It’s a vet for amphibious and birds. There’s no X-ray or anything that can say what’s wrong to help?

 

[Tom]

Yeah they gave her a vitamin a shot from the beginning. It’s a vet for amphibious and birds. There’s no X-ray or anything that can say what’s wrong to help?

If the baby was started too dry, then the thread I linked previously explains what is wrong. Essentially, its internal organ failure. That doesn't show up on an X-ray. There is no way to save them if there was too much damage early on. All we can do is set them up the best we can and keep them hydrated and warm. Some of them make it through and some do not. We try our best, but some mistakes can't be undone. Try to educate the breeder. Invite them here to learn.

 

[TammyJ]

Why is she on paper towels? Is it dry or damp? Is it scented? May be an allergy. Is your enclosure covered?

 

[Gijoux]

Do you know how the breeder started this baby? Its okay to say who the breeder is publicly. If someone does a great job people should know about it. If someone isn't doing it right and is getting bad results because of it, potential buyers should know that too.

The breeder must have sold this baby very young. If the baby hatched on 3/27/22 and the OP said everything was fine for 3 weeks and these last two weeks have been stressful, means she has had this baby 5 weeks already and the baby is only 8 weeks old now. It appears this baby was not kept humid enough early on (open table top).

 

[Donna Albu]

Hello, so Bronzlee is still alive!! Never knew what the third eye was until this morning. I read that soaking her every 3 hours will bring down the swelling under her shell, which it has. I soaked her in 1/2 water and pumpkin with some dandelion leaves mashed in it. After each soak she has wanted to eat, even with calcium on it. Her head color has darkened and her breathing is very deep (don’t know how to explain it) I am at loss what to do, she looks like on the edge of death on second but after soaking her she is wondering around. Today was the warmest day we have had in Washington so I took her outside, she explored for one hour. She is still really swollen under her shell, eyes are like little black bb’s. I am afraid if I don’t soak her she might die, I am taking her to the vet first thing in the morning. Question I guess, is all the soaking bad? Should I continue throughout the night? Is she in pain? She hasn’t peed. I one poop this morning and a little diarrhea. Thank you again for everything

The results you're seeing after Bronzlee's soak is a BIG clue. She/he is dehydrated. Why did you take out the substrate? What you had in there was OK. It needs to be moist. Put anything that fits over the top of your tank temporarily until you can get on a "permanent" cover.. Get one of the instruments to measure humidity mentioned in Tom's care sheets, and measure it every couple of hours. I notice that you are using paper towels to line the bottom. May I suggest that you try to find plain, smooth, fabric dish towels instead. Wash them first, NO fabric softener. Wet them thoroughly, wring them out only to the point where they aren't dripping wet, and use those to line the bottom. Swap them out when they get soiled. You can put Bronzlee's food on them directly. I have a pile of really old glass cleaning cloths that I use in my brooder boxes. The humidity stays nice and high. You'll also need a shallow water dish in there. Bronzlee will be going in and out of it, thus lowering the water level, so watch that carefully to make sure you refill it when he splashes the water out.

Back when I was ignorant (found my first 2 hatchlings in my yard), The smaller one was used as a chew toy for my year old Husky. He spent six weeks in the hospital, had 2 surgeries, finally got yo stay home in a fly proof enclosure. The vets office was open 6 days a week, no one was on the premises on Sunday's. On Monday morning I got a call that he'd deteriorated over the weekend, and they wanted permission to put him down. I told them to wait, that my son wanted to see him before they did. So the vet told me she would soak him and wait for my son to come in after work, When he got there, they brought Joey into the room to see him, putting him down on the exam table. Immediately, Joey got up and ran to Ron. Joey was non-stop activity the whole time Ron was there. We did not have him put down. What we did do was arrange to pick him up and bring him home for the weekend, where he was closely monitored, and got regular soaks. Three weekend later, Joey finally ate some of the food in his habitat! He was allowed to stay home! The point here is this: That ONE soak after the phone call made a huge difference between his looking like he was a death's door, and being on the road to recovery.

Also, I question the shots for a parasite. Usually that is an oral dose of medicine once, then another dose 2-3 weeks later. Especially when they are so tiny. But then, I only know what's been done with my tortoises.

 

[Bronzo]

Hello everyone, first of all I would like to thank everyone for helping me with little Bronzlee (B)! The first 6 months of having her has been so stressful, fingers crossed that it’s up hill from here. I have a couple questions! So she hatched on march 27, so 9 months she only weighs 52 grams. B is a picky eater, in the morning she eats weeds and grass with calcium. Throughout the day she will graze on hay that I have soaked in green juice (either collard greens, romaine and cucumber or mustard greens). Although it’s not very much. She is pretty active. Very routine: wakes up, soaks, gets some rays, eats then walks around for an hour or so. Sleeps for a couple hours does a couple laps, then sleeps until 3pm and will be up wandering around eating until 5pm.
Questions- why isn’t she growing? Heat and uvb are on point. Humidity has been tricky even with fully enclosed habitat but it’s between 60-65% during the day and 80 at night. I’ve measured her she has grown 1/2 since I got her in may.

I’m worried about her shell. Top is hard most of the time, some days the sides feel a little softer then other days. Her bottom is only soft near the middle of the front 2 legs. It’s was hard for about a week then got soft again. If the substrate is always damp can that cause shell problems on the bottom? Here are the X-rays taken a couple weeks ago.

Any and all advice needed! Thank you

 

[Bronzo]

Why is she on paper towels? Is it dry or damp? Is it scented? May be an allergy. Is your enclosure covered?

She was on antibiotics, RI.