Baby tortoise won't open her eyes.

[Kerrybaker]

Hello, Iv recently bought a young tortoise just under 1 year old, we think it's a she but obviously too young to tell yet. She seems healthy and happy except she sleeps a lot and we have noticed she likes to walk around with her eyes closed, feeling her way with her nose. Thinking she had substrate in them we have been given her regular baths each day in warm water and used a cotton bud to very gently clean her eyes which she is happy to let you do, she will then open them, has no probs opening them fully, and they seem fine, slightly watery but I'm guessing that's from the bath. She has a small appetite so I'm ensuring she is getting plenty of water.
Substrate used is top soil, diet of wild flowers and weeds cleared by tortoise trust. UVA and UVB Spotlight, nice large open tort table and she roams around the garden in good weather, monitored obviously as she is so small.

We have another horsfield pebbles, he lives separately outside and have been quarantineing her just incase.
Do you think a trip to the vets is needed if there was an infection there would be bubbly nose probs breathing ect surely?, I'm wondering if torts can be blind?

 

[AZTorts]

Hello, Iv recently bought a young tortoise just under 1 year old, we think it's a she but obviously too young to tell yet. She seems healthy and happy except she sleeps a lot and we have noticed she likes to walk around with her eyes closed, feeling her way with her nose. Thinking she had substrate in them we have been given her regular baths each day in warm water and used a cotton bud to very gently clean her eyes which she is happy to let you do, she will then open them, has no probs opening them fully, and they seem fine, slightly watery but I'm guessing that's from the bath. She has a small appetite so I'm ensuring she is getting plenty of water.
Substrate used is top soil, diet of wild flowers and weeds cleared by tortoise trust. UVA and UVB Spotlight, nice large open tort table and she roams around the garden in good weather, monitored obviously as she is so small.

We have another horsfield pebbles, he lives separately outside and have been quarantineing her just incase.
Do you think a trip to the vets is needed if there was an infection there would be bubbly nose probs breathing ect surely?, I'm wondering if torts can be blind?

Two months ago I was gifted four 8 month old desert tortoise babies. One of the 4 wouldn't open his eyes. He didn't walk around or eat. Thinking it could be a vitamin A deficiency I started soaking him in a mixture of half water and half pureed baby food carrots. I use Repti Turtle eye drops 2 x day. Since after a few days and he wasn't eating I started "force" feeding him. By that I don't mean I tube fed or shoved food down his throat. I made a "spoon" of sorts out of a straw with which I spooned up tiny amounts of pureed baby food carrots and green beans, gently pried his mouth open with the straw/spoon and let the food go into his mouth. He appeared to suck the food from the straw at times. I spoke to a reptile vet who seemed skeptical of my efforts and prepared me for the worst. But he also said I should add tiny, tiny pieces of acceptable plant life to the baby food. In another day I noticed his eyes were opening and after about another day he started moving. Apparently he was in really bad shape when I got him so it took about 8 days I think before he really started coming around. Now, 2 months later he is very healthy. He eats well and crawls all over the place.

 

[wellington]

A lack of vitamin A can cause these symptoms. I would try the carrot soaks. Also, be sure you are not using any kind of compact bulbs.

 

[Kerrybaker]

Hi thank you for your replies, what do you mean by compact bulbs? I'm using the Hagen ExoTerra Solar Glo Sun Simulation Bulb in 125w. It has the UVA and UVB in one and creates the basking spot. Is this ok? I have always used this bulb even when pebbles was small and never had any probs, their shells are both nice and smooth with beautiful colours. With the carrot baths do you literally mix a bit of carrot mash baby food into the water? Thanks

 

[AZTorts]

Hi thank you for your replies, what do you mean by compact bulbs? I'm using the Hagen ExoTerra Solar Glo Sun Simulation Bulb in 125w. It has the UVA and UVB in one and creates the basking spot. Is this ok? I have always used this bulb even when pebbles was small and never had any probs, their shells are both nice and smooth with beautiful colours. With the carrot baths do you literally mix a bit of carrot mash baby food into the water? Thanks

I used the Gerber Organic 1st Foods carrots. They are very runny. I added it to the same amount of water. So a mix of 50% carrots and 50% water. If the tortoise drinks some, so much the better! I have no idea about the bulb though. I bought a reptile UVB bulb. But mine spend most of the day outside where they can pick either sunlight or shade.

 

[Kerrybaker]

Ok fantastic, she is in her carrot bath as we speak, I could only find PIPPS organic in the uk so I have used that. She started off very still with her head down in it but not drinking, now she is walking around slowly with her head stretched as high as possible still with her eyes closed! Poor lil bam-bam I hope I'm just being over cautious! She has a vets app this morning so hopefully we can shed some light and get her better really soon!

 

[AZTorts]

Ok fantastic, she is in her carrot bath as we speak, I could only find PIPPS organic in the uk so I have used that. She started off very still with her head down in it but not drinking, now she is walking around slowly with her head stretched as high as possible still with her eyes closed! Poor lil bam-bam I hope I'm just being over cautious! She has a vets app this morning so hopefully we can shed some light and get her better really soon!

Please let us know what the vet says.

 

[Yvonne G]

Your tortoise is very ill. They don't walk around with their eyes closed. The eyes are swollen shut and he can't open them. Soak in carrot baby food water for at least a half hour every day.

Your light is too bright for such a small baby. Either raise it up higher, or get a smaller wattage bulb.

I hope the vet doesn't give the baby a vitamin A injection. Let us know what happened at the vet.

 

[Tyanna]

What can cause swollen eyes? A bulb that is too bright even if it is a MVB? Just curious because I have been using a MVB and my tortoise is starting to be more sleepy than usual and sometimes he will move his head around like he's looking around but with his eyes closed. He's eating a ton still, though.

 

[Yvonne G]

It's usually vitamin A deficiency, but too strong of UVB or having the UVB light too close to the floor of the habitat is also hard on the eyes and causes them to swell.

 

[Tyanna]

Gotcha, that is most likely my problem, will solve this as soon as I get home. It wouldn't hurt to do the baby food/water soak just in case, correct?

 

[Tyanna]

Ok fantastic, she is in her carrot bath as we speak, I could only find PIPPS organic in the uk so I have used that. She started off very still with her head down in it but not drinking, now she is walking around slowly with her head stretched as high as possible still with her eyes closed! Poor lil bam-bam I hope I'm just being over cautious! She has a vets app this morning so hopefully we can shed some light and get her better really soon!

Keep us updated on your baby!

 

[Yvonne G]

Right. The carrot baby food soaks have never failed for me. You will definitely see an improvement in about 3 days if you do it faithfully.

 

[Tom]

Kerry, that light should be fine, but what is the basking temperature under it and how far from the substrate is the bulb? Does this baby ever get outside in the sun?

 

[Kerrybaker]

Hi Tom, the bottom of the build is about 30cm from the basking spot, giving between 26-30c throughout the day. Yes she gets outside on the grass during the nice weather we had been having while we were about to watch her as she's so small, only 6cm long! She loves it though, a right little roamer! Just got back from the vets in Bristol who specialises in torts and treats all the exotic animals at Bristol Zoo, she diagnosed conjunctivitis, gave her a anti inflammatory injection and eye drops to help her eyes, also some Reptomin to put in her bath to soak in once a day. She said the carrot bath sounds like a good idea but prob wouldn't be concentrated enough in my case to make a big diff. She did also say the set up Iv got sounds very good, and if only all torts she saw were cared for as well! So I'm pleased I'm doing something right! Lol hopefully ill Bam-Bam will be back to her mischievous self shortly! Going to contact the breeder just for a heads up incase any others are suffering if the treatment works well. Thanks for the comments guys! X

 

[AZTorts]

Hi Tom, the bottom of the build is about 30cm from the basking spot, giving between 26-30c throughout the day. Yes she gets outside on the grass during the nice weather we had been having while we were about to watch her as she's so small, only 6cm long! She loves it though, a right little roamer! Just got back from the vets in Bristol who specialises in torts and treats all the exotic animals at Bristol Zoo, she diagnosed conjunctivitis, gave her a anti inflammatory injection and eye drops to help her eyes, also some Reptomin to put in her bath to soak in once a day. She said the carrot bath sounds like a good idea but prob wouldn't be concentrated enough in my case to make a big diff. She did also say the set up Iv got sounds very good, and if only all torts she saw were cared for as well! So I'm pleased I'm doing something right! Lol hopefully ill Bam-Bam will be back to her mischievous self shortly! Going to contact the breeder just for a heads up incase any others are suffering if the treatment works well. Thanks for the comments guys! X

Thanks for the update! Keep us posted on her progress!

 

[Tom]

26-30 is too cool for your basking spot. It should be closer to 37 directly under the bulb. How are you measuring that temperature? At only 30 cm away, it should be much warmer than that directly under the bulb.

In cases like this I always want to know WHY the animal got sick. There is no explanation that I have seen so far. Treating the symptoms is great, but if the cause isn't discovered and eliminated, more and more symptoms will occur. I suspect consistently low temps might be your issue. Can you confirm or deny?

 

[Kerrybaker]

I measure the temp with a digital reader under the basking spot at ground level, so how could I get the temp higher, move the bulb down? Iv only had her for 2 weeks so my guess would be maybe she got Ill from another tort at the breeders? Could they get conjunctivitis from too low heat levels for 2 weeks?

 

[Tyanna]

How long should I hope to see progress after doing the soak with baby carrot food? I now too am having the same problem. I had too high of a wattage MVB too close to my enclosure.

I now changed it to a 65 watt flood light bulb as recommended by Tom, and soaked him in a 50/50 baby carrot food water mix for about 20 minutes.

He's still eating, though. His only problem seems to be his eye.

 

[Helena1990]

Hello. I have a baby tortoise with swollen eyes.She does not eat for almost 3 weeks now.I read that swollen eyes are a sign of vitamin A deficiency and I give her vitamin A in drops for almost 2 weeks but i don't see any changes in her condition.Can anyone help me please because I don't know what to do.Thank you