have a fairly young russian thats has been keeping her eyes closed. she takes forever to open them. i soaked her in water yesterday and he eyes were still shut but she was moving, so i took her out and she was walkin with her eyes closed. didnt eat yesterday and loves to sleep. normal?
blind
- Thread starter jasso2
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Jasso2 another question what type of lighting do you have over your little one?
well i keep all tortoises outside. the babies only in the weekends are allowed to spend the night outside, inside they have uvb/uva lightin and heat emitters. but all my russians outside, so sunlight. i have the on regular dirt with some grass/ on cypress mulch/ play sand. i spray the floor every 2 days if its super hot. so temps in houston r pretty high in day time 100+...they all have shade. lots of it.
Well, here's my GUESS (you realize since none of us has seen the tortoise, all we can offer you is a guess from our own experiences), so take it or not:
Since the tortoise is outside, and that is the VERY BEST way to keep a tortoise, I would say there was something that caused the tortoise to stop eating. Maybe an upper respiratory infection or something. If this were my tortoise, I would bring it into the house and set it up inside with a regular incandescent bulb...a hospital tank. It doesn't have to be set up with substrate and plants and a water dish...just a sterile hospital tank. With maybe a towell or newspaper on the floor. I would soak the tortoise every day for at least three hours at a time, and here's my formula for soaking a tortoise with stuck shut eyes: Get a container that has high sides and a small floor space. Mix half and half Gerber sweet potatoes or squash or carrots with water. Put the tortoise in this mixture and leave it there as long as possible. He probably won't drink it, but they do absorb the liquid through the thin skin on their throat and under their tail. After about three days of this your little guy should have his eyes open. This has never failed to work for me. Now you have to figure out why they stuck shut in the first place. Watch them when you feed and make sure he's eating. Sit there quietly and watch to see if he's being bullied. Just pay attention and try to figure out why he got the swollen-shut eyes in the first place.
good luck, and keep us posted,
Yvonne
Since the tortoise is outside, and that is the VERY BEST way to keep a tortoise, I would say there was something that caused the tortoise to stop eating. Maybe an upper respiratory infection or something. If this were my tortoise, I would bring it into the house and set it up inside with a regular incandescent bulb...a hospital tank. It doesn't have to be set up with substrate and plants and a water dish...just a sterile hospital tank. With maybe a towell or newspaper on the floor. I would soak the tortoise every day for at least three hours at a time, and here's my formula for soaking a tortoise with stuck shut eyes: Get a container that has high sides and a small floor space. Mix half and half Gerber sweet potatoes or squash or carrots with water. Put the tortoise in this mixture and leave it there as long as possible. He probably won't drink it, but they do absorb the liquid through the thin skin on their throat and under their tail. After about three days of this your little guy should have his eyes open. This has never failed to work for me. Now you have to figure out why they stuck shut in the first place. Watch them when you feed and make sure he's eating. Sit there quietly and watch to see if he's being bullied. Just pay attention and try to figure out why he got the swollen-shut eyes in the first place.
good luck, and keep us posted,
Yvonne
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