Blockage/Massive Urate Stone- Cause for alarm?

Kapidolo Farms

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Ammonia is a great descriptor indicating urea/urates. So very likely not calcium.

If I prompted what to 'smell for' I would have tilted the response.

This is what I have done many times at various meeting of turtle/tortoise clubs when people bring 'stones' to show.
 

TylerStewart

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@TylerStewart
Tyler, is this accurate? Was this baby soaked every day?
Sorry just seeing this, but all our babies are soaked pretty much daily, or 5ish days per week at a minimum. They are kept on an always moist substrate, 3" and 4" PVC pipes cut in half the long way for hides that are halfway buried in the coir substrate, and right now they are under twin Reptisun 10.0 bulbs and a 60W spot bulb (95-105 range directly under those bulbs at tortoise shell height). Ambient room temp about 72 night and day (Russians cool to room temp at night). We mostly use the ZooMed grassland tortoise food for their "commercial" diet, mixed with mostly dandelion and endive with occasional turnip greens or spring mix maybe once a week (we chop everything up in a 5 gallon bucket and feed just about all the babies of all species the same things).

This stone is very strange, I never really see them with babies, and that baby wasn't all that old.... I don't know what to "blame it on." We don't use water bowls in the cages anymore, as multiple times we have had babies flip over and drown even in very low sided bowls, 1/4" of water. They use their heads to right themselves and end up drowning. We just soak them instead where we can check them every few minutes.
 

ScStange891

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Just a quick update again...

Another day with no issues. Found 1 big and 2 normal poops in his enclosure from yesterday, and he made 2 more in his bath just now, as well as another liquid urate.

Appetite is normal (which for him is absolutely voraciously attacking anything in his path), and he's up 3 grams from 9 days ago (not sure how fast is "normal" for weight gain, but I figured I'd include that tidbit).

Based on care sheets and suggestions, I've added other greens to the mix for him, such as endives, mustard, dandelion, and collard, as that was the most available at the local Wegman's. I'll check other places to see what other "Russian-friendly" greens I can find as well.

Today I plan on lightly experimenting with "partially" closing the chamber by putting a glass pane over the grates in the tortoise home, in order to see how it effects humidity. The Reptisun 10.0 tube bulb is not blocked by the glass though, and there's about an inch gap through which the excess humidity/heat can dissipate (I don't want it to be airtight so as to make it a heat box.) I have a couple hygrometers in the enclosure ready to tell me where the humidity is at.

He still didn't touch the water dish yesterday, and given Tyler's drowning concern, I may remove it if he doesn't touch it today (I'm home all day, so I can keep tabs to make sure he doesn't flip).

I'm probably going to give another soak later in the day. While we're not *positive* he was dehydrated, I don't think extra soaking will hurt anything, and if he was, it can only help, right?

I'll keep you all posted.
 

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