Bubbles from my baby's nose

[hermit]

Please help. My baby leo (2" shell length) is showing a few bubbles from nose. I can't bring her to see a vet right now because of work schedule. What can I do now?

Temp: hot spot 92F
Night time: 78F
humidity 60% (hide)

She appears fine with good appetite. Eyes clear.

Warm water bath? Steam the room? Dry the room? Please help.

 

[Jacqui]

Dang! I can't give you any help with your questions as such, because (knocking on my wooden head) I have been lucky and not had it.

However back to the vet. With this being such a wee tort, he doesn't have a whole lot of body mass to back him up with fighting something so serious. He really needs that vet immediately.

Think carefully, are you sure there is no family or friend who would take him to the vet for you? Are you sure that your vet would not come in special or stay later/earlier for you? Lots of vets also have where folks can drop animals off on their way to work. Talk with your boss, they are often animal lovers too and will let you leave to go to the vet and drop the tort off. Can anybody cover for you at work?

 

[Yvonne G]

Quite often, bubbles from the nose is merely a reaction to some sort of stressor the baby has encountered. Go back over all of your husbandry practices and be sure you have the baby set up properly, with enough room to get plenty of exercise, the correct lighting and temperature, the correct feeding regimin and a couple different places to hide. Can he see out into the big dangerous world? Babies are prey and are scared most of the time when out in the open. Is he being handled too much? Have you changed his habitat or moved it to a new location? Just ask yourself lots of questions and see what has changed recently that might be causing him stress.

My practice is to use antibiotics as a last resort. If the tortoise has a good appetite and is otherwise acting normal, I just adopt a wait-and-see attitude and usually the bubbles go away. However, if anything changes...if he stops eating or starts to act lethargic or different, then its time for intervention (vet).

Yvonne

 

[Jacqui]

Yvoone as usual, is quite right. With luck (and especially since he is still eating) it won't be anything serious.

I too, very rarely will have any thing treated or given meds. Be it myself, my kids, dogs, cats, horses, torts, whatever. I think we rush too much to the quick (and often unneeded) meds.

I think with this being a Leopard baby, I was letting some of my own paranoia rub off. I have had many hatchlings before, both ones hatched here and those given/bought. I never really got too worried, even while waiting for them to start eating. Yet I have noticed that this last week, after having received these three tiny, yet so special, Leopard tortoise babies, that I have become much more paranoid about them. There is no reason for it. It just simply is. I check on them constantly, worry about picking just the right food, ect.., It's actually funny in a way. Any how, I think part of it rubbed off on to how I answered your posts...sorry.

 

[streyer]

In my experience bubbles are RNS (runny nose syndrome) and should not be taken for granted. Observe your tort, it may need antibiotics for recurrence of this is common. Can be fatal. It happened with my radiata. See a vet!