Change in discharge

[Dkess84]

Hello, this is boo, a RT who is about 1.5 years old. I've had the tort pretty much its whole life and recently Boo has been having really watery white discharge. Usually the discharge is slightly pasty. Is this something I should be concerned about? Thank you, David.

 

[Yvonne G]

Nothing to be concerned about. That's call urates and is perfectly normal.

 

[zovick]

Hello, this is boo, a RT who is about 1.5 years old. I've had the tort pretty much its whole life and recently Boo has been having really watery white discharge. Usually the discharge is slightly pasty. Is this something I should be concerned about? Thank you, David.

View attachment 362419

As Yvonne said, the pasty urates are pretty normal, however, you must be sure keep the tortoise well hydrated to make sure they don't become even harder than a paste and cause a stone to form inside the tortoise. If the paste becomes very thick and/or you see little white granules starting to be passed instead of the paste, I would take that as a sign that the tortoise needs more water intake.

Do you soak the tortoise daily? If not, I would recommend doing so in lukewarm water for about 20-30 minutes daily. Be sure that the water is not too deep so the tortoise is able to breathe. Water should be about up to the point where the top and bottom shells meet, or roughly up to the chin of the tortoise when its head is peeking out of the shell. Another caution is not to leave your tortoise unattended while it is soaking so it won't tip over and drown from that scenario either.

 

[Dkess84]

Nothing to be concerned about. That's call urates and is perfectly normal.

I was just concerned because the consistency has changed, it's really wet lately.

 

[Sarah2020]

Wet is best as shows hydration. Lumpy and more solid unhydrated. Clean the rock up with hot soapy water to remove. If your soaking this would normally be discharged in the water with poo. Regular shallow warm water soaking in a high sided container is really beneficial.

 

[Dkess84]

Wet is best as shows hydration. Lumpy and more solid unhydrated. Clean the rock up with hot soapy water to remove. If your soaking this would normally be discharged in the water with poo. Regular shallow warm water soaking in a high sided container is really beneficial.

Makes sense, I already cleaned it up. I usually give Boo a few soaks a week. Thanks everyone for the responses.