Could someone give me sn idea of why his eye is poofy?

CoreCollapse

New Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2022
Messages
13
Location (City and/or State)
Kent, UK
Hey, all. First post here, but long time lurker (a year or two) for all that sweet, sweet infoknowledge in preparation.



Well, the day finally came. On Feb 4th, my partner and I headed to a town nearby to meet up with a well known, reputable breeder here in my area of the UK, to purchase two little hatchlings. Initially we were only going to get the one, but the couple who had the clutch offered us two for the price of one upon learning that our son is Autistic. It was their last two and they felt that it would be great for our boy to have two of them to watch or feed. Obviously, this was simply an offer we couldn't turn down, so we happily accepted the generous offer.



We arrived home and after a day and a half in our care, they were already trudging around the enclosure, eating from our fingers and allowing us to stroke their shells without showing any signs of stress or dislike. In fact, it turns out both of them love head rubs and ask for them multiple times a day by looking up at us and raising their heads high whenever they see us near, it's extremely sweet.



Well, things haven't changed much, but 3 days ago I noticed a slight puffiness to the right eye of the smaller one (Kurma). The substrate was a little dusty, so I lightly misted it down and churned it around to spread the moisture evenly throughout. During this moment, I caught Kurma rubbing his eyes with his legs. Assuming it was just the dusty coco, I brushed it off and simply squirted a drop of water onto his face from a pipette. It done the trick, cleaned his eyes out and he seemed fine.



The next morning, I woke up and immediately checked on them. They were both still sleeping, partially buried as expected. However, I noticed that Kurmas eyes looked slightly buldged/puffy. Of course, alarm bells rang. My first reaction was to pop him in the dish for a morning soak and to clean his eyes. Upon picking him up, he popped his head right out and opened his eyes... Everything looked normal. No swelling/buldging, deep sparky eyes, no redness, nothing that caused alarm. I apologised for waking him, let him soak and fixed him some breakfast. He pooped in the bath, ate just fine, had a stroll around the enclosure and finally went back to bask for the rest of the day. Usual, predicatable, expected behaviour from everything I have read online and heard from other keepers. He also had a few short soaks in the water dish where I noticed him drinking a few times too.



Later that evening, we were quietly sat watching them sleep when Kurma woke up. My partner was trimming a Wandering Jem plant and decided to give him a small nibble of leaf as he was taking an interest in it from the side of the enclosure. After taking the leaf, he blew a small bubble from his nose before doing something I can only describe as what we would consider a sneeze... Just a forceful expulsion of air from his nostrils.



Again, panic. I thought back to the puffy eyes, now he was blowing bubbles, my immediate thought was a RI. We also saw that he kept on rubbing his eyes like before, so I done what I done last time - gently washed his eyes out with some water before drying his face off so no coco would stick to him again.



We placed him in a seperate, smaller tub overnight to keep him away from the other baby, Guylian, and decided to monitor his condition before considering a vet visit. After setting up the enclosure, purchasing the little ones and paying for my daughters glasses, a vet bill just isn't doable at this very moment.



So, Kurma spent the night in the infirmary tub. The next morning the puffy eyes were still there when closed but I couldn't see any discharge or bubbles from either the eyes or nairs. The basking lamp turned on so naturally, he woke up. As soon as he opened his eyes, the puffiness went back down. I could see a little bit of his third eyelid showing but as soon as he was fully awake, it went back to being normal.



At this point I decided to change the Coco to some fresher, moister stuff, so I began mixing up a fresh batch of Coco with the assumption that it was simply too dusty and dry. We reintoduced Kurma and kept a close eye on him after changing out the medium and all seemed well. No swelling, no nair bubbles, but he continued to rub his eyes from time to time but no clear signs of any infection or irritation.



Still concerned, I stepped away for a few hours to do some searching online for possible causes. I checked the light heights, temps, humidity, it was all as it should have been. Guylian was still doing just fine, and so was Kurma other than the rubbing.



By this point it was late so their lamp turned off. After a few moments of getting comfortable, they both closed their eyes and went to sleep.... But AGAIN, Kurmas eyes looked puffy/buldged. I thought it was best not to disturb them and let them sleep in peace, but it had me worried.

I got up this morning and, as usual, done the morning check on them both. They were still asleep, and Kurmas eyes were still puffy. I snapped some photos before waiting for them to wake up so I could bath them. As always, as soon as he woke up, the eyes went down and the puffy lids disppeared, but he is STILL rubbing them a lot.

I'm sorry this post got so long, I just wanted to explain the situation clearly. My assumption is that it can't be an infection because surely Guylian would also have gotten it by now, right? I'll include some photos as examples so you can all see what I'm talking about. Does this sound like irritation? Is there anything anyone here could recommend we try to resolve this or narrow down the cause?

Thanks.
 

Attachments

  • 20220213_134118.jpg
    20220213_134118.jpg
    965.9 KB · Views: 18
  • 20220213_152816.jpg
    20220213_152816.jpg
    820.8 KB · Views: 16
  • 20220215_041634.jpg
    20220215_041634.jpg
    171.6 KB · Views: 18
  • VideoCapture_20220214-205553.jpg
    VideoCapture_20220214-205553.jpg
    181.3 KB · Views: 17

Lyn W

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2014
Messages
23,497
Location (City and/or State)
UK
Hi and welcome,
I'm not sure which would be the best cream, but your breeder should have told you that torts should never be kept in pairs. They are solitary creatures and sharing a small space is very stressful for them which can affect the immune system and make them susceptible to illness. It also results in bullying when one becomes dominant and that can start off with behaviour like staring, following, nudging, mounting - being too close, which is often mistaken for affection but is the one tort telling the other to get out of his territory.
It eventually becomes more aggressive with barging, biting which can cause serious injury and even death. So to make sure they have a happy, stress free life please set them up in their own enclosures.
This is the caresheet you need for your tort which will help you check temps, substrate etc.
 

Maro2Bear

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
May 29, 2014
Messages
14,712
Location (City and/or State)
Glenn Dale, Maryland, USA
Greetings. Can you show us what kind of lights you are using?

We need to determine what is causing the irritation, the drops will be good to treat the symptoms, but what’s causing it is the mystery here.
 

CoreCollapse

New Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2022
Messages
13
Location (City and/or State)
Kent, UK
Hi and welcome,
I'm not sure which would be the best cream, but your breeder should have told you that torts should never be kept in pairs. They are solitary creatures and sharing a small space is very stressful for them which can affect the immune system and make them susceptible to illness. It also results in bullying when one becomes dominant and that can start off with behaviour like staring, following, nudging, mounting - being too close, which is often mistaken for affection but is the one tort telling the other to get out of his territory.
It eventually becomes more aggressive with barging, biting which can cause serious injury and even death. So to make sure they have a happy, stress free life please set them up in their own enclosures.
This is the caresheet you need for your tort which will help you check temps, substrate etc.
 

CoreCollapse

New Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2022
Messages
13
Location (City and/or State)
Kent, UK
Already read all the care guides, I've been on this site for the past 3 years gathering information so I'm fully aware that they shouldn't be housed together, however there isn't an option right now until I'm less limited on space in the storage room, so I can build a large enclosure that can be seperated by gravel barriers. Not to mention money right now, one enclosure has cost almost £600 for us to set up due to trial and error.
 

Avuwyy

Active Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2019
Messages
180
Location (City and/or State)
Liverpool, Merseyside
Already read all the care guides, I've been on this site for the past 3 years gathering information so I'm fully aware that they shouldn't be housed together, however there isn't an option right now until I'm less limited on space in the storage room, so I can build a large enclosure that can be seperated by gravel barriers. Not to mention money right now, one enclosure has cost almost £600 for us to set up due to trial and error.

Hey! I hope you’re okay :) Welcome to the forum!

Storage bins are a cheap alternative to common forms of housing, and can be set up as a table would be! They can be bought for a relatively cheap price, and in the future when you need a larger enclosure, can be used as a tub for them to be soaked in. They are pretty easy to source from hardware stores. There are also raised planters which can be used as temporary enclosures until they get bigger.

Just some ideas for temporary enclosures for the money side of things.
 

CoreCollapse

New Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2022
Messages
13
Location (City and/or State)
Kent, UK
Hey! I hope you’re okay :) Welcome to the forum!

Storage bins are a cheap alternative to common forms of housing, and can be set up as a table would be! They can be bought for a relatively cheap price, and in the future when you need a larger enclosure, can be used as a tub for them to be soaked in. They are pretty easy to source from hardware stores. There are also raised planters which can be used as temporary enclosures until they get bigger.

Just some ideas for temporary enclosures for the money side of things.
Hey there, thanks, back at you.

Aye, we're currently using a large, 30 gallonish shallow storage container which we had laying around. It wasn't so much setting up the enclosure that cost a lot, all the equipment came to just shy of £220 so pretty cheap compared to most set ups.

It was the fact that we were given wrong/bad information by multiple people years back when we initially started buying things in preparation. We have basically switched out and changed designs/ideas probably 5 or 6 times before landing on the set up we have now.

Also to add, the set up is this size because we only ever intended on having the one tortoise and enlarging the living space as time went by. It just so happened that the universe granted us two, it would have been rude to turn the offer away and my son would have been heartbroken. As mentioned, my plan is to clear out the room we use for storage/boxes/decorations and turn it into a 'tortoise room' for indoor housing. Nothing is planned yet, but I know what I'm going to do will work very well for the both of them. It will also give me more room to keep more plants and grow more food too, so it'll be a win-win when complete.

Thanks for the ideas though!
 

CoreCollapse

New Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2022
Messages
13
Location (City and/or State)
Kent, UK
Greetings. Can you show us what kind of lights you are using?

We need to determine what is causing the irritation, the drops will be good to treat the symptoms, but what’s causing it is the mystery here.
Hey. I can show you tomorrow as I'm currently running the nightshift so I'm not at home to get a photo, but to explain simply - We have a 22" 24w T5 Arcadia 12% desert lamp set up 20" from the top of their shells hanging overhead in the centre of the enclosure, running length ways as to ensure the whole enclosure recieves UVB, plus a regular 150w basking dome lamp on one side/corner of the enclosure, a little higher than the UV bulb... Maybe 22-24" away. Temps at their shell level in the basking zone ranges from 35°c to 38°c depending on the time of day.

Honestly I'm beginning to think it was irritation from the old Coco we used. It was drier than the Sahara and was being a bit-h to rehydrate so we just went and got some more from the pet shop. Since changing it, he hasn't been rubbing as much and his eyes already look a lot better today. It's just the right one that is puffy now too, the left looks completely normal.
 
Top