Do my tortoise shell look healthy

[Danielle.55]

Hi

I am a little worried about my tort, his beak is quite long and I am worried about his shell incase he has MBD, does anyone see anything worrying?

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

To look for signs of MBD a picture from the side of the shell would be useful. For the beak, a closer photo would be nice

 

[Danielle.55]

Thanks for your reply, I will try and uploads better photos if these are no good

 

[TammyJ]

He has pyramiding but we need to see a profile picture of the tortoise to help decide if it's mbd.

 

[Danielle.55]

Sorry what do you mean by profile picture of tortoise?

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Sorry what do you mean by profile picture of tortoise?

A photo straight from the side (left or right). In case of MBD, carapace is usually flattened or there is a depressed part closer to back legs.

 

[Danielle.55]

I hope these are OK

 

[Danielle.55]

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

View attachment 383065

He does look to have MBD in my opinion, could you try answering these questions on how he’s kept? It will help us advise on correct housing to help him moving forward

What are your temperatures like? Ie basking temp(directly under the bulb), overall day temps, night temps?
What kind of basking bulb are you using specifically? Packaging photos are good if you have any
What’s your indoor uv type?
How’s humidity reading?
What size set up does he have?
How’s his diet been?

A photo of the full enclosure would be great! Welcome to the forum

 

[Danielle.55]

He does look to have MBD in my opinion, could you try answering these questions on how he’s kept? It will help us advise on correct housing to help him moving forward

What are your temperatures like? Ie basking temp(directly under the bulb), overall day temps, night temps?
What kind of basking bulb are you using specifically? Packaging photos are good if you have any
What’s your indoor uv type?
How’s humidity reading?
What size set up does he have?
How’s his diet been?

A photo of the full enclosure would be great! Welcome to the forum

Thanks for your reply, he is in a tortoise table at the moment but we have ordered him a much bigger set up, he has a 100w basking/UVA bulb it is the arcadia range from pets at home, he normally eats different mixes salad, dandelions, nell peppers, cucumbers and the odd time he has some apple or strawberries. The room is always between 18 - 21 °

 

[TammyJ]

Thanks for the photos. Your tortoise does seem to have mbd, so please do try to answer the questions so we can help you more, to get him on the right path to a healthier state as quickly as possible!

 

[Danielle.55]

Thanks for your replies, I have an appointment at the vets for him on Friday also

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Thanks for your reply, he is in a tortoise table at the moment but we have ordered him a much bigger set up, he has a 100w basking/UVA bulb it is the arcadia range from pets at home, he normally eats different mixes salad, dandelions, nell peppers, cucumbers and the odd time he has some apple or strawberries. The room is always between 18 - 21 °

What size set up is it you’ve ordered? Adults ideally need as close to a 8x4 foot enclosure, though there’s a few ways to tackle this if indoor space is an issue.
Is this the basking bulb you have?(but 100watts) If so that’s correct

Make sure it’s measuring 95f directly underneath. The rest of the enclosure should be ranging 75-80f during the day, if the basking light alone isn’t getting temperatures where they need to be(which I doubt it is in our uk climate currently) you need to install CHE(s)(ceramic heat emitters) ran on a thermostat 24/7.

Do you not have any indoor uvb?

I wouldn’t feed bell peppers, or any kind of fruits, that can really mess with their gut flora, you want to stick with leafy greens and safe weeds.

I think you might find looking through this housing thread I made helpful, it covers levels, sizing, appropriately maintaining the humidity, substrates, there’s lots of visual examples for everything and a really handy diet link to check out!

Housing adult Russian and Hermans indoors

Hello there! In this thread I’m going to include some information an example of an appropriate indoor set up for an older Herman/russian. As much as it’s encouraged to have tortoises in a safe outdoor enclosure, I understand being from the uk myself, that some climates make it difficult to...

tortoiseforum.org

This one might help give you some ideas too

Enclosure inspiration

Howdy folks! Hope everyone is well! As you all know, I’m a big fan of making threads that cater more towards visual learners like myself, I’ve really been wanting to create a thread full of adult enclosure inspiration for a while now, I’ve managed to find some great references over time! I do...

tortoiseforum.org

Lastly, probably most important, this one is also really good to familiarise yourself with, it’ll help you avoid the wrong bulbs, substrates, housing etc, I always encourage double checking purchases on the forum too before buying

Common keeping errors

Hello everyone! I’d been a long time lurker on this site long before joining just under a year ago now, over that time I’ve seen these husbandry issues come up time and time again, sometimes with dire consequences☹️ I thought this thread might serve as a good visual guide for these common...

tortoiseforum.org

Hope they help! Always happy to try answering any further questions once you’ve read them

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Thanks for your replies, I have an appointment at the vets for him on Friday also

Do bear I mind most vets don’t actually know how to care for/treat tortoises properly, they’re often following a lot of outdated information so do proceed with caution and double check their recommendations with us here!

 

[Danielle.55]

Thanks for all of your replies, I will look through those tomorrow, does it look like a severe case of MBD? Can he recover from it? I have also ordered this 4ft vivarium as heard mixed reviews on tortoise tables

 

[Littleredfootbigredheart]

Thanks for all of your replies, I will look through those tomorrow, does it look like a severe case of MBD? Can he recover from it? I have also ordered this 4ft vivarium as heard mixed reviews on tortoise tables

It’s hard to say for how severe it is without further info, but just based on the photos I’d personally say it does look quite severe, I can’t say it’s something he can recover from at this stage, but correct housing, lighting, heating, diet etc will go a long way in helping him moving forward to live a long, more comfortable life with you.

Vivs do make for nice habitats, but they do still need to be an appropriate size, 4ft for an adult will be much too small, and won’t provide enough roaming room to build his muscle strength up. This is also incredibly quite expensive for what it is, Etsy is definitely a pricey way to go. I’d personally try and cancel the order, but if that’s a no go, perhaps we can all brainstorm a way for you to add onto this, which isn’t impossible.

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

Thanks for all of your replies, I will look through those tomorrow, does it look like a severe case of MBD? Can he recover from it? I have also ordered this 4ft vivarium as heard mixed reviews on tortoise tables

The vet can also take an xray to look at the bone density and determine how severe the MBD is. Calcium supplementation and proper UVB are most important for his recovery.

 

[Danielle.55]

Thanks very much, I have been looking at 8ft vivariums for him, however alot of them take a few weeks to be delivered, I am really quite upset as the woman who we got him off 2 year ago give us some guidance and said we could feed him fruit and bell peppers etc, she just told us to buy a basking light and never mentioned a uva lamp, luckily the one we used did have that in

 

[Danielle.55]

This is his enclosure now, obviously it's not big enough for him but he will need plenty exercise before I get a new one as now realise it's far too small

 

[The_Four_Toed_Edward]

Can he fully lift his shell of the ground? Does he drag his shell or back legs at all? These are indicators of MBD.