Drooling....

[waretrop]

Alice has been drooling for about 2 days. I noticed when it was very hot this summer that she did it a little. I was thinking that it was from the heat. I searched this site and saw a closed thread about drooling with no real results for it.

Now I am thinking that Alice got a cactus spine in her mouth but I scorched them off on my gas stove and then wiped them against a sponge. I really don;t think she got any spines.

Can anyone add to this?????

 

[Robertchrisroph]

I hope she is okay.

 

[Yvonne G]

For some unknown to me reason, tortoises can eat cactus without getting the glochids stuck in them.

I know that when they're too hot their eyes tear up, but don't know about the drooling. Sorry.

 

[Maggie Cummings]

Gently pry open her mouth and see if you can see anything. Take a syringe and flush out her mouth with water. Make sure she's not too hot. They can foam at the mouth and drool if they are too hot. That's all I can think of...Keep us posted. Somebody else will come on with the correct response.

 

[dmmj]

drool or foam? How hot was it? Did you see it happen or only the aftermath?

 

[waretrop]

She is in half my kitchen and sleeps in a metal cubical with heat lamps in the top. The cubical is about 15 high and 2' X2' square. She loved it at first. It also has a dark towel hanging down like a curtain in the opened front. She has been using it for over a month with just one heat element in a dome that is screwed on the top. The element is about 6 inches from the top of her shell. She had moved under it and over to the no heat side at will and seemed to be doing fine all this time.

I had noticed a few times last summer when she was outside that she was a little wet on her chin. She has the ability to go into my hot tub room on a cement floor. So I thought maybe she was too hot for it was very warm that day. BTW, she also had a shade tree in her corral area along with a very sunny area, all summer.

These things are so hard to write rather than speaking in person....I kept hearing that the temp in the 80's is too cold. I worried about that. This ole gal was raised in a guy kitchen with a light bulb in a corner keeping her temp at 80 degrees, with no hide box. She ate all the wrong things. She grew almost beautifully with only a very little pyramiding for 5 years with him. We were fine until we came into the house since Pa fall arrived. I have changed her diet greatly since I got her.

This morning her kitchen temp is 80 degrees. I have a inferred heater in the room. I did move that heater to face her cubical and while writing this, I realize that I did that 2 days ago and that is when she started drooling and hasn't eaten right. I was trying to get her temp up after reading things here. This morning I found her out of her cubical, which is unusual. She was a little cold to my touch. I turned off the 150 watt heat element and turned on the 75 watt one and moved the inferred heater in the room to where it was last week.

Boy this is hard......Here are some pictures of her area in our kitchen before I moved the inferred heater. Now it's back to the corner by her cubical facing outward.







Now to answer your questions.

Yvonne G Her eyes have never looked unhealthy. Not runny, red, cloudy, closed and puffy. They have only been bright and crisp and she has always been very alert.

maggie3fan, I will open her mouth later and take a look.

dmmj, There has been no bubbling from her mouth or nose. Her nose has never has dry stuff in the holes or around them. Her nose has always been totally clear and clean. This is coming from her mouth and just sort of seeps out without bubbling. She breaths clear. There seems to be no congestion when she sighs.

I get down on the floor and lay with her. I watch her behavior and actions. She responds to me when I am with her. She thinks sharply and is totally aware of me. There is no difference in her except the drooling and for 2 days she has a decreased appetite. That's when I moved her inferred heater.......back.

Hope this helps you all to understand our environment and what has been going on. I hope someone can add something. I will post more about her as she wakes up and gets her breakfast.

My thanks to all...

 

[waretrop]

Alice is eating normally.. She usually takes in a little and goes over to relax in front of the hot tub room slider door probably wishing she could be out there. There is no drooling at the moment. See her eye. It's very clear and she still is very alert of noises in the kitchen.

So I may have found the answer.... It may have been too hot for her as the 75 watt heating element seems to be holding her cubical to 110 degrees and that is with the thermometer sitting on the floor. So until last night I had the 150 watt on only and the temp on the top of her shell must have been very very hot. She had moved from side to side as needed. Probably when i moved the inferred heater in the room it pushed it up even more in her cubical.

 

[Yvonne G]

drool or foam? How hot was it? Did you see it happen or only the aftermath?

Good point, David. Foam could be overheated or ate something toxic.

 

[Yvonne G]

You probably already realize that this isn't an ideal situation for a tortoise, so I won't go into that with you.

That heater is a space heater. If you're going to use a space heater, a better one would be the oil filled, radiator-type electric heater. But even that will not do what you're trying to achieve. Space heaters heat up spaces, and since your tortoise area is in your kitchen, the space is too big for a little heater to economically heat up. When we talk about radiant heat panels, or infra red heater, etc. we're talking about this:

you mount this on the wall or ceiling of a small space, like a night box, and it heats up the small space.

I think you are going to have a lot of trouble trying to get the temperature correct for your sulcata in your kitchen. Best you can do is get the correct temperature inside his box and hopefully when he's out of the box, and in the bigger, open portion, he'll be smart enough to go back inside the box when he gets too cool.

Good luck. I think you've hit the nail on the head with your assessment.

 

[waretrop]

Yes, I realize I can't give her the ideal conditions but I am surely trying. She really seems to go into her cubical when she needs to be warmed up and then comes out to lay were the sun shines and to eat. Then she goes back in....

She didn't eat anything toxic. Promise. Maybe the amounts of certain foods that I have been feeding her but all the foods are correct. She finds nothing on the floor to eat and doesn't try to eat the wee wee pads that are there. There are no electric cords where she can get them. She has water and her pellets at will and does wonderfully on the pellets. I have it measured out and watch that.

All in all I do think it was a hear problem. I knew it wasn't a cold or pneumonia. I will watch that much more than I have in the past and try to make other corrections in the future. She hasn't drooled at all today and her temp in her cubical is 95 degrees. I will tweak that this week.

Thank you all for your help.

 

[waretrop]

Alice is about normal today. We lowered her temp a little bit and am more conscious of what it is running at the top of her shell. Thanks for all the help.