Eye Problems

[akp022]

Two days ago when I got Aggie, my Greek Tortoise, out of his soak I noticed his right eye looked a little odd; it looked as though it has a film over the bottom half. Then last night I went to feed him and noticed that his eye now appears to be swollen and still have that brown film. I recently moved and I've been struggling the get the humidity right; I've got it around 40% now; I'm also having issues with the temps-basking is right around 95-100 but the rest of the enclosure is closer to 70-80 which is on the cool side; I even moved h into his smaller enclosure for the winter to try to regulate temps. Ive attached the pics I could get of his eye; he was very testy so they aren't too great (and he also has pumpkin on his face) but any thoughts would be appreciated (I'm in the process of trying to set up a vet appt)(also I do not use a coil bulb)

 

[Joanne]

looks like his 3rd eyelid is stuck. I'd say keep on with the soaks and maybe try and dab it with some cotton swabs and warm water.

You do right to take him to the vets to be on the safe side.

 

[Yvonne G]

It looks like the nictitating membrane (third eyelid) is inflamed. You can put some sort of salve in the eye to soothe it. Some tortoises' third eyelid swells and turns red when the tortoise is stressed out. I had a box turtle who's eyes both did that if I messed with him. I adopted him out to one of our members here on the Forum who added him to his breeding colony, and once left alone his eyes never did that again.

 

[akp022]

We just got back from the vet and he has both an ear and eye infection (I didn't really notice the ear infection until we got there and he really stuck his neck out). He is now on 2 eye drops/day (every 12 hrs) and a shot of ceftazidime every 3 days. The vet said that he has to have the abscess lanced; he will need anesthesia and will have to stay overnight; does anyone on here have any experience with this? I have not set up the appointment for the procedure yet because I'm trying to do some research first as I know that vets sometimes go to the extreme before trying something smaller first.

 

[Joanne]

hmmm... do you think he has an abscess? Maybe see how he is in a week or so then think about it? I guess the vet knows better than I do.

 

[Yvonne G]

It probably is a more humane way to do it, however, most of us do it without anesthesia. It amounts to slicing an "X" just through the skin over the abscess with a razor blade. The abscess has so much pressure built up behind it that the hard puss just comes squirting out. Then you clean out the resultant hole, medicate and keep the tortoise indoors until it heals.