Eyelid flipped over??

xjohnnyxcrunkx

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I have an approximately 2 year old leopard tortoise that I've had for 1.5 years. Last week in the morning I seen him blow a bubble from his nose, only time I've ever seen that. So I turned up the temps about 5* overall. I haven't seen the bubble from the nose since. But today I was giving him a soak, I threw in some greens for him to munch on and left for 5 minutes. When I came back to check on him it looked like his one eyelid flipped inside out. It was pink at the front of his eye, closest to the nose. It stayed that way for about 20 seconds then went back to normal. I'll attach a pic of his eye normally since I couldn't get one in time while his eye was all funky. I'm wondering if any of you have ever seen this before? Could it be too dry in his enclosure? How do his eyes look? Swollen at all? Thanks!!

image.jpg
 
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wellington

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I don't see any pink. However, I see like almost a blood shot eye sometimes in my leopards and I have never paid much attention to it and he's been fine, never sick, never problem and he's 4 years old.
Your torts eye looks fine too me.​
 

xjohnnyxcrunkx

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I couldn't get a picture of his eye pink like it was, I'm just concerned to as why his eye would do that? I've heard if the substrate is too dry it can bother their eyes.
 

Tidgy's Dad

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Hello there, and a very warm Welcome to Tortoise Forum to you and your leopard.
My guess, is that what you caught a glimpse of there was the nictitating membrane of your tort, also known as the third eyelid.
The photo looks perfectly fine to me.
Unless it stays out, or the eye swells, I'd guess it's nothing to worry about.
 

Yvonne G

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When the nictitating membrane (third eyelid) swells, it's usually caused by stress. If it swells and doesn't go down, you need to see a vet, but if it goes down by itself, just make sure your tortoise is in a very relaxed and unstressful situation and don't worry about it.
 

xjohnnyxcrunkx

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Well I'm in the process of setting up the table I bought, it's one of the lifetime raised beds. I've seen a few of them on this forum. So I'm hoping by Sunday to have him in his new home. I think he will be much more comfortable in there since I've had him in an exo terra terrarium thing since I got him. I've also started to dampen his substrate in the mornings to cut down on dust and raise the humidity a bit (around 50%) so I'll just keep an eye on him for awhile and try to make him as comfortable as possible.
 

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