Frozen Sulcata

MemoEP

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Aug 23, 2019
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Texas
We've had a male Sulcata for about five years. He lives in a 8'x12' enclosure, with a house that's heated by heat lamps and an electric heater.
The other night he got out (bumped open the door) and we THINK couldn't get back in. He was out in freezing temperatures (about 25 degrees)
for some period of time -- we don't know how long. I checked on him in the evening, as we always do, and found him out of his house. He was
not moving and unresponsive. We got him into warm water, and still no response. We thought we had lost him. We put him in a large box
with hay and put the box in a warm area... overnight. The next morning he was moving, but slowly. Thankfully he's alive.
My question is, can this "freezing" cause a Sulcata to go into deep hibernation or do any long-term damage? We want to get him back into
his normal habitat, but not sure how long to wait and monitor him. Any advice?
 

TeamZissou

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Albuquerque, NM
There's no deep hibernation with temperatures this cold. You're lucky that you found him quickly enough and he didn't freeze to death. This happened to someone else recently in Utah and their tortoise died.

It sounds that you need to make a more secure door.
 

MemoEP

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Texas
There's no deep hibernation with temperatures this cold. You're lucky that you found him quickly enough and he didn't freeze to death. This happened to someone else recently in Utah and their tortoise died.

It sounds that you need to make a more secure door.
TeamZissou, you're correct. We're very fortunate. He's a strong guy, and we want to keep him that way. I'm working on a new door today! Thanks for your reply.
 

TeamZissou

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In a vet textbook that I have, I read what little info they had on freezing in tortoises. It seems that they can have some vision problems similar to cataracts if the eyes actually froze. There can apparently also be some potential issues with loss of sense of smell if the olfactory part of the brain froze.

I'm not a vet by any means, but these are some potential longer term issues your tortoise might have related to the cold exposure.
 

zovick

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TeamZissou, you're correct. We're very fortunate. He's a strong guy, and we want to keep him that way. I'm working on a new door today! Thanks for your reply.
Just FYI, sulcata do NOT ever hibernate. They have no need to hibernate in their natural range in Africa and therefore totally lack the instinct to do so. Cold temperatures will slow them down, but they have no innate mechanism that will kick in to allow them to deal with it by hibernating.

Hopefully your tortoise will not suffer long term damages from the time spent outdoors at 25 degrees. Luckily, it wasn't an overnight exposure. From what you said, it seems it may have been a few hours which is better than 10 or 12 hours.
 

Tom

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Southern California
We've had a male Sulcata for about five years. He lives in a 8'x12' enclosure, with a house that's heated by heat lamps and an electric heater.
The other night he got out (bumped open the door) and we THINK couldn't get back in. He was out in freezing temperatures (about 25 degrees)
for some period of time -- we don't know how long. I checked on him in the evening, as we always do, and found him out of his house. He was
not moving and unresponsive. We got him into warm water, and still no response. We thought we had lost him. We put him in a large box
with hay and put the box in a warm area... overnight. The next morning he was moving, but slowly. Thankfully he's alive.
My question is, can this "freezing" cause a Sulcata to go into deep hibernation or do any long-term damage? We want to get him back into
his normal habitat, but not sure how long to wait and monitor him. Any advice?
There is no way for us to assess what damage may have been done by your tortoises exposure to this cold. Eyeballs freezing and frostbite at the extremities is likely, but depends on many factors.

All you can do is keep him warm, wait, and see.
 
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