Greek wheezing, bubble eye

[reptilematt]

Well she clearly has a cold. The vet gave us some raspberry flavored Baytril to give to her in liquid form for 10 days. Otherwise he was actually very impressed with her condition.

He said the shell is nice and firm, no shell rot anywhere, she's active, weighs 2lbs, and besides the one irritated eye, she should hopefully be back up and "running".

In all it was only $62 for the visit including enough medicine to last 10 days. I may go back for a deworm and blood test if things don't progress, but otherwise I have hope that she'll be healthy.

I gave her her 2.5ml dose of Baytril a few minutes ago. I guess it doesn't taste good because she definitely gave me the yuck look and tried ripping the romaine out of her mouth. I hope it doesn't freak her out and make her stop eating the food entirely because of the taste of the medicine.

Forgot to mention that I picked up small humidifier to run following the advice Danny gave earlier. Hopefully 40% humidity will help.

 

[Yvonne G]

I gave her her 2.5ml dose of Baytril a few minutes ago. I guess it doesn't taste good because she definitely gave me the yuck look and tried ripping the romaine out of her mouth. I hope it doesn't freak her out and make her stop eating the food entirely because of the taste of the medicine.

I had to give one of my Aldabran tortoises a couple Baytril tablets for an R.I. last year. I had made a mistake with them and not humanized them, so it was hard to get him to take food out of my hand (pills wrapped up in either romaine leaf of punched down into banana, cantaloupe, etc) But once he tasted that pill forget it. He sees me coming and he runs the other way. try injecting the medication into something. I know they aren't supposed to have too much fruit, but this is a special circumstance. Inject it into a strawberry, or something that has a very strong taste and smell of its own, so the meds won't be so noticeable.

Yvonne

 

[egyptiandan]

Also while giving her the Baytril you will have to keep her at 86F all the time (day and night). The easiest way is to set-up a small hospital enclosure with a ceramic heat emitter over the top. You'll have to adjust the height to get the 86F.
Never understood why vets give oral Baytril as all Baytril usually makes tortoise's go off their food. Makes it very hard to give it than. You may have to get a syringe that just has a metal tip and not a needle to get the Baytril into her. Might want to ask the vet for one.

Danny

 

[reptilematt]

Also while giving her the Baytril you will have to keep her at 86F all the time (day and night). The easiest way is to set-up a small hospital enclosure with a ceramic heat emitter over the top. You'll have to adjust the height to get the 86F.
Never understood why vets give oral Baytril as all Baytril usually makes tortoise's go off their food. Makes it very hard to give it than. You may have to get a syringe that just has a metal tip and not a needle to get the Baytril into her. Might want to ask the vet for one.

Thanks in advanced for the heat warning. I didn't know that the temperature had to be raised at night to 85+F. Time to swap out my 60w to the 100w for the additional heat.

She tried spitting out her first dosage today, ate about half the medicine and left the leaf that had the other half. Later though she was getting hungry and approached the dish. I held some food by my fingers and she started munching down like in my video (where she went rapid fire). So what do I do?; I take the leaf with the remaining medication and put it in front for her to chow down and she ate it fine.

It's only a small dosage once a day so if I can get it on one little leaf of romaine and into her stomach hopefully all will be good. It really does smell like raspberry so I don't know if it tastes similar but maybe the tortoises associate it with poison/bad-to-eat foods.

 

[reptilematt]

UPDATE 1:

I wasn't able to get a dosage of Baytril in her yesterday. She was being stubborn and picking her up, it seemed that she was at max capacity for food anyways, so I basically starved her in a controlled manner so she wouldn't snack when I was in class.

This morning before work, we (GF and I) cut up 1 strawberry, a few string beans, broccoli, and 1 large leaf of romaine. She was definitely being tricky with me. She didn't go for the food while I was in the room but once I left, she was in the dish munching away on the broccoli. I ran to the fridge, dabbed small dots of the medicine on the various broccoli heads and thankfully she woofed a few down!

She's still sneezing (with the general head bobs), haven't heard the high-pitch wheezing and only 1 eye is still bubbly in the corners. Heat is at around 95F with a 105F basking area and the cold side is 87F currently. Humidifier brought the humidity to 33% before I left and turned it off.

She was very active yesterday early afternoon; walking around, scrapping at the walls, just being a tortoise and I expect the same today. I'm only hoping that her health either remains the same or gets better!

 

[reptilematt]

Well we're done with the medicine and she's been keeping up with a hefty appetite. Unfortanatelly we still have a bubble eye and this week I plan to swap out the rabbit pellets for a soil/husk substrate to help keep up the humidity.

One of her eyes is fine, the other is just bubbly. Maybe I need to jump to eye-drops--what do you guys think?

 

[Maggie Cummings]

Well we're done with the medicine and she's been keeping up with a hefty appetite. Unfortanatelly we still have a bubble eye and this week I plan to swap out the rabbit pellets for a soil/husk substrate to help keep up the humidity.

One of her eyes is fine, the other is just bubbly. Maybe I need to jump to eye-drops--what do you guys think?

terramycin eye ointment...the miracle drug for eyes...and up her humidity. Rabbit pellets are too dry and I bet that's the problem...

 

[reptilematt]

Something like this? http://www.petnutritionproducts.com/pfizerterramycinophthalmicpeteyeointment1tube-p-203.html


I changed the bedding out. Going 50/50 coconut fiber/organic soil. I don't like coconut strands though (very hairy and I already pulled a good 2-3inch hair out of her mouth). Anyone know if it's digestible? At least with the rabbit pellets I knew she wouldn't suffer from impaction and get even more sick.

 

[tortoisenerd]

Yes it is digestible, but I'd personally suggest just the soil if you're having that issue.

 

[goodsmeagol]

Well we're done with the medicine and she's been keeping up with a hefty appetite. Unfortanatelly we still have a bubble eye and this week I plan to swap out the rabbit pellets for a soil/husk substrate to help keep up the humidity.

One of her eyes is fine, the other is just bubbly. Maybe I need to jump to eye-drops--what do you guys think?

My Russian has a bubbly eye too.
After $400 at the vet for an ulcer, he was good for a week, now back to bubbly watery eyes.
I restarted oral baytril, at my vets recommendation. And will switch out the substrate to a soil/coir mix hoping that helps before I go back to the vet.

 

[reptilematt]

Well we're done with the medicine and she's been keeping up with a hefty appetite. Unfortanatelly we still have a bubble eye and this week I plan to swap out the rabbit pellets for a soil/husk substrate to help keep up the humidity.

One of her eyes is fine, the other is just bubbly. Maybe I need to jump to eye-drops--what do you guys think?

My Russian has a bubbly eye too.
After $400 at the vet for an ulcer, he was good for a week, now back to bubbly watery eyes.
I restarted oral baytril, at my vets recommendation. And will switch out the substrate to a soil/coir mix hoping that helps before I go back to the vet.

Although a lot of people might not suggest this, instead of using soil -- I'd suggest rabbit pellets (food) for a few weeks. Just make sure that it doesn't get too dusty. The soil mix made my enclosure very dirty. I also blasted my tort with more heat than usual and gave her periodic baths. She's up and running strong now like a tank!

Good luck.