my 10 year old leopard Named Nero he is not eating or drinking.... I went out of town I live in Texas. He’s outdoors and has a dog house and an outdoor heat pad. There was a hard freeze in Texas that wasn’t in the forecast when I left. I headed home ASAP! Found out my street had a massive power outage. So I got Nero and he was in his house but not on the heat pad!!! I’m worried he couldn’t find his heat source so he was trying to get low in the dirt to warm up. He was close to Death!!! It’s been 2 weeks since then. He’s walk it off possible nerve damage but Vet feels he will recover in time. But the last 6 days texas temps are so low he has to be indoors. The day after he was almost frozen I got him to eat. But now he’s not eating not drinking no pee or poop. Got blood work done yesterday. Eyes are sunken in , under belly has an edge that I don’t remember like it cracked?? Lost scales on his front legs. No respiratory issues. Help! What should I do to hydrate him! I’m starting to force soaking daily. Hoping he’ll get the need to drink !!!!
Help!!! Leopard tortoise !! Not eating drinking
- Thread starter Kelly1438
- Start date
It's hard to say what's wrong with him, but what I'd do if it were my tortoise would be to set it up indoors in a smallish covered enclosure with substrate, a feeder, a waterer and a couple hiding places, with a UVB light over the top in the day and a CHE at night. I wouldn't allow the temperature to get below 80F degrees day or night. Then I'd soak him in warm water daily for at least a half hour each time. You can position a light over the edge of the soaking tub to keep him warm during the soak. I would just keep up the forced soaks for a month or so or until some improvement is seen. When you place food in the enclosure, spritz water over it so he takes in water that way too. If you want to visit a vet, you can have them give him IV fluids and show you how to do that too.
I would also put piedialyte in his soak water. I agree with Yvonne, I too would keep him inside and warm 80-85 still with a basking temp of 95-100 until he got back to himself.
Not unusual for the cold weather we have had here. You let him get way too cold so this will take some time to get back to normal. At least it has been warming up here lately. I keep mine in the garage when temps drop in a heated pen. Even in those low temps, the will sleep most of the day and not eat on the very cold days. Hopefully yours will get back to normal quickly now that the super cold weather is gone.
