Help! New tortoise

[Aaduran]

My turtle is severely constipated. His tail is huge and I can see poop there wanting to come out but it won't. It is causing him a lot of pain and I just want to help him! any suggestions?

 

[Yvonne G]

If you can see the poop, then do what I said on the first page - squirt some mineral oil up the cloaca (the hole in the tail). This will help to lubricate the feces.

Once you've fixed this problem, a change in diet is in order. You've now experienced what the wrong diet and no hydration can do to a tortoise. Read the Russian tortoise care sheet and make changes to your tortoise-keeping accordingly. And put a waterer in his habitat so he can get a drink when he wants one. You can start off by feeding him really moist foods, and then when you taper off to a regular diet (as shown on the care sheet) you can spray water over the food when you feed him.

 

[Robertchrisroph]

Soak soak soak. I hope he is better today. everyone is great here to help. how is he today?

 

[Aaduran]

He is still constipated and in pain I have soaked him a bunch and got him to eat a little bit of cucumber soaked in mineral oil and have put the oil on his butt as well

 

[Lyn W]

I think you should see a vet asap if he is in pain - this must be very distressing for him.