- Joined
- May 26, 2012
- Messages
- 64
Hi,
I am new to this forum and would love some advice and positive energy on this very daunting situation!
I have a 5 year old cheeky sulcata and recently she has been diagnosed with compaction and it has been deemed very serious as when she was x-rayed her gut was very enlarged . We suspect that the compaction has been caused by the substrate we have been using which was wood chip. This has now been removed I might add and for time being, until we get reptile carpet, she is on newspaper.
She lives in a large vivarium with an infra-red heat bulb and a UV-lamp- but we do try and get her outside to get proper sunshine when possible. She has a diet of very succulent foods- which needs to be changed as it is not appropriate for her at all! It's just a case of sourcing the foods that she needs.
To try and battle the compaction it has been advised by the vet to withhold food for a few days, bath her using reptoboost and plenty of exercise. This has been working fantastically so far and she has passed good amounts of wood chip.
The vet has also taken blood samples from her to check calcium levels, any signs of infection, liver and kidney function and blood count. The vet also wanted to do a barium study and possibly fit a feeding tube to provide plenty of fluids, the final stage being an operation if they thought it was appropriate.
What I would like to ask is- can this be resolved and treated? Because the way the vet was talking it sounded incredibly scary and serious which I do understand but I couldn't face loosing my little tort!!
Any advice would be greatly appreciated or anyone else's experiences!
Thank you
I am new to this forum and would love some advice and positive energy on this very daunting situation!
I have a 5 year old cheeky sulcata and recently she has been diagnosed with compaction and it has been deemed very serious as when she was x-rayed her gut was very enlarged . We suspect that the compaction has been caused by the substrate we have been using which was wood chip. This has now been removed I might add and for time being, until we get reptile carpet, she is on newspaper.
She lives in a large vivarium with an infra-red heat bulb and a UV-lamp- but we do try and get her outside to get proper sunshine when possible. She has a diet of very succulent foods- which needs to be changed as it is not appropriate for her at all! It's just a case of sourcing the foods that she needs.
To try and battle the compaction it has been advised by the vet to withhold food for a few days, bath her using reptoboost and plenty of exercise. This has been working fantastically so far and she has passed good amounts of wood chip.
The vet has also taken blood samples from her to check calcium levels, any signs of infection, liver and kidney function and blood count. The vet also wanted to do a barium study and possibly fit a feeding tube to provide plenty of fluids, the final stage being an operation if they thought it was appropriate.
What I would like to ask is- can this be resolved and treated? Because the way the vet was talking it sounded incredibly scary and serious which I do understand but I couldn't face loosing my little tort!!
Any advice would be greatly appreciated or anyone else's experiences!
Thank you