Zipsmama
New Member
Hi everyone, we have owned our Sulcata Tortoise since he was a hatchling (hatched 1997). He is now 25 years old and weighs about 100lbs. He has always been extremely healthy, is housed outdoors and he has never had any health issues. He grazes on grass and clover and in addition we feed him orchard grass hay, kudzu and occasional produce. He has a sprinkler in his pasture which we turn on daily. We moved last winter from Georgia to Virginia and kept him indoors for the winter last year because at the time we had not set up sufficient winter quarters outdoors. He is normally much less active in the winter and this winter was no exception. When we put him back outdoors in late March we noticed that he would occasionally "falter" in his balance. In other words, he will be walking along fine and then one of his rear legs will momentarily "give out". It can be either back leg with no preference. When it happens he immediately corrects it and continues on his way. He can walk a long way without any difficulty so I don't think it is weakness. His urine and defecation are normal and regular. He is very active and seems completely normal otherwise. I have searched everywhere and can't find anything on this. I can't seem to figure out if it is a subtle loss of balance or something else. We do seem to notice it mostly in the morning when he is warming up. Once he gets going I'm not sure that someone who doesn't know him would even notice it. Any ideas? Any feedback would be appreciated. I have a vet appointment scheduled but am not very hopeful that they will know what's going on.
