Issue in my tortoise eyes

[Mprague]

Hello colleagues, we have a tortoise (testudo marginata - 4 years old) who has a recurent eyelids issue for the past 4 months. We have been to the vet and she was given antibiotic shots, vitamin A, eye drops and mast, however the eylid issue continues and with that apathy and difficulty to move. I have added also a picturen of our pet manifesting such "3rd" eyelid issue. This happens few times a day not necessarily every day, for few seconds. Thank you very much for your comments!

 

[ascott]

Hello colleagues, we have a tortoise (testudo marginata - 4 years old) who has a recurent eyelids issue for the past 4 months. We have been to the vet and she was given antibiotic shots, vitamin A, eye drops and mast, however the eylid issue continues and with that apathy and difficulty to move. I have added also a picturen of our pet manifesting such "3rd" eyelid issue. This happens few times a day not necessarily every day, for few seconds. Thank you very much for your comments!

I would first get rid of that substrate. I would offer more natural earth like dirt/soil. I would also avoid any further shots of antibiotics and especially avoid any vitamin A shots, which can be super hazardous. More importantly, what is the tortoise diet? What is the day and night temps for the tortoise? What size is the tortoise 4 inches long, 6 inches long, etc.? What is the size of the enclosure? What type of UVA/UVB light bulb are you using? What type of light fixture are you using for the UVA/UVB bulb?

 

[Mprague]

Hi Angela, thank you for your quick reply. I am posting 2 pictures of Frida's indoor and outdoor enclosers as of today. Keep in mind that she can only be outdoors about 4-5 month a year and we chose not to hibernate her. They have roughly 45x100 cm. She is 15cm. We initially tried earth substrate but as she was eating it too much we switched to dry coconut. Lately we have indoors a mix of 70% "forest soil" and 30% dry coconut. Outside half of the enclosure has earth and the other half forest soil (we just prepared it this week). The indoor enclosure temperature ranges from 21C (evening) to 35C (under the bulb) our house is normally around 24C. She eats dandelion, chicory, rocket, chineae cabbage, carrots and diffetent lettuces. She used to enjoy to chew a sepia bone but now we shred it and add the to her food once a week for calcium. She has fresh water available and we bath her almost every day now she is sick in lukewarm water for about 20-30min (before 1-2x a week). She poops less frequenly but looks like her digestive system works and her feces have no bacteria nor parasites (exam done a month ago). She has, for 10h a day, a 13w UVB light in the ceramic half open fixture and a 25W basking spot light in the dark reflector fixture (all from terrarium specif brands). Our vet said we should let her be for the moment as she has been through all tretments. As i said she has the swalen eye and red third eye lid events for few seconds almost every day few times a day. It looks like that she lost strength in her limbs and drags herself more than walk and is more apatic, waiting for us to help her to walk (like a small kid). Sorry for the long text and thank you again!

 

[Yvonne G]

Some tortoises are more susceptible to this than others. I think it may be caused by some sort of stress. I had a gulf coast box turtle whose nictitating membrane would frequently swell and cover the eye like that too. I adopted him out to a guy who wanted him in a breeding situation in a large outdoor yard. Once the turtle settled in, the membrane stopped swelling.

I think in your tortoise's case, he's in too small areas. Both the indoor and the outdoor need to be quite a bit bigger. You can use a topical ointment to sooth the eye, something like this that you can buy online:



Since you said the tortoise drags himself, I'm wondering if you may not be using a good UVB light. The tortoise needs UVB to make the calcium work inside the body. The curly shaped compact fluorescent bulbs don't provide good UVB. I think you need to change to a more expensive bulb.

 

[Mprague]

Hello Yvonne thank you for your tips/explanation!

 

[Jellabee]

Hello colleagues, we have a tortoise (testudo marginata - 4 years old) who has a recurent eyelids issue for the past 4 months. We have been to the vet and she was given antibiotic shots, vitamin A, eye drops and mast, however the eylid issue continues and with that apathy and difficulty to move. I have added also a picturen of our pet manifesting such "3rd" eyelid issue. This happens few times a day not necessarily every day, for few seconds. Thank you very much for your comments!

Hi Mparague,

I am having exactly the same issue.
Can you share the updates regarding this problem? It will be much helpful, please share us your treatment and the result, thank you.