My baby red foot has some unknown growth issue at the side of one eye....

willee638

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Hi everybody, I have a question that's been puzzling me. One of my baby red foot tortoise acquired 3 months ago which I discovered after several weeks it had a issue like growth at the right side corner of one eye, it appeared to resemble skin like cataracts if this exist on tortoises. It disappeared or wasn't as visible for a while & I thought it had heal itself, but now it reoccurred again but appeared slightly different from at first. I've heard a keeper experienced a problem of a RF tortoise's eyes were completely shut by folds because it was too dehydrated, but my RF gets no less than one 15 minutes soak per day & a water dish available to them, if it can disappear & reappears I guess it maybe benign since it never spread to cover the whole eye. It doesn't affect it's eyesight or no discharge from it. anyone with similar experience can enlighten me?
 

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Yvonne G

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Hi everybody, I have a question that's been puzzling me. One of my baby red foot tortoise acquired 3 months ago which I discovered after several weeks it had a issue like growth at the right side corner of one eye, it appeared to resemble skin like cataracts if this exist on tortoises. It disappeared or wasn't as visible for a while & I thought it had heal itself, but now it reoccurred again but appeared slightly different from at first. I've heard a keeper experienced a problem of a RF tortoise's eyes were completely shut by folds because it was too dehydrated, but my RF gets no less than one 15 minutes soak per day & a water dish available to them, if it can disappear & reappears I guess it maybe benign since it never spread to cover the whole eye. It doesn't affect it's eyesight or no discharge from it. anyone with similar experience can enlighten me?
That's not a growth, it's the third eyelid. It's caused by an irritant or stress. It can be soothed with a eye gel like Vetericyn.
 

willee638

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That's not a growth, it's the third eyelid. It's caused by an irritant or stress. It can be soothed with a eye gel like Vetericyn.
Thanks very much, there's a lot I can learn about tortoises. This sounds very possible she came in contact with irritants as she was out in the fields & scrubs a lot these few weeks, her enclosure's living environment hasn't changed since she arrived but torts can be sensitive to all kinds of situations. I will attend to the matter promptly, cheers.
 

method89

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your tort does look very dry... Can you post pictures of your enclosure and provide details such as humidity level and temps throughout?

Give this a good read:

 

willee638

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RF Tortoise's enclosure 2021.pngRF Tortoise's enclosure 2021.pngRF tortoise enclosure....temperature 29 degrees celsius-84.2 degrees Fahrenheit, humidity 79%
 
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