Need Help! 1 year old adopted Sulcata was doing great, then suddenly has gone into decline. Stopped eating, lethargic. Please HELP!

bkizzy

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Hi All,

We adopted a baby Sulcata in August and named it Veggie. It came from a teenager who got it the previous December as a hatchling and wasn't able to care for it anymore. I am not sure how well he cared for Veggie, but it had some pyramiding, so I guess not great. However, we've been trying to take great care of it since and in the last 4 months Veggie has doubled its weight, has been curious and active and its scutes have been growing out horizontal. We soak it in a warm (95deg +) bath everyday, spray the enclosure down, have fresh water available, keep it warm, have UV light, heatlight and a ceramic heater. We feed grasses, Mizuri and some escarole and other store greens and keep it low oxalate. Basically everything was great until about two weeks ago when we started to notice he was less active, then he started to eat less and leave his hide less. Yesterday he ate a few bites of food after being placed right in front of the food, today he isn't eating at all. He had a deep drink of water in his bath yesterday. No discharge, hissing and Veggies eyes remain clear.

The only thing that has changed is that we switched up his coco coir for orchid bark a few weeks back and we haven't seen him pass any urates in a few weeks, right before he was passing them pretty regularly, sometimes they were a bit gritty. He is still pooping normally, though he used to only go in the bath, but during this period of decline he has been going in his enclosure as well.

We're thinking of taking him to the vet, but wanted to get some input from experienced keepers on here 1st. Ask me anything that may help. We're in Brooklyn, NY if anyone knows a good vet with Sulcata experience -- we'd appreciate a recommendation.

IMG_20201214_185506.jpg

Attached is a photo
 

vladimir

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What are your temperatures? night time, basking temperature, ambient temperature, etc.

You're in the right place and we'll get you some answers soon

Has there been a change in temperatures recently? If he's not warm enough he won't be as active or eat as much, and won't be able to properly digest food
 

bkizzy

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Thanks for the reply @vladimir here are the deets you're asking about and some more:

~96deg Basking

80-85deg in hidey hole day/night (we have the ceramic heater above the hide) -- this can go to 95 if we turn on the ceramic heater in the day.

Ambient elsewhere in the enclosure is ~80deg in day and low 70s at night.

enclosure is 2' x 3'

Veggie weighs 270 grams, down from a high of 284 3 days ago!
 

bkizzy

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@Tom would really appreciate your input on this thread. Thanks in advance!
 

Maro2Bear

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Night time temps of 70 way toooo low. Minimum should be 80. Bump those up asap.

You said - “Ambient elsewhere in the enclosure is ~80deg in day and low 70s at night.”

I’m sure those 70 degree night time temps are a key factor here.
 

bkizzy

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@Maro2Bear thank you so much for your reply! Veggie sleeps in his hidey hole which is never below 80+. I can add a 2nd ceramic heater to the mix at night and see if he improves.
 

Tom

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I don't see an easy obvious answer here...

He's not impacted or he wouldn't be pooping.

Lack of urates means the daily soaks are working.

Night temps are too cool, but he sleeps in the warm hide, so probably not much if a factor.

The open topped enclosure isn't ideal, but again, that will cause pyramiding, not decline in health.

Diet sounds pretty good. You could add more variety with dried stuff from @Kapidolo Farms or tortoisesupply.com, but it sounds adequate and should not be causing this problem.

What type of UV bulb?
 

Tom

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@Tom


Zilla 15-Watt desert 50 UVB T8 fluorescent bulb

just over 3 months old

He was last outside in early Nov due to temperatures being low.
Yours does not sound like a case of bad husbandry, poor diet, wrong equipment, or any of the usual stuff.

Every once in a while, one of them gets sick or injured for no apparent reason. I'd get an X-ray next. This could show foreign object ingestion, some forms of impaction, or the lack thereof. Might be good to pull blood to see if the tort is fighting some sort of infection.

Something is going on, but I don't see any obvious indicators of what. Keep us posted, and I hope it all works out.
 

Kapidolo Farms

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If he's not eating and still pooping, then whatever is in his intestines will soon be depleted and he'd not have anything more to poop out. My wild guess was he ate a bit of the orchid bark accidentally or on purpose? And would be feeling full/blocked.

Vet X-ray would reveal that. nytts.org for local vet recommendations.
 

AgataP

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I would offer a piece of cactus and see if he goes for it. One day I woke up and didn’t see the usual activity alerts on my phone from Herbie’s enclosure at 8 am- “pet has been spotted”. This is when he really want food. Turns out he was totally fine and ate the dry-ish dandelions from night before.

Cactus can help with digestion of anything your baby possibly ate when you were not looking.

It’s so hard to define Herbie gets soaks more than ones a day and today he peed out some ugly chalky utrets and I know he is well hydrated.
Hope all is going to be well with your baby.
 
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