Hello everyone, thanks a lot for all your advice. Today morning i soaked my baby again in the pureed carrots soak with calcium and minerals and literally drowned it in it. I also put some carrot water on its eyes and forcibly fed some puree too. I was surprised that the baby actually opened its eyes and started walking. Then I kept it in sunlight. It lay still for some time but then woke up again and started eating grass hastily. It ate a lot of grass which it never usually does. Also I see the moment i get it indoors, it becomes inactive but when its outside it is actually walking. My baby was lying still with eyes tightly closed for last 2 days. Is it getting better or is this some kind of surge? because it actually ate and is walking after so many days.
Need urgent help on eye infection for my sulcata hatchling
- Thread starter Tanushree
- Start date
Everyone please advice.. My baby is walking only when kept outside... As soon as i get it indoors it lays still with eyes shut and doesn't eat... I stay in michigan and its 68F right now... I cant keep him outside all the time...what can i do?
I think your problem is still the light. Have you gotten rid of the UVA light? When outside, the baby is able to get real sunshine/UVB, however back indoors and he's right back under that same no good light.
Also, have you measured the temperatures under the light and all over the floor of the habitat?
Also, have you measured the temperatures under the light and all over the floor of the habitat?
Get some terramycin eye ointment for the eye. Get rid of the bulb you are using and get something like a Zoomed mercury vapor bulb. If it's less than $70.00 it's not going to do the job. Remember you are replacing the sun with that bulb, don't cheap out. Follow the directions for the bulb which include making sure the distance to the animal is optimal for UVB/UVA exposure. Get an infra-red heat gun if you don't have one, and spend some time making sure the temperatures that Tom recommends are met, also keep the substrate moist under the lamp area to encourage humidity around the basking area.
As advised, I got rid of my UVA bulb and got the Zoo med Mercury vapor bulb 100W. But still there seems no change in its conditions. The tempeartures also have shoot up to 95F now because of the bulb. and humidity is 80. My tortoise still lies still with eyes closed, and the right eye looks watery. I cant see it like this. I am unable to find an exotic vet where I stay. What should I do?
Please buy the suggested eye ointment & force feed using a syringe and baby food
please feel free to ask lots of questions
Give it time. You've made the necessary corrections, now you have to wait for it all to work. The suggested eye ointment will soothe the eye and it would be very helpful.
Force feeding sounds really scary to me... and I dont know how to do it on such a small baby. Will it not stress the animal more? I read that sulcatas cannot bear damp conditions on other sources. Is that true, because I read Toms threads where he says that damp substrates are a must for hatchlings.
The monsoon season is when sulcatas hatch. Lots of rain, warm temperatures, & humidity. Humidity will never harm a tortoise if the temperature is warm enough. Take this as a rule, if Tom says something in a thread, it's almost always true
If your tort doesn't eat by itself you syringe feed. It's not that hard really. Your tortoise needs food to survive. With or without the stress, the tortoise won't function without food. To syring feed first fill your syringe with baby baby food (carrot or pumpkin), then hold you tortoise making sure his head is facing the ceiling (to help him swallow the food), next try nudging your tort's legs slowly until you can move them away and you can see his head, finally hold the head still and pry the tort's mouth open with the syringe and feed him the baby food slowly... I had to do this with antibiotics when my tort was ill, hope he gets better soon I think Tom is right, one of my hatchlings is nothing but a time ticking bomb. I have taken all the necessary steps to provide the most ambient environment, but nothing seems to be helping. Last 2-3 days the hatchling was eating, roaming around but since yesterday it is again lying lethargic, with eyes closed. I also got the Veterycin eye wash and gel, but nothing is helping. I am losing my hopes now. Fortunately, atleast one of them is doing perfectly fine and growing day by day. Please let me know if theres anything more I can do for my baby.
Please give it time, try force feeding ones that did not eat in a while... You tried your best. I hope everything goes out well
The dry way is the old outdated way of doing it. For more than 30 years it has been incorrectly assumed that because the above ground conditions where sulcatas come from are arid for 8-9 months a year, they should be housed this way in captivity. It was wrong 30 years ago, and its still wrong today. Countless babies have died or pyramided from this incorrect assumption. What has been missed for all these years is #1. Sulcatas live 98% of their lives underground, so temps and conditions 6 feet off the ground on the weather stations are pretty irrelevant. #2. I don't know why, but the OTHER 3-4 moths of the year are never mentioned or discussed for some reason. Guess what the weather is like during these other months. Its the RAINY season. Its hot, humid, rainy, and there are puddles, marshes and green vegetation growing everywhere. Coincidentally, THIS is when sulcata babies hatch! After all these decades, I am still at a loss to explain why we are only figuring this all out in the last few years. Its very sad really.
So these other sources you have found are still parroting the old incorrect methods that make no sense when we consider what they actually experience in the wild.
You never mentioned the source of your babies or how they were started. Do you know? I'm sorry to have to say it, but if your baby is suffering the effects of chronic dehydration from its early days, the prognosis is not good. Still, some make it through, so keep doing all you can. Just don't be shocked if the baby doesn't make it. There is no way to predict which ones will pull through and which ones won't.
And please let the seller know what has happened and do your best to explain what I just told you above, so that hopefully they will clue in some day and stop dehydrating their babies.
Well this is very sad to hear. You really tried hard to pull him through. Take good care of your other hatchling., hopefully now u have a lot of the heat, lighting and humidity issues worked out. Regards.
