Maryalice
Member
I am a new tort mom, having acquired a 3-month old sulcata, about 2 months ago. I live in a very humid, tropical area (Manila). I am housing my baby in a 50-gallon aquarium, covered the lower part with black paper so s/he could not see through it, covered the bottom with reptibark, placed 1 hide at each corner of the tank, and hang 3 ceramic lamp holders (2 are fitted with heat emitting bulbs with no light, and one has a basking bulb). I stuck a thermometer/ hygrometer on one end of the tank, and another small thermometer on the other end. The whole enclosure sits on a metal stand and placed in the lanai. No rain ever gets into the enclosure. In the first month -June- the temperature in the tank would reach 39 deg celsius at midday until about 3 pm. It cools off towards the evening and at night it would average 27 deg celsius. It’s monsoon time now and we have been having string rains and wind for a week now. For the first 2 nights during the rainy week, Frankie was still in the lanai - no rains ever got into his/her enclosure. On the 3rd day, I saw a sneeze and was worried (since i have been reading a lot about how respiratory infections can be bad for torts). I brought her/him to the vet where my fear was confirmed - s/he has upper respiratory infection. A shot of 0.01ml of doxycycline was given, and i had to bring him/her back to the vet every 3 days for a shot - s/he is on her/his 2nd shot. I give him a 10-minute warm soak everday and added some electrolytes. I also nebulize him/her daily for 5 to 10 minutes with salinase. Appetite is still good, but the whitish smudges below her/his nose remain even after i clean them off, which means s/he still has nasal discharges. Anyway, my take-away from this experience is that even though temperatures remain constant at 26-27deg celsius at night, and 30-36 deg celsius during the day, it was the very high humidity -sometimes reaching 85% - that probably caused Frankie’s respiratory infection. Since that first sneeze, I am now keeping Frankie indoors.