Overheated Sulcata Tortoise

[thegingerkid]

Hi everyone,

I have a 1yr old Sulcata tortoise, and we typically let Tootsie out for 30min - 1hr every couple of days. Well today we put her out and I noticed after about 45min she was blowing bubbles out of the corners of her mouth, and seemed to have quite a bit of mucus around her head. My wife and I immediately brought her inside, and fed her some green lettuce and realized that she was overheated. We then soaked her for about 20 minutes, and everything seems to be ok now. We turned the lights off in her enclosure, and she seems to be back to normal. What should we look out for over the next 24hrs, and is there anything else we should do to ensure that she is comfortable and OK? Thanks in advance for your help.

Zach

 

[sibi]

Mucus and bubbles from the nose or mouth is not just overheating, if in fact that's what you think. She very well may have been overheating, but it's a respitory infection that is more likely the culprit. I would keep her comfortable, with daily soaks until you can see a vet. She may need antibiotics. In the meantime, have her hide temps set to 95 degrees, and the basking area 100-105 degrees. Her ambient temp should be 85-90 degrees because she's got a RI. Normally ambient temps should be no lower than 80 degrees. But warmer is better for now.

When my sully had his RI, I put him outside and within minutes, he started to gag and open his mouth. Mucus was coming out of his mouth and he threw up. Poor baby was so sick, and yes, he too was overheated with a RI.

 

[mikeh]

If she was in direct sunlight and this was the only instance of her salavating, she was overheating.
She does not have RI. Offer plenty of water. Give her a good soak, keep her at normal temps.

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[Tom]

I would do daily soaks for a couple of weeks just to make sure he's good and hydrated. As long as his core temp is back down, there is not a whole lot to do. I would turn his heat lamp back on and just let things get back to normal.

Do you want to show us pics of your outdoor enclosure or talk about shade and cooling techniques? Where are you?

 

[ascott]

If you have a baby...they can easily overheat in less than 20 minutes and what you described is an overheating tort to the T....cool down and let calm down..should be aok , especially if back to normal now..

 

[thegingerkid]

Thanks so much for y'alls help, we turned the heat lamp back on after she was back in her enclosure (inside) after about 20 minutes yesterday and since then she's seemed to be her normal self and eating like a champ, per usual. We'll definitely be sure to soak her everyday for a while though like mentioned and monitor her more closely than normal, this was the first time she's ever showed signs like that before...and hopefully the last.