Please help my blind tortoise. :(

[Hoss]

Hi all, My fiance and I have had Sasha, our Testudo Horsfieldii, for about 5 years. She has always been in good heath, and very active. We give her full run of the living room and patio, and she runs around all day. She has successfully hibernated the past two winters. We feed her Romaine lettuce daily, with the occasional grape leaves, mulberry leaves, and birch leaves. She also gets berries/fruit very rarely as a treat. She gets her mineral powder supplement about twice a week.
Recently she suffered a 6 foot fall when she managed to find the one spot in the enclosed patio that she could get through. We ran down and got her immediately when we noticed and she seemed fine at first, still active, still eating.
A couple of weeks ago I put lettuce down for her and noticed that she was chomping the air around it and could not find it. We have been observing her for the past couple of weeks and she is still very active. She has nothing visibly wrong with her eyes. They are clear and do not have any scar tissue and are not swelled shut. We put her eye drops on her anyway as instructed on the bottle. She is still chomping the air around her food and does not appear to react to visual stimuli. Is there anything we can do to help her regain her sight? We thought that we were doing everythig necessary for her health and are very distraught to see her go blind after so many healthy years with us. Please advise us!

 

[ekm5015]

Wow...sorry to hear that. I have no idea what to do. I would see a vet.

 

[spikethebest]

Welcome to the forum!

I am sorry to hear about your tortoise.

 

[Kristina]

Where did you get the eye drops?

I would ditch the eye drops and get some terramycin opthalmic ointment. You can find it at any feed store or "Tractor Supply Company" type store.

If there is truly something wrong with her eyes, it could fix it, it is a miracle drug. However, it could possibly be something neurological, caused by the fall. Either it will heal or it won't. Several members here have blind tortoises, and they can still lead good lives.

It is possible she just has terrible depth perception. I have seen it before.

 

[Stephanie Logan]

Poor Sasha! I hope she gets better or learns to compensate for her handicap.

Maggie and Kelly (Stells) have blind tortoises/turtles and they could give you good advice if it turns out to be permanent.

 

[dmmj]

It could be related to the fall, not being a vet I can't say I woud take it to a vet and tell them what happened.

 

[-JM]

How terrible! Do you have a reptile-savy (esp. tort-savy) vet in your area? Please keep us updated!

 

[Laura]

What kind of lighting is she under? Bulbs? some can cause eye problems..
ANd for her diet.. Id change from Romaine to Spring Mix you can get at any grocery store in a bag.. much better for her..

 

[Hoss]

Thanks for all the replies and well wishes. To answer a few questions: the eye drops are zoomed repti turtle eye drops. They have vitamin A and B12 in them. The only light that she is ever in is sunlight, with plenty of shady spots to doze in. She mostly spends her days on the patio and comes in at night to sleep under the furniture. There aren't any reptile specific vets in my area that I know of. The owner of the store that sold her to us was very knowledgeable about reptiles in general, but when I tried to call him today the phone number had been disconnected. I will try the terramycin. hopefully that will help. It is good to hear that she can still lead a good life even if she is blind. To be honest you'd never know she's blind unless you saw her trying to eat.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Hoss:

Welcome to the forum!!

I hate to pick on you, when you are going through a tough time with your tortoise, however, for your tortoise's well-being, I feel I have to say something. Please don't take offense, as I'm only trying to help.

A tortoise is a wild animal, not a domesticated pet. A tortoise is also a cold blooded animal. This means that he can't regulate his own body temperature. If you keep a tortoise as a pet, it is your responsibility to set it up properly in a habitat where all its needs are being met. You need to build this little creature some sort of box-like habitat that contains him, and not allow him to run all around the place on the floor. He needs a secure hiding place, a light where he can sit and warm up, a water dish and a food tile.

There are just too many hazards for a tortoise...places and things he can get into trouble with...when you allow him free-roaming. (as you have found out)

The fall might have knocked loose something in his eyes. There's no way for us to tell. You should have him examined by a qualified tortoise vet. If he is permanently blind, that doesn't mean its the end of his life, but it DOES mean its even more important that he has permanent walls and landscape where he can become familiar with his non-changing surroundings and get around without being able to see.

If you place the food (a more wide variety of dark leafy greens would be better than too much romaine, which has little nutrition) up against the wall, so that it doesn't move away from him as he bites at it, this would help him eat.

Good luck with your little Russian tortoise. I hope things work out for you.

 

[Missy]

Totally agree with Yvonne, and she does deeply care for torts. You can get a large rubbermaid storage ben or even a kiddie pool to make him a safe pen that he can learn his way around. Please get him a heat source light but dont put it to close that it will burn him. We keep our homes to cool for torts and he needs heat to digest food. I hope he gets his sight back, keep us updated.