Possible respiratory infection in redfoot tort?

milesm916

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So I got a redfoot recently and he was pretty much fine up until about 2 days ago, when he stopped eating, and started sticking his neck out much further than usual to breathe/was breathing heavier than usual (a combination wheezing/clicking noise?) He's been up and moving and drinking lots of water, but today I noticed he had snot bubbles on his nose after his morning soak. I'm currently trying to get him in somewhere to get him checked out, but that's proving to be extremely difficult. Is there anything I can do in the meantime to help him/keep him ok while we wait to hear back from a vet?
 

wellington

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Keep him in a 80-85 degree enclosure day and night. Sometimes just keeping them warmer can help a lot.
In the meantime also post pics of enclosure, temps day and night and type of heating and lighting you use and humidity. Also a diet list.
So we can help figure out why he got this.
 

milesm916

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Keep him in a 80-85 degree enclosure day and night. Sometimes just keeping them warmer can help a lot.
In the meantime also post pics of enclosure, temps day and night and type of heating and lighting you use and humidity. Also a diet list.
So we can help figure out why he got this.
His enclosure stays at 80-85 degrees all day. I'll grab some pictures of his enclosure in a minute, it's a 40 gal w coco peat substrate (he had coco fiber before but I switched it out of concern he was eating it). His diet right now consists mostly of rehydrated fruit and fresh banana as it's all he'll eat (I use his vitamin dust on it as well), and he refuses everything else (if you have any tips for that it would be appreciated as well) Humidity is the only thing I can think of that could be an issue- I run two humidifiers in the room 24/7 and his humidity still only gets to around 60% on one side of the enclosure, and 70-80% on the other. I also mist his enclosure two to three times a day to help get humidity up a little, but it doesn't seem to do too much.
 

wellington

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Only fruit is not good. Don't think it could be the cause though.
To get him to eat better stuff, smear his favorite fruit on it. Chop it all up small. As he eats the other stuff stuck to the fruit, slowly use less and less fruit.
 

milesm916

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Keep him in a 80-85 degree enclosure day and night. Sometimes just keeping them warmer can help a lot.
In the meantime also post pics of enclosure, temps day and night and type of heating and lighting you use and humidity. Also a diet list.
So we can help figure out why he got this.
E21DB9EB-B204-47B5-BEC6-1F22CAF91FB3.jpeg4F61FBFE-7D5F-4D04-8410-A1DBF76B2953.jpegAF37BE9E-64E6-4A02-AD4A-86132EF3282A.jpeg
The pictures-
 

milesm916

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I was trying that, and it seemed to work for all of 5 minutes before he was picking the greens out of his fruit mush. I'm hoping that once he's feeling better he'll maybe be more open to eating other stuff since he'll be up for eating in general again? is there anything I can do in the meantime to help him since he's not eating at all? He's drinking pretty frequently, is there a way I can mix his vitamin dust into his water or something?
Only fruit is not good. Don't think it could be the cause though.
To get him to eat better stuff, smear his favorite fruit on it. Chop it all up small. As he eats the other stuff stuck to the fruit, slowly use less and less fruit.
 

wellington

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Okay. The water dish with ramp needs to go. Too easy for babies to drown. Clay saucers are the best for water dishes.
Those gauges are worthless and too high up.
I'm guessing that the enclosure is too cold and humidity and heat is no where near what the gauge says.
Go to a home depot or hardware store and get a digital thermostat/humidity gauge and put it at tort level. Also pick up a temp gun.
Make any needed temperature adjustments needed after you get thrm.
 

wellington

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I was trying that, and it seemed to work for all of 5 minutes before he was picking the greens out of his fruit mush. I'm hoping that once he's feeling better he'll maybe be more open to eating other stuff since he'll be up for eating in general again? is there anything I can do in the meantime to help him since he's not eating at all? He's drinking pretty frequently, is there a way I can mix his vitamin dust into his water or something?
Chop the food up finer and the fruit and keep doing it. Tuff love.
You can add some baby flavorless pedialyte and pureed baby food like carrots in his warm water soaked. This will help get some nutrients and sometimes gets them eating.
 

milesm916

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Okay. The water dish with ramp needs to go. Too easy for babies to drown. Clay saucers are the best for water dishes.
Those gauges are worthless and too high up.
I'm guessing that the enclosure is too cold and humidity and heat is no where near what the gauge says.
Go to a home depot or hardware store and get a digital thermostat/humidity gauge and put it at tort level. Also pick up a temp gun.
Make any needed temperature adjustments needed after you get thrm.
Okay. The water dish with ramp needs to go. Too easy for babies to drown. Clay saucers are the best for water dishes.
Those gauges are worthless and too high up.
I'm guessing that the enclosure is too cold and humidity and heat is no where near what the gauge says.
Go to a home depot or hardware store and get a digital thermostat/humidity gauge and put it at tort level. Also pick up a temp gun.
Make any needed temperature adjustments needed after you get thrm.
Will go get a new thermostat/humidity gauge today, I was wondering if these were any good because they don't seem to change at all, even when the temperature has definitely changed. As far as the water dish, he had a different one before, but had too much trouble climbing in and out which is smth he does super often. I never fill this one up past his chin level, and I've made sure he can get in and out with ease as it was smth I was worried about. I'll look for a different one while out though, and see if I can't find one that's a bit better for him? unfortunately my options are fairly limited as I'm in Alaska, so if it's not available in person I have to have it shipped up here (had to do that with both his 40 gal enclosure and the coco peat, as the pet shops up here kept trying to sell me a coco fiber sand mix, bleh) which takes a little while.
 

milesm916

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Chop the food up finer and the fruit and keep doing it. Tuff love.
You can add some baby flavorless pedialyte and pureed baby food like carrots in his warm water soaked. This will help get some nutrients and sometimes gets them eating.
Ok good to know, food variety is a big sore spot with him since he seems to be able to detect even microscopic amounts of food he doesn't like. I'm hoping that with him not eating for a little bit, he'll be less picky when he does want to eat again. Been trying to integrate more and more fresh stuff into his diet which was going ok but this R.I has put a wrench in that completely unfortunately
 

wellington

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Most babies, heck even adult tortoise don't take to new foods right away. They really don't even take to change of any kind right away. We just have to be persistent and not let them win.
If your baby, after the correct temps are verified, does not seem to get better or gets worse, you may need a vet visit.
 

milesm916

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I'm trying to make him an appointment just to be safe, in the meantime I'll make those changes to his heat and humidity. He's up and moving and drinking a lot so I'm hoping that's a good sign?
 

Jan A

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I'm trying to make him an appointment just to be safe, in the meantime I'll make those changes to his heat and humidity. He's up and moving and drinking a lot so I'm hoping that's a good sign?
Humidifiers put out cold wet air. Cold wet air makes torts sick. You compromise by wetting the substrate by pouring water in the substrate & packing it down with your hands. Keep the temps up meanwhile, more like 85 degrees while your tort is sick. If you can find a live worm, try putting that in his enclosure since he's a red foot or some smelly wet cat food since he also needs a little protein. Definitely stop the humidifier.
 

milesm916

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Turned them off and have been misting his enclosure super thoroughly and he does seem to be doing at least a little better; do you know of any better alternatives to a humidifier that I could use while at work, since I can't be misting his enclosure every 2 hours while I'm gone?
as an update: He has a vet appt tomorrow morning just to be safe, since even though he's doing a little better he's still got most of the symptoms, he's just a little more up and at it than he was yesterday
 

TeamZissou

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As others have said, the gage you have isn't a good one. Go for an Accurite temp and humidity gage at Home Depot or Amazon.

What you need is a closed chamber so that the heat and humidity cannot escape out the top. It may be possible to modify the one you have for a while before moving your tortoise to a new larger enclosure in the future. It will be impossible to keep the 80%+ that you need for a RF without one. I doubt that the temp inside is anywhere near 80F unless the room is quite warm. You will likely need to add a CHE or RHP on a thermostat to get consistently high temps inside the closed chamber.

Placing the UV light on the screen like you have it now won't let much UV through to the tortoise, though RF don't need a lot.

I'd be surprised if the vet you visit has much experience with tortoises given that you're in AK. Refuse any 'vitamin shots' that they might want to give. They do nothing and are a waste of money. It might be a better move to increase the temps to 90F night and day to see if you can clear it up.

 

ZEROPILOT

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A diet of up to 60% fruit is ok for a Redfoot.
However. Too much fruit is associated with blooms of gut parasites that can be present and previously under control.
If your Redfoot is drinking, ad some carrot or sweet potato baby food in the soak water to keep him going until you can find a decent reptile vet.
 

milesm916

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You actually replied right as I offered him some green bean mush and he's eating it, I think it's stinky enough for him to recognize it as food even with his nose all stuffed up. I've been putting his vitamins in his water the last few days and that seems to be helping him a little too. He has an appointment in the morning tomorrow since his vet he was supposed to see today cancelled last minute ? at least he's eating though, that was one of my biggest concerns since it'd been bordering on 5 days with no food
 

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You actually replied right as I offered him some green bean mush and he's eating it, I think it's stinky enough for him to recognize it as food even with his nose all stuffed up. I've been putting his vitamins in his water the last few days and that seems to be helping him a little too. He has an appointment in the morning tomorrow since his vet he was supposed to see today cancelled last minute ? at least he's eating though, that was one of my biggest concerns since it'd been bordering on 5 days with no food
They can go a very long time without food as long as they stay hydrated
 

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