Potential Egg Binding and Critical Care

[NellyBelly]

I have a female desert tortoise named Nelly. Nelly is in her 40s and is in poor health. She was found on her side stuck in the dirt, leaning into a fence, and we think she may have been there for up to two days in hot and mildly windy conditions. She usually has a pretty strict routine and always sleeps in her burrow, and gets food and water daily but at times won't come out of her burrow and will go days/weeks without drinking unless soaked. On day one of finding her, she was breathing through her mouth, with her beak opening and closing, and arms moving forward, really bad labored breathing, not using her back legs, and looking extremely tired. We immediately took her to an ER that sees exotics. They identified via X-ray that she has a clutch of 8 unfertilized eggs that are taking a toll on her calcium levels and muscle strength. She was force-fed and given fluids and calcium.

On day two, she was still having the same symptoms: labored breathing, minimal movement, no interest/ability to intake food and water, and extreme fatigue. She received oxytocin and calcium to try to push out the eggs and restore her calcium levels. We built her a nesting area, and she could not use her back legs to get around, but did a little bit of digging with her front legs. We think she was too weak to push the eggs out or maybe they weren't ready?

On day three, the same challenges for our poor baby. Because of the level of fatigue and the lack of movement, specifically no back leg movement, we took her to a veterinary office that was recommended. She was determined by the vet to be in critical condition. As part of her care plan, she now has a feeding tube and has to stay indoors in a controlled, clean environment. It is day five, and she is still having the same symptoms, but now getting fluids, antibiotics, and nutrients around the clock. I am so worried about her. The treatment plan right now is to come back in a week and see if her strength has improved for another try at oxytocin. But I am so concerned that we might leave the eggs in too long, and she might have egg binding. I am also just concerned about how weak she is. It breaks my heart to see her mouth open, breathing, and struggling like this. I am hoping and praying that she gets her strength up and lives a long, healthy life. Please send positive vibes and prayers to our sweet lady. We are trying out best but 1. have never experienced/known her to have eggs and 2. never seen her in anything close to this condition and are feeling discouraged by a lack of change in her symptoms.

My questions:
Has anyone had experience with egg binding and the back legs not functioning properly?
Was there anything that helped?
Is there anything else I am not thinking of that I can be doing? I am doing supportive care and waiting at the moment until the next visit.
Is there any advice for nurturing a sick tortoise back to health?

 

[COmtnLady]

@Yvonne G , @zovick , @Tom

 

[zovick]

I have a female desert tortoise named Nelly. Nelly is in her 40s and is in poor health. She was found on her side stuck in the dirt, leaning into a fence, and we think she may have been there for up to two days in hot and mildly windy conditions. She usually has a pretty strict routine and always sleeps in her burrow, and gets food and water daily but at times won't come out of her burrow and will go days/weeks without drinking unless soaked. On day one of finding her, she was breathing through her mouth, with her beak opening and closing, and arms moving forward, really bad labored breathing, not using her back legs, and looking extremely tired. We immediately took her to an ER that sees exotics. They identified via X-ray that she has a clutch of 8 unfertilized eggs that are taking a toll on her calcium levels and muscle strength. She was force-fed and given fluids and calcium.

On day two, she was still having the same symptoms: labored breathing, minimal movement, no interest/ability to intake food and water, and extreme fatigue. She received oxytocin and calcium to try to push out the eggs and restore her calcium levels. We built her a nesting area, and she could not use her back legs to get around, but did a little bit of digging with her front legs. We think she was too weak to push the eggs out or maybe they weren't ready?

On day three, the same challenges for our poor baby. Because of the level of fatigue and the lack of movement, specifically no back leg movement, we took her to a veterinary office that was recommended. She was determined by the vet to be in critical condition. As part of her care plan, she now has a feeding tube and has to stay indoors in a controlled, clean environment. It is day five, and she is still having the same symptoms, but now getting fluids, antibiotics, and nutrients around the clock. I am so worried about her. The treatment plan right now is to come back in a week and see if her strength has improved for another try at oxytocin. But I am so concerned that we might leave the eggs in too long, and she might have egg binding. I am also just concerned about how weak she is. It breaks my heart to see her mouth open, breathing, and struggling like this. I am hoping and praying that she gets her strength up and lives a long, healthy life. Please send positive vibes and prayers to our sweet lady. We are trying out best but 1. have never experienced/known her to have eggs and 2. never seen her in anything close to this condition and are feeling discouraged by a lack of change in her symptoms.

My questions:
Has anyone had experience with egg binding and the back legs not functioning properly?
Was there anything that helped?
Is there anything else I am not thinking of that I can be doing? I am doing supportive care and waiting at the moment until the next visit.
Is there any advice for nurturing a sick tortoise back to health?

The tortoise sounds as though it became severely overheated in the sun. This is often a fatal problem. The fact that she is still alive after 5 days is promising, but not a guarantee of recovery IMHO. I would say to keep soaking her daily for at least 30 minutes and to utilize the feeding tube, but don't try to feed her too much per day until you can tell she is showing some sign of improvement.

For the eggs, you might see if one of the vets would try using Lutalyse instead of oxytocin. It has the same end result, but utilizes a somewhat different mechanism for getting the eggs out.

 

[Yvonne G]

Please be very careful using the feeding tube. Tortoise metabolism is very slow and her stomach won't empty as fast as you think it does. It's,VERY easy to over fill a tortoise stomach.

I think the eggs are secondary. The symptoms you are seeing are due to overheating, nothing to do with the eggs. Forget about them and concentrate on overheated.

Something else to think about is torsion. It is unknown how or if she was thrashing around trying to get righted. grazing animals run the risk of having their inner organs flopping over and twisting the intestins. I'm unsure if this shows on X-ray.