Red Foot Tortoise not able to walk after a cold night

Tianyuzhou88

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This female decided to take walk in a cold night or early morning and escaped from her night box enclosure. I found her stone hard though she might be dead.
I warmed her with ceremic heat bulb, And she seems okay, she seem not having running nose (yet) or problem to breathe. But today i found out she cannot walk somehow. her back leg still kick strong, but seems front legs not able to support her. the way she walks unevenly.
not sure that can be something with her lung so she lost her balance. now i am trying to warm soak her and put CHE 24/7 to increase her metabolism.
Is there anything I can do, should I bring her to vet for antibiotics ? My concerns are the exotic vet near me does not have good knowledge with turtles/tortoise.
Thank you
Tim


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ZEROPILOT

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I'm assuming she was fine the day before?
Exactly how cold did she get?
Hopefully she'll start to recover soon.
It doesn't sound like a parasite issue
 

Yvonne G

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moral to this story - don't allow the tortoise to get cold. Block the door so they can't get out at night.
 

Canadian Mojo

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More likely to be frostbite than a parasite. Look for signs of skin damage in those areas if it doesn't clear up soon.
 

wellington

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Warm up her and keep the enclosure around 85 day and night for a week or more.
If you have other torts keep them separate from this one until she is 100% back to normal. Same with the higher temps. Keep them up until she is 100% and make sure it can't happen again.
 

Tianyuzhou88

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Warm up her and keep the enclosure around 85 day and night for a week or more.
If you have other torts keep them separate from this one until she is 100% back to normal. Same with the higher temps. Keep them up until she is 100% and make sure it can't happen again.
I separate her out. The other tortoise seems fine and did not infected. That’s actually the first thing I did. I brought her inside into a separate enclosure.
 

Lyn W

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As well as the exposure to cold, do you think she could have been hurt by the other tort? (Mounting, barging or biting?)
Torts should never be kept in pairs; even though RF can be more tolerant of others, they can still be aggressive towards each other and one becomes dominant and bullies the other as @ZEROPILOT can confirm.
Hopefully keeping them apart now will reduce the stress and help her recovery.
 

Yvonne G

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Did anyone suggest deep water therapy? Clean and rinse your bathtub well then add enough warm water so she can't touch the bottom. You have to stay there with her to make sure she's safe, and let her paddle around in the water for ten or fifteen minutes. The warm water along with paddling and moving her legs with no pressure on them is pretty good rehab.
 

Tianyuzhou88

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Want give an update for everyone. After whole winter raising temperatures under indoor enclosure and continuously soaking under 88+ degree. The tortoise condition is getting much better. She past out some food little by little. And limbing is improving significantly. Now I moved her back to outdoor enclosure with more room to move around. Hopefully she can recover 100% fairly soon. I figured out one thing is less feeding in winter since their metabolism is fairly low. Specially for sub or adults. They can be fine without much feeding. But if temperature is high and food cannot digest properly, constipation will happen. Learned it in a hard way.
 

TammyJ

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Want give an update for everyone. After whole winter raising temperatures under indoor enclosure and continuously soaking under 88+ degree. The tortoise condition is getting much better. She past out some food little by little. And limbing is improving significantly. Now I moved her back to outdoor enclosure with more room to move around. Hopefully she can recover 100% fairly soon. I figured out one thing is less feeding in winter since their metabolism is fairly low. Specially for sub or adults. They can be fine without much feeding. But if temperature is high and food cannot digest properly, constipation will happen. Learned it in a hard way.
You did not tell us how cold it was when she escaped and was near frozen. And I don't understand what you are saying about the food?
 

ZEROPILOT

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Want give an update for everyone. After whole winter raising temperatures under indoor enclosure and continuously soaking under 88+ degree. The tortoise condition is getting much better. She past out some food little by little. And limbing is improving significantly. Now I moved her back to outdoor enclosure with more room to move around. Hopefully she can recover 100% fairly soon. I figured out one thing is less feeding in winter since their metabolism is fairly low. Specially for sub or adults. They can be fine without much feeding. But if temperature is high and food cannot digest properly, constipation will happen. Learned it in a hard way.
In Winter, it isn't a change in metabolism that you're seeing. It's that cooler temperatures slow down digestion.
Otherwise your RF should eat like a little HOG year round
 

Tianyuzhou88

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@TammyJ . she escaped around 40s and i bring her back next day morning.
@ZEROPILOT, excuse my english. you are correct. cooler temperatures cause those slow down of digestion, i believe there are food not been digested in time and cause the constipation.
 
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