Respiratory Infection - some advice

Josh28

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Hi there,

I have a graeca here who had been showing signs of a respiratory infection since late November. Exotics vet prescribed Baytril (10mg/kg once every other day) for 2 weeks. The tortoise was moved inside from its heated greenhouse, quarantined and kept with UVB lighting, basking temperature 35.C, background temperature in the 20s.C. A ceramic heater was provided on a thermostat, 30.C at night (to keep the immune system at its peak) Substate is deep topsoil and humidity is in the 60% range although this varies +10%.

It appeared the tortoise was making improvement after the first course of antibiotics but I kept her inside, well heated for a further 2 weeks just to be sure. However, in December one morning, it was clear the infection was back, my vet decided to increase the injections (10mg/kg) to once daily, for 2weeks and ran pcr for mycoplasma which came bag negative, twice. She made a remarkable improvement, airways were clear no signs of any congestion, nasal discharge, etc and she appeared to be her normal self again.

Today it seems the infection is creeping back (clear nasal discharge) I'm lost what to do I have contacted my vet and we will begin antibiotics again tomorrow (perhaps a different drug) It seems the minute antibiotics are stopped she's fine for a few days and then the symptoms reoccur. My vet did say that some infections are complex, difficult to irradicate and it can seem like a losing battle but "we will sort this".

Does anyone have any insight or recommendations?
 

Yvonne G

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Is there any way the tortoise is sitting in a draft and getting a little colder than what you think the temperature in the enclosure is?

I can't tell you what to do, only what I do, and if you want to follow my example, it's totally up to you and I don't accept any blame if it doesn't work out for you.

When I see runny/bubbly nose, I ignore it, but I do up the temperature a little and don't allow it to cool down as much at night. If the tortoise is still eating and acting normally, all fine and good, I leave him alone. If the mucous turns thick, colored and the tortoise stops eating, THEN I resort to antibiotics. I place the tortoise in a smaller, hospital tank with a constant temperature day and night of 85F degrees. And I soak daily. If I use Baytril, I use it as a nasal flush (9 parts sterile saline to 1 part baytril) daily for a week. But I usually don't resort to Baytril unless the tortoise is really, really sick, as Baytril is pretty harsh. I start out with powdered Terramycin and soak the tortoise in this mixture daily for at least an hour. This is not something that has been approved by the tortoise community, but rather something I have found that works from my own experience.
 

Josh28

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Is there any way the tortoise is sitting in a draft and getting a little colder than what you think the temperature in the enclosure is?

I can't tell you what to do, only what I do, and if you want to follow my example, it's totally up to you and I don't accept any blame if it doesn't work out for you.

When I see runny/bubbly nose, I ignore it, but I do up the temperature a little and don't allow it to cool down as much at night. If the tortoise is still eating and acting normally, all fine and good, I leave him alone. If the mucous turns thick, colored and the tortoise stops eating, THEN I resort to antibiotics. I place the tortoise in a smaller, hospital tank with a constant temperature day and night of 85F degrees. And I soak daily. If I use Baytril, I use it as a nasal flush (9 parts sterile saline to 1 part baytril) daily for a week. But I usually don't resort to Baytril unless the tortoise is really, really sick, as Baytril is pretty harsh. I start out with powdered Terramycin and soak the tortoise in this mixture daily for at least an hour. This is not something that has been approved by the tortoise community, but rather something I have found that works from my own experience.


Thank you for your response and advice, I will take a good look at it! Re the temperature I don't think so, I have been checking quite consistently day/ night since the problem first surfaced. The ceramic heater is positioned over her hide area (terracotta plant pot) so it heats up well and she's in there each night, keeping warm. She just appears to be cycling, the antibiotics 'solve' the problem, we stop administering and it comes back. I believe next week will be the 6 weeks since symptoms first started, is that abnormally long, anyone? She is north African in origin but I've never found them 'sensitive' as many claim, they live outside year-round with a dry, heated greenhouse basking temperatures in the 35-40.C range are provided during the day and minimum night temperature in winter of around 10.C (inline with wild habitats) the rest of the group (7 individuals) are fighting fit, no problems there.
 

Josh28

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Thank you for that, very in-depth. I will print it out and take it to my vet for his own reading. The paper doesn't appear to make any argument for bacterial or fungal pathogens being the cause, with that in mind, are you suggesting my tortoise potentially has mycoplasma? I understand from the symptoms that it is a likely candidate but this tortoise has been in my collection for 15 years, along with her group, they all came from the same breeder, except 3 which are offspring I have kept. (she is one of the offspring) Odd don't you think? In all these years this is the first instance of any sickness, so I was assuming this case was environmentally induced.
 

Josh28

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5 Year Member
Joined
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Messages
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Is there any way the tortoise is sitting in a draft and getting a little colder than what you think the temperature in the enclosure is?

I can't tell you what to do, only what I do, and if you want to follow my example, it's totally up to you and I don't accept any blame if it doesn't work out for you.

When I see runny/bubbly nose, I ignore it, but I do up the temperature a little and don't allow it to cool down as much at night. If the tortoise is still eating and acting normally, all fine and good, I leave him alone. If the mucous turns thick, colored and the tortoise stops eating, THEN I resort to antibiotics. I place the tortoise in a smaller, hospital tank with a constant temperature day and night of 85F degrees. And I soak daily. If I use Baytril, I use it as a nasal flush (9 parts sterile saline to 1 part baytril) daily for a week. But I usually don't resort to Baytril unless the tortoise is really, really sick, as Baytril is pretty harsh. I start out with powdered Terramycin and soak the tortoise in this mixture daily for at least an hour. This is not something that has been approved by the tortoise community, but rather something I have found that works from my own experience.

Apologies, I forgot to ask the theory behind the Terramycin soaks, could you elaborate on that, with your experiences?
 

Yvonne G

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Apologies, I forgot to ask the theory behind the Terramycin soaks, could you elaborate on that, with your experiences?
It's a mild antibiotic and not painful or harsh on the tortoise at all. If they drink the water during the soak all well and good, but they do benefit from the antibiotic whether they drink it or not. A very long time ago I was told that tortoises absorb nutrients from the water through the thin skin on their throat and around the cloaca. Whether that's true or not (I'm not a scientist), I don't know, but the Terramycin soaks usually nip the respiratory infection in the bud.

Just a note for anyone's edification: Just because a tortoise has a bubbly or runny nose, that doesn't mean there's a respiratory infection. Tortoises get runny noses when they're stressed too. First thing to do is double check his care, food, environment, heat, etc. and see if there might be anything in there stressing him out.
 

Kapidolo Farms

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It's not really appropriate for me to diagnose any health issue when I've not done a full owner interview/animal inspection. All matters that can cause a runny nose are in that article, that Vet - Dr. Boyer, is saying alot of the time it is mycoplasma. Not all the time. I know of cases where mites in the substrate seemed to be the issue. The point of that article is so you can sort out all the factors. That old saw about giving fish versus given fishing skills.

Thank you for that, very in-depth. I will print it out and take it to my vet for his own reading. The paper doesn't appear to make any argument for bacterial or fungal pathogens being the cause, with that in mind, are you suggesting my tortoise potentially has mycoplasma? I understand from the symptoms that it is a likely candidate but this tortoise has been in my collection for 15 years, along with her group, they all came from the same breeder, except 3 which are offspring I have kept. (she is one of the offspring) Odd don't you think? In all these years this is the first instance of any sickness, so I was assuming this case was environmentally induced.
 

Connie Hatfield

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Jan 26, 2019
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Birmingham al
Hi there,

I have a graeca here who had been showing signs of a respiratory infection since late November. Exotics vet prescribed Baytril (10mg/kg once every other day) for 2 weeks. The tortoise was moved inside from its heated greenhouse, quarantined and kept with UVB lighting, basking temperature 35.C, background temperature in the 20s.C. A ceramic heater was provided on a thermostat, 30.C at night (to keep the immune system at its peak) Substate is deep topsoil and humidity is in the 60% range although this varies +10%.

It appeared the tortoise was making improvement after the first course of antibiotics but I kept her inside, well heated for a further 2 weeks just to be sure. However, in December one morning, it was clear the infection was back, my vet decided to increase the injections (10mg/kg) to once daily, for 2weeks and ran pcr for mycoplasma which came bag negative, twice. She made a remarkable improvement, airways were clear no signs of any congestion, nasal discharge, etc and she appeared to be her normal self again.

Today it seems the infection is creeping back (clear nasal discharge) I'm lost what to do I have contacted my vet and we will begin antibiotics again tomorrow (perhaps a different drug) It seems the minute antibiotics are stopped she's fine for a few days and then the symptoms reoccur. My vet did say that some infections are complex, difficult to irradicate and it can seem like a losing battle but "we will sort this".

Does anyone have any insight or recommendations?
I have a 6 year old Horsefield who has on antibiotics for the past few weeks. He is making a lot of progress but hee was burned in hot water, way to hot. His skin is peeling bad, he has lont a few shutes on his legs. I just keep him very warm and feed him with a dropper and warm shallow soaks. It takes tortorise a long time to recover byt don't give up.
 

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