Please help - respiratory infection
We had bark as our hermann tortoises substrate which was suggested to us. We think he must have caught himself on it or some furniture and has had sepsis as a result. We took him to the vets for a course of antibiotics (10 injections). The sepsis has gone but he seems to have a respiratory infection now - the vet said to up the temperate to sort that, between 35 and 40 degrees. We use the infrared thermometer to check and it is 37 degrees directly under the heat lamp and around 35 degrees surrounding and 27 in the colder side. We have changed the substrate to soil but when he walks through his water he dampens the substrate extensively and the vet said this will not help his infection. The vet said to keep his enclosure dry and he will moisten it himself. But he is panting and he was whistling earlier so we are going to spray it with water again to keep the humidity up. He is still active but not as much. We are getting him a larger enclosure Wednesday.
We had bark as our hermann tortoises substrate which was suggested to us. We think he must have caught himself on it or some furniture and has had sepsis as a result. We took him to the vets for a course of antibiotics (10 injections). The sepsis has gone but he seems to have a respiratory infection now - the vet said to up the temperate to sort that, between 35 and 40 degrees. We use the infrared thermometer to check and it is 37 degrees directly under the heat lamp and around 35 degrees surrounding and 27 in the colder side. We have changed the substrate to soil but when he walks through his water he dampens the substrate extensively and the vet said this will not help his infection. The vet said to keep his enclosure dry and he will moisten it himself. But he is panting and he was whistling earlier so we are going to spray it with water again to keep the humidity up. He is still active but not as much. We are getting him a larger enclosure Wednesday.