Runny green poop!

David Ablett

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Nov 6, 2015
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Hi, the last few days my 1 yr marginated has been having very watery green poop (that really stinks). I haven't recently changed her diet as I feed her home grown weeds and then supermarket lettuce when weeds aren't available. I sprinkle nutrobal supplement every other day, and she gets bathed daily. She shares her enclosure with my other marginated, who has the same diet and doesn't have this problem? Which suggests to me that it's not a problem with the diet or enclosure? I understand it may be parasites, but how would I know? and what's the way to treat them? Unfortunately at the moment they are kept in an indoor enclosure, so I can't see where she's picked them up from?

Any advice would be very much appreciated! I have contacted the vet and am waiting for a response. Other than that she is eating well, putting weight on and is her usual self! Strange...
 

JoesMum

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As a precaution I would separate them immediately. I wouldn't want to risk the other getting sick.

Has this tort had the opportunity to eat something it shouldn't, perhaps in the garden?

Runny poop is usually caused by a lack of fiber. Are you sure this tort isn't only eating the lettuce? (Or eating the lettuce in preference?) This could be because you have a picky eater or it could be because the other, bigger by the looks of it, tort is hogging the healthy stuff. You can only find out by separating them.

To answer the parasite question: take a fresh poop sample to a vet to check it.
 

David Ablett

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Nov 6, 2015
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I shall separate them tonight! I'll feed Ziggy just weeds and see if she actually eats them! I didn't consider she may not have been! Just heard from the vet and I'm going to drop a sample to them tomorrow! Thanks for your reply, hopefully she gets better
 

Yvonne G

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This isn't about the poop issue, but I wanted you to know that those spiral-shaped bulbs have been known to cause eye issues in young tortoises. If it were my habitat, I'd get rid of that light and buy a regular tube-type fluorescent UVB bulb.
 
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