Russian tortoise still not eating

[Linhdan Nguyen]

Hi everyone!
So i got my russian tortoise 3 weeks ago. If you saw my intro post you will see that I bought 2 from the petstore. The female, Khaleesi, is healthy, but the male, Max, is sick. He doesnt eat, barely moves. Sleeps all day. Drinks a little when i soak him. Ive been taking him to the vet. The last time the vet did bloodwork & she gave him another vitamin b & fluid shot (she said he was very dehydrated) and she was also able to tube feed him. Max hasnt thrown any of it up, which she said is good. I soaked him this morning & no poop or pee still. Im still waiting for the full results from the blood test but has this happened to anyone else? & for this long? I know when you first get a tortoise he/she may need time to adjust, which is why some wont eat or move much.
Ive been thinking about making a small veggie leaf "smoothie" and mixing it with his water when he soaks cause he just wont eat. His enclosure has all the right temperatures. I check almost daily. High to mid 70s on cool end, mid 80s on hot end. Basking spot is 95-97 degrees. At night its like mid to lower 70s in his rubbermaid box. Both RT get soaked every 2-3 days (the vet also said Khaleesi was dehydrated but only slightly).

 

[Yvonne G]

Doing tortoise rescue, I've force fed a few tortoises in my time. One time I took in about 20 Malaysian box turtles that were quite lethargic and pretty sick. I made up a slurry of Critical Care and aquatic plants and drew it up into a syringe to which I had attached a piece of plastic tubing. Acting upon instructions from my vet, I carefully pushed the tubing down the turtles' throats and squirted the slurry into their stomachs. These turtles also had to be de-wormed. Once the parasites started dying and being expelled, the turtles became more active and the boost from my tube feeding helped them to get going on their own.

My suggestion to you is to ask your vet for instructions on positioning the tubing down the tortoise's throat and feeding it with Critical Care. Also see if the vet can get a sample from the cloaca to see if your tortoise is infested with parasites.

 

[Linhdan Nguyen]

Next time me & Max go to the vet i will ask. I know the petstore i bought him from said all 4-5 of the tortoises they received were all dewormed at one point but my vet said that could be only once and deworming needs to be done a couple times. but since he hasnt pooped we cant check to see.

 

[Linhdan Nguyen]

Hi Yvonne. Just wanna let you know you were right about the deworming. After being tube fed, my tortoise did a very small poop & the water (i was soaking him) was FULL of parasites. His little poo also had parasites sticking out from them. I dropped off a sample to the vet & she will be deworming him soon. Makes me a little nervous about the vet though. I spent $500 on vet bills for bloodwork and vitamin and fluid shots and all she had to do was check the poo sample she took when she soaked him at the office to see it was a parasite problem.
Thank you though.