My husband and I inherited a Russian tortoise, who we've named Boxy, after a family member passed away. We knew very little about tortoises when we took him in - having named him "Boxy" since we thought he was a box turtle - and are slowly learning and trying to set up a good, healthy habitat for Boxy.
Boxy came to us as a full grown adult male who had basically been living in a shoebox and eating tomatoes and nectarines dusted with vitamins. We got him into a 29 gallon aquarium (which we now realize is less than ideal) with a basking light and reptile carpet and started feeding him leafy greens exclusively - endive, radicchio, radish leaves, red leaf lettuce and spring mix, mostly. (With the occasional apple slice sprinkled with a calcium and d3 supplement.) He was doing great for a few months! We would take him out to let him run around and explore the living room, which we hoped would make up for the small space he lives in, and he seemed very happy and healthy with a hearty appetite.
We've been concerned about his lack of UVB light, so about a week ago, we bought a hood and ReptiSun 5.0 uvb tube light. (I had brought a compact coil uvb light home once, and it clearly hurt his eyes, so we stopped using it immediately... but I thought the tube would be safe.) As soon as we turned it on, he crawled into his hiding space to get away from it - and has been mostly hiding from it ever since.
The last few days, though, he's been very lethargic and he hasn't been eating or defecating. He usually crawls into his water bowl himself to drink, soak and poop, but hasn't done that either. And his eyes are clearly bothering him - they're reddish and swollen and one eye has a little clear watery discharge, and he's rubbing at them with his "elbows." We've been soaking him in warm water, but it doesn't seem to be helping. I'd rather avoid a trip to the vet if possible - that uvb setup was expensive - but we will definitely take him if he needs to go! But before making an appointment, I wanted to know if you guys think this might be something we can address at home - by removing the uvb light or adding a moister substrate, which we definitely intend to do - or if a vet visit really is the best thing to do here. Thanks so much in advance!
Boxy came to us as a full grown adult male who had basically been living in a shoebox and eating tomatoes and nectarines dusted with vitamins. We got him into a 29 gallon aquarium (which we now realize is less than ideal) with a basking light and reptile carpet and started feeding him leafy greens exclusively - endive, radicchio, radish leaves, red leaf lettuce and spring mix, mostly. (With the occasional apple slice sprinkled with a calcium and d3 supplement.) He was doing great for a few months! We would take him out to let him run around and explore the living room, which we hoped would make up for the small space he lives in, and he seemed very happy and healthy with a hearty appetite.
We've been concerned about his lack of UVB light, so about a week ago, we bought a hood and ReptiSun 5.0 uvb tube light. (I had brought a compact coil uvb light home once, and it clearly hurt his eyes, so we stopped using it immediately... but I thought the tube would be safe.) As soon as we turned it on, he crawled into his hiding space to get away from it - and has been mostly hiding from it ever since.
The last few days, though, he's been very lethargic and he hasn't been eating or defecating. He usually crawls into his water bowl himself to drink, soak and poop, but hasn't done that either. And his eyes are clearly bothering him - they're reddish and swollen and one eye has a little clear watery discharge, and he's rubbing at them with his "elbows." We've been soaking him in warm water, but it doesn't seem to be helping. I'd rather avoid a trip to the vet if possible - that uvb setup was expensive - but we will definitely take him if he needs to go! But before making an appointment, I wanted to know if you guys think this might be something we can address at home - by removing the uvb light or adding a moister substrate, which we definitely intend to do - or if a vet visit really is the best thing to do here. Thanks so much in advance!