TortugaFriend
Member
My post history here has been brief so far as I only got interested in adopting a tortoise after I hosted a neighbors escaped 3-toed turtle a few days.
And this is probably my last post for a while as the tortoise I had adopted, Trixie, has died.
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Last Sunday I took her to the vet when I could no longer convince myself that she was ok as she had not been eating and was lethargic.
Trixie had been outside in an outside enclosure here in Southern California since I brought her out of brumation, but she never really started eating and I hadn't seen her drink in last two weeks.
Her enclosure had shade and sunny spots throughout the day as the sun shifted from 10am to about 6pm, and she would reposition herself to take advantage of sunbeams and sploot.
At night the temperature temperature over the last month has dipped just below 60 but for the most part stayed above it and so I thought, most probably in error, that she'd be ok, that this environment was like where her species evolved.
As she wasn't eating I offered her what she ate the most of in the time I had her, which was romaine. She never showed interest daffodils, hibiscus, or leafy greens I set out for her and only ever had a few nibbles of Mazuri.
I finally took her to a vet with experience with tortoises at an office which has a department for exotics. They diagnosed her with an upper respiratory illness based on congestion the vet saw in the nose and mouth, and irritation inside her mouth.
They suggested we draw fluids to figure out the cause and made a list of tests and treatment options.
If I had gone through with all of it, the total would have been over $1300, which was more than I could really afford in one hit, so we talked and her recommendation was to start a 2 week course of Baytril injected into pectoral muscles.
They did the first injection at the office along with injecting some fluids since she was dehydrated and I brought her home with syringes for the rest of the doses.
I set up her table top enclosure indoors since the our house never dips below the mid-70s and turned on a ceramic heater bulb from 9am to 7pm.
The injections were set to happen every other day, 2 days ago I gave her the second one in the opposite pectoral from the one they started on.
The soak after that she peed a bit and it was more liquidy and less solid than any before, which I figured might be ok since there might not have been thick urates to pass as she had not been eating.
Today again she peed a bit during her soak at 11am and was active. I dried her off and brought her back into her enclosure and placed her close to her CHE where her shell temperature was in the 90s and the substrate around her was in the 80s.
At 4pm I scooped her up to administer her third injection of baytril, but she was already stiff.
On the chance that she might still be with us I went through with the injection, but there was no reaction.
So I'm sad and angry at myself for letting her down since there is a chance that if I had not adopted her she might still be alive.
Thinking back I should have immediately taken her to a vet back in October when she came into my care, but I thought that her lack of appetite lined up well with her wanting to brumate.
In reality it might have been a low level infection that was building up.
And when she didn't start gobbling up food a couple of weeks after she was awake, I should have taken her to the vet then, or at the very least made adjustments.
I guess part of the reason for this post is that it might help someone make the decision that I kept pushing off till it was too late and that is to get a specialist's help.
I had assumed that I could do a good job of caring for her because compared to how much I've learned recently, I knew nothing and was a very bad keeper to our cornsnake who was with us for 16 years.
And that wasn't true. I was the wrong keeper for Trixie.
Maybe the level of care I provided would have been good enough for a different tort that might have not had any history of illness, but I didn't know what her history was and should have been more aggressive in seeking treatment earlier on. Money had been tight over the last few months due to circumstances, but that really isn't an excuse.
Now I have to decide what to do with her remains and live with the fact that I played a part in her demise.
And this is probably my last post for a while as the tortoise I had adopted, Trixie, has died.
----
Last Sunday I took her to the vet when I could no longer convince myself that she was ok as she had not been eating and was lethargic.
Trixie had been outside in an outside enclosure here in Southern California since I brought her out of brumation, but she never really started eating and I hadn't seen her drink in last two weeks.
Her enclosure had shade and sunny spots throughout the day as the sun shifted from 10am to about 6pm, and she would reposition herself to take advantage of sunbeams and sploot.
At night the temperature temperature over the last month has dipped just below 60 but for the most part stayed above it and so I thought, most probably in error, that she'd be ok, that this environment was like where her species evolved.
As she wasn't eating I offered her what she ate the most of in the time I had her, which was romaine. She never showed interest daffodils, hibiscus, or leafy greens I set out for her and only ever had a few nibbles of Mazuri.
I finally took her to a vet with experience with tortoises at an office which has a department for exotics. They diagnosed her with an upper respiratory illness based on congestion the vet saw in the nose and mouth, and irritation inside her mouth.
They suggested we draw fluids to figure out the cause and made a list of tests and treatment options.
If I had gone through with all of it, the total would have been over $1300, which was more than I could really afford in one hit, so we talked and her recommendation was to start a 2 week course of Baytril injected into pectoral muscles.
They did the first injection at the office along with injecting some fluids since she was dehydrated and I brought her home with syringes for the rest of the doses.
I set up her table top enclosure indoors since the our house never dips below the mid-70s and turned on a ceramic heater bulb from 9am to 7pm.
The injections were set to happen every other day, 2 days ago I gave her the second one in the opposite pectoral from the one they started on.
The soak after that she peed a bit and it was more liquidy and less solid than any before, which I figured might be ok since there might not have been thick urates to pass as she had not been eating.
Today again she peed a bit during her soak at 11am and was active. I dried her off and brought her back into her enclosure and placed her close to her CHE where her shell temperature was in the 90s and the substrate around her was in the 80s.
At 4pm I scooped her up to administer her third injection of baytril, but she was already stiff.
On the chance that she might still be with us I went through with the injection, but there was no reaction.
So I'm sad and angry at myself for letting her down since there is a chance that if I had not adopted her she might still be alive.
Thinking back I should have immediately taken her to a vet back in October when she came into my care, but I thought that her lack of appetite lined up well with her wanting to brumate.
In reality it might have been a low level infection that was building up.
And when she didn't start gobbling up food a couple of weeks after she was awake, I should have taken her to the vet then, or at the very least made adjustments.
I guess part of the reason for this post is that it might help someone make the decision that I kept pushing off till it was too late and that is to get a specialist's help.
I had assumed that I could do a good job of caring for her because compared to how much I've learned recently, I knew nothing and was a very bad keeper to our cornsnake who was with us for 16 years.
And that wasn't true. I was the wrong keeper for Trixie.
Maybe the level of care I provided would have been good enough for a different tort that might have not had any history of illness, but I didn't know what her history was and should have been more aggressive in seeking treatment earlier on. Money had been tight over the last few months due to circumstances, but that really isn't an excuse.
Now I have to decide what to do with her remains and live with the fact that I played a part in her demise.
