Sick 2week old sulcata please help!

Janet_1117

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Posting for someone on Facebook who needs help ASAP! Can someone tag someone who can help

Hey guys. My little dude really needs help! I don't think he has hatching failure syndrome, and if he does there is something more to it. He really needs help and i dont know how much longer he will make it. Ive typed this once before but lost all my progress so i am cutting to the chase. If you need more information please ask. Your help is really needed and would be appreciated.

Ive had him for 5 days. I purchased him from backwater reptiles and he was shipped from Florida to Kansas. His tank is setup is in the parameters needed for him. He is about 2 weeks old, 2" long, and a sulcata. He is soaked about 3 times a day for various time limits and is fed a tortoise diet with romaine lettuce. He takes .05 ml of amoxcicillin 2 every day for a RI. He possibly also has MBD and hatching failure syndrome. His symptoms include....

1) Dark brown discoloration on the shell and body.
2) He refuses to eat or drink on his own, and usually this is chalked up to loss of appetiet but its not. If i hand feed him lettuce or spoon feed him mush he eats like a beast!! If you were to look at him then you wouldnt suspect he is sick. Otherwise he does seem uninterested in eating on his own, and he only 'drinks' during soaks.
3) He hasnt pooped more than once in the 5 days I've had him. When he did poop it was small.
4) He is very lehargic and doenst walk alot. When he does walk he moves an inch, rests, moves, rests, and so on. Sometimes when he moves it seems panicky and desperate and when he moves like this it usually results with him falling over.
5) He just seems overall uninterested in anything a tortoise is suposed to like.
6) pyramiding

Please please please help me! The reason i cant just say it is HFS is because these symptoms usually only set in in 10-14 month old torts. Please feel free to ask any and every question you have. Me and my baby really need help.

Thanks.
-Vanessa
 

TechnoCheese

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Definitely sounds like HFS to me. It usually happens to tortoises way less than 10-14 months from what I’ve seen, usually 2-6. I believe the discoloration happens because the tortoise is trying to use so much calcium/nutrients that it just starts taking it from its own shell so that it becomes see through.

Backwater reptiles is notorious for this. Please direct them to some of the reviews here.

I doubt there’s much hope for this baby with the shell already being bruised/see through, but try telling them to make sure their temps and humidity are high, and that they try soaking in a 50/50 mixture of warm water and carrot baby food.

@Yvonne G might be able to offer more advice.
 

wellington

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Add pedialyte to the soak water too along with the baby food and do daily if not 2x a day. The antibiotic will make them not want too eat. 2 weeks is too young to have mbd.
Keep temps no lower then 85 all over except basking spot day and night.
Good luck it sounds like a slim chance.
 

wellington

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Yes, a facebook friend helped get my post some attention. I'm desperate. He just isn't getting any better.
I believe I may have already said this but there is slim hope. All you can do is what's been posted. Be sure to keep him warm give good uvb source and do the warm water soaks with the carrot and pedialyte. The source you got him from put him behind the 8 ball before he was hatched. There's just not much good about them. Keep trying and fingers crossed.
 
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