Sick Baby Leopard Tortoise

[Lorrained]

Our sick baby leopard tortoise has been through a lot in the last few weeks. He has been on antibiotics for what appeared to be mouth rot of some sort and as he had stopped eating we were given the powered generic sustain food to syringe feed. He was still pooping albeit a different colour. After his last vet visit she put him on the critical care food as he had lost a bit of weight.

The critical care is high in Alfalfa which I'm worried as I had read babies shouldn't have Alfalfa hay and it seems now he's not pooping, he's been on it two days.

So my question is what is safe to give to help ease the constipation?

 

[Maggie3fan]

Our sick baby leopard tortoise has been through a lot in the last few weeks. He has been on antibiotics for what appeared to be mouth rot of some sort and as he had stopped eating we were given the powered generic sustain food to syringe feed. He was still pooping albeit a different colour. After his last vet visit she put him on the critical care food as he had lost a bit of weight.

The critical care is high in Alfalfa which I'm worried as I had read babies shouldn't have Alfalfa hay and it seems now he's not pooping, he's been on it two days.

So my question is what is safe to give to help ease the constipation?

Frankly at this stage I would just be concerned in getting any calories in him, and didn't your Vet tell you what to do about getting rid of constipation? What makes you think he's constipated? Think about it...if he's stopped eating there is no food to become poop, and pooped out.

 

[Lorrained]

Frankly at this stage I would just be concerned in getting any calories in him, and didn't your Vet tell you what to do about getting rid of constipation? What makes you think he's constipated? Think about it...if he's stopped eating there is no food to become poop, and pooped out.

Hi,

Not sure if you misunderstood my post. He has being syringe fed, so food is going in and poop coming out, until last Wednesday when the vet changed the food over to the Critical Care. After two days on that he did not poop.

Someone else recommended cucumber juice, which I gave him a small amount of yesterday morning and more warm soaks. He did eventually poop yesterday and was impacted at the start, had great difficulty but then it was fine once he got through the worst. He has put on 2 grams and is trying to eat, he needs to learn again how to bite and use his jaw properly as he has been syringe fed and under vet care for around 4 weeks. Also, waiting on results of an x-ray taken last week, whether it will show anything else, I don't as his breathing etc. is all fine.

 

[Lyn W]

I'm so sorry you and he are going through all this.
I do hope he will get stronger soon.

 

[Tom]

Our sick baby leopard tortoise has been through a lot in the last few weeks. He has been on antibiotics for what appeared to be mouth rot of some sort and as he had stopped eating we were given the powered generic sustain food to syringe feed. He was still pooping albeit a different colour. After his last vet visit she put him on the critical care food as he had lost a bit of weight.

The critical care is high in Alfalfa which I'm worried as I had read babies shouldn't have Alfalfa hay and it seems now he's not pooping, he's been on it two days.

So my question is what is safe to give to help ease the constipation?

What size tortoise are we talking about? Are you soaking daily? Warm enclosure day and night? What are the temps?

 

[Lorrained]

I'm so sorry you and he are going through all this.
I do hope he will get stronger soon.

Thank you! Yes, it's always such a struggle when they are so small, very limited on what can be done. His x-rays came back as normal at least and I spoke again with the vet this evening about his food and I now have mastered getting the leafy greens pureed enough and the Mazuri pellets. She was happy with that as it is better that the other powered food. If he stops eating again the only other thing we can consider is oral antibiotics.

I suspect these two hatchlings are younger than we were told, but nothing I can do about that now. I have an older Leopard that is 16 months, who thrived from day one, so we did everything the same with these two, however results were drastically different...

 

[wellington]

Sounds like he might be on the path to getting better.
In the mean time he should be housed away from the others and if he is that much younger then the older one they shouldnt be housed with him at all.
Keep this one 5 degrees warmer day and night 85 degrees until he is 100% still giving a basking spot too and humidity.

 

[TeamZissou]

Am I reading it correctly that you have one older leopard, and two hatchlings that you've been keeping together and one is sick?

 

[Lorrained]

Am I reading it correctly that you have one older leopard, and two hatchlings that you've been keeping together and one is sick?

No, maybe that wasn't clear we have an older one 16 months, she is by herself and thrived from day one. The other two are hatchling that I bought together, they are separate. The one that was sick is getting stronger now still will be a long road but he is trying to eat on his own again and investigating all the food in the cage which is better than he was a few weeks ago, not moving much. He is getting more energy and we are still feeding him with a syringe twice a day.

All 3 are from the same breeder but two different mothers, same father.

 

[Yossarian]

Would you mind posting a few pics of the tortoise pls?