Sick baby sulcata - time for vet

Jenna kamenski

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Dec 27, 2017
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trooper is still sick...not eating and only moving around a little bit

He becomes a bit more active after I give him warm soaks...from reading on here I've done warm water with carrot baby food...since he's not eating is this a decent way for him to get some type of nutrients?? Is there anything I can do to give him nutrients since he won't eat??

Anyway, going to call a vet tomorrow to see about when I can get in...read nothing but good reviews about this vet...so what I want to know is, anything I should be worried about? Any comments or suggestions since this is my first time taking a tortoise to a vet?? I remembered reading a couple times on here about people mentioning to decline a certain shot??? Anything I should know??

Any type of feedback would be appreciated!
 

Yvonne G

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Do you have a temp gun and have you tested the temperature all over the floor of the whole enclosure? These types of problems usually occur because the tortoise isn't warm enough.

Don't allow the vet to give the tortoise the A, D, E injection.
 

Jenna kamenski

Active Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2017
Messages
94
Location (City and/or State)
South Carolina
Do you have a temp gun and have you tested the temperature all over the floor of the whole enclosure? These types of problems usually occur because the tortoise isn't warm enough.

Don't allow the vet to give the tortoise the A, D, E injection.
Yes I do have a temp gun...went to lowes a couple nights ago to get one...saw that many people were talking about those in different forums

We did struggle for a bit to get the temps correct but I think we're starting to get on track

Basking is between 95-102
Cooler side is between 75-85
Humidity is 60%...I know it needs to be at 80, correct? This is the part we struggle with the most

We do plan on going to lowes and getting stuff to build him a new enclosure

Will those injections possibly harm the tortoise? I'm new to the tortoise world, what's the reasoning behind not wanting them to?

Also, saw that you moved my thread to a different area...sorry if I posted incorrectly...I'm new to this whole forum thing all together, so I'm trying to learn :)

Thank you for your reply Yvonne, I've been reading and following a lot of what you've posted in the past :)
 

Yvonne G

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Quite a few vets get the dosage wrong and give the baby too much vitamin A. This causes the tortoise's skin to slough off. Then you have to deal with infection of the raw areas. Some vets get it right, but we have no way of knowing which ones understand.

For baby tortoises I don't worry about a warm side/cool side. I keep the whole enclosure 80F - 85F.

It's a whole lot easier to keep the humidity up if you figure out a way to cover the enclosure.
 

Jenna kamenski

Active Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2017
Messages
94
Location (City and/or State)
South Carolina
Quite a few vets get the dosage wrong and give the baby too much vitamin A. This causes the tortoise's skin to slough off. Then you have to deal with infection of the raw areas. Some vets get it right, but we have no way of knowing which ones understand.

For baby tortoises I don't worry about a warm side/cool side. I keep the whole enclosure 80F - 85F.

It's a whole lot easier to keep the humidity up if you figure out a way to cover the enclosure.
For right now we have it covered with a flat cardboard box and that's been helping with temps and helping raise the humidity some

He's still not better and it's breaking our hearts, so I'm going to call a vet in the area in a couple hours...was so thankful to see that there was a list posted on here of available vets that will see exotic animals, if that didn't exist I wouldn't of known what to do!

I'm really worried that myturtlestore.com may of sold us a sick tortoise bc after I received him I was researching info on sulcatas and came across some bad reviews of that site sending off sick tortoises...they definitely sent us trooper way too early...:(
 
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