sneezing- normal or not?

[Edita]

Hi everybody!

I have a new hermanni, next to kreso and well she is great. except sneezing. that is really driving me crazy. in the morning and evening almost everyday she is sneezing. and a sound is also like from her nose. I talked to my vet and she told me it might be lack of vitC and I am adding it to the water but it doesn't seem to help. It is -10 outside and the vet told me I shouldn't take one year old hermanni out if she is awake and that it is just one symptom. she is strong, eating everyday a lot.

I have a theory that maybe it is cause of vitamin drops in the water. she is too small so I would know her weight so I need to see approximately and maybe I put more than I should.
Eyes are clear, nose is also but today I saw one bubble.
temperature is above 23 at night, heather, light...

Any advice???

 

[egyptiandan]

Hi Edita,
You really can't over do the vitamin C as what ever is not needed is just passed on through. Though lack of vitamin C is never the cause of a respiratory infection in tortoises. With the bubble it sounds like she has the beginings of an infection going on. Seeing as she's still eating, you can raise her enclosure temperature to 30C day and night for a couple of weeks. Sometimes the raise in temperature will be enough for them to fight off the infection on their own.
With it that cold outside I agree with the vet that it's not a good idea to bring her outside.

Maggie, Croatia

Danny

 

[Edita]

So for anybody who want to know what happened next...
so my little one was sneezing more and more... eating and all was almost normal. When my vet listened to her she heard her breathing hard and she was on antibiotics for 8 days and we sent her leftovers on analysis. They turned out normal. Some parasite eggs (excuse my bad english- these eggs are usually hellping in digesting cellulose's but when the tortoise is sick they can dame her) and she got some medication to help her clear from the eggs cause if she is week they can grow and on the way go trough lungs and damage them...
after medication it was obvious in their leftovers there were a lot of parasites and the analysis showed it was parasites causing the problem with breathing and lungs...


so 2 weeks later, she got a lot of weight...got bigger... sneezing less. breathing ok, and her system is clean of parasites. she needs time to get her breathing system back to normal.
the older tortoise-kreso...also had parasites but he was stronger and managed to fight them without problems...

 

[Yvonne G]

Edita: How lucky you are to have found that vet! He sounds like he really knows his business. I'm so happy your little one is doing better!

Yvonne

 

[Edita]

me too she is really great- the vet I mean. I was not sleeping so good lately, listening to sneezing all night...
but this could be good advice for anybody, cause except sneezing she was great... really active, eating... like I said ALMOST normal... and usually sneezing is connected to some diseases with more serious symptoms so this was confusing...

but it has all the sense now and I am happy everything is on a nice way to get better again

 

[RTfanatic]

My torts tend to let me know when I've let their substrate get too dry by sneezing. Shortly after I moisten it up again they stop sneezing. I think when it's too dry it becomes a little dusty and irritates their sinuses. Sounds like your vet's really helped, but it can't hurt to make sure the substrate is moist.