JayJay
New Member
Hello All! Sorry in advance for the length. I just want to include all information that may possibly be relevant, also, I'm just too wordy.
I have an African Leopard Tortoise who showed up in my front yard about a year ago. We searched for the owners to no avail. Her shell was in bad shape, a bit deformed and missing schutes. We took her to a reptile vet and had her checked over. She got a clean bill of health so we researched, built her a heated house, named her Tina, and she's been running things in our backyard ever since.
We unexpectedly got a lot of rain and some unusually cold temps these past few weeks so I brought her and her panel heater into the house and got a uv light. She's big so the only thing I have to fit her is a giant dog crate. I put some towels down and got her all set up so she jusy comes in during the downpour. She's been eating great, drinking, and she moves around the crate plenty, coming out to bask and then going back to hide in the box. She seems comfortable enough for a temporary situation.
Well today, I gave her some romaine and she came running up to the door when she saw I had it. Active as ever. She ate on it for quite a while and then very suddenly started exhaling- those deep, sharp exhales they use when they're scared, expel air, and tuck into their shell quickly. Only no one was around. I was all the way in the kitchen when I heard it. And she keeps doing it. Been doing it for an hour now. Two or three deep exhale hisses then nothing for ten minutes. Repeat. I watched her a few times and some liquid came out of her nose one of the times, but not bubbles. It was like when I come up out of a pool and blow water out of my nose.
Is something stuck in her nose? She won't let me look closely. Did she somehow get water up there? I would worry that maybe substrate got in her nose but she's on a towel. Does this sound like an RI? It just came on so suddenly, I have no idea what's happening. She's not lethargic or anything. Any ideas? We'll head to the emergency vet tomorrow but that doesn't alleviate my worry at this moment.
I have an African Leopard Tortoise who showed up in my front yard about a year ago. We searched for the owners to no avail. Her shell was in bad shape, a bit deformed and missing schutes. We took her to a reptile vet and had her checked over. She got a clean bill of health so we researched, built her a heated house, named her Tina, and she's been running things in our backyard ever since.
We unexpectedly got a lot of rain and some unusually cold temps these past few weeks so I brought her and her panel heater into the house and got a uv light. She's big so the only thing I have to fit her is a giant dog crate. I put some towels down and got her all set up so she jusy comes in during the downpour. She's been eating great, drinking, and she moves around the crate plenty, coming out to bask and then going back to hide in the box. She seems comfortable enough for a temporary situation.
Well today, I gave her some romaine and she came running up to the door when she saw I had it. Active as ever. She ate on it for quite a while and then very suddenly started exhaling- those deep, sharp exhales they use when they're scared, expel air, and tuck into their shell quickly. Only no one was around. I was all the way in the kitchen when I heard it. And she keeps doing it. Been doing it for an hour now. Two or three deep exhale hisses then nothing for ten minutes. Repeat. I watched her a few times and some liquid came out of her nose one of the times, but not bubbles. It was like when I come up out of a pool and blow water out of my nose.
Is something stuck in her nose? She won't let me look closely. Did she somehow get water up there? I would worry that maybe substrate got in her nose but she's on a towel. Does this sound like an RI? It just came on so suddenly, I have no idea what's happening. She's not lethargic or anything. Any ideas? We'll head to the emergency vet tomorrow but that doesn't alleviate my worry at this moment.
