Tortoise choking?

[victoria88]

He keeps stretching his neck out and opening his mouth? He did it right after eating and now seems to be doing it quite often. We've literally just beat a bacterial infection that I thought I would lose him to and now this ?

 

[Ink]

@Yvonne G might be able to help.

 

[wellington]

Take a piece of wood like a dowel or pop cycle stick and when he opens his mouth use the stick to keep it open so you can use a flash light and see if there is anything in his throat that you could possibly be able to pull out.
Use plastic tongs like used for feeding reptiles of chop sticks to pull it out carefully and slowly.

 

[victoria88]

Hes absolutely tiny, when I try and "v" his head with my fingers his head just slips through, I managed to shine a torch under his chin and whenever he opened his mouth it lit up his throat, I couldn't see anything obvious if there is a blockage so if it's something stuck it's further down. I have just noticed he has "puffed up" again though, so we will be back to the vets first thing as for now he appears to have stopped doing the neck stretching/gasping thing as just sleeping. But I will be demanding blood tests and xrays tomorrow rather than just being given more anti biotics!

 

[Yvonne G]

That's usually a sign of a respiratory infection. Tortoises only breathe through their nose, so when the nose is plugged they just don't breathe. Eventually it becomes necessary for them to take in oxygen so they open their mouth and gasp in some air.

You can buy a squeeze bottle of sterile saline solution from the contact lens section of the pharmacy. Give each nostril a couple firm squirts to clear out any obstruction. Don't worry about it going into the lungs because the other end of the nares ends up in the roof of the mouth, not down the throat.

 

[victoria88]

He did start blowing bubbles out of his nose when drinking. And that's when it got worse!