Tortoise has his eyes closed!

StephLD

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Hi everyone,
Was looking for some advice for our little tortoise. We brought him home in September and about a month after that I noticed he was keeping his eyes closed. We made sure you give him time to bathe and he did appear to try cleaning his eyes but nothing changed. We arranged to see a vet who gave us some drops to try but nothing has changed.
He is still eating well and is a very active little tortoise but I just feel bad that something is clearly wrong.
He is a Hermann tortoise and just over a year old so still young. We have a tortoise table set up with a heat/UV lamp at one end and a covered end at the other side.
Any advice would be appreciated!
 

Maggie3fan

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Can you post a photo of his set up? It sounds to me as tho it is a lighting problem or temperature. He may be too cold.
 

JoesMum

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It’s impossible to see what bulbs you have there.
Your tortoise needs a basking bulb which hangs down vertically (not at an angle like yours) and has 95-100F/35-37C at tortoise level directly underneath.

It also needs a UVB source. If your basking bulb is a Mercury Vapor Bulb (MVB) which emits both heat and UVB then you’re covered.

If there’s a compact UVB bulb in here with the basking bulb in some sort of double holder then we have your problem. The compact UvB bulbs regul cause eye problems. Take it out of the fitting and just leave the basking bulb; but a tube IVB and fitting and use that instead.

You have a very small tortoise in an open enclosure and it will be impossible to keep him warm and humid enough in there.

Read this thread by @Tom and compare his setup with yours. You have some changes to make.
 

Tom

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Yeah sure.
Those clamps always fail. Hang your bulb from over head. Your enclosure is also too dry, and mercury vapor bulbs cause pyramiding through carapace desiccation. I think that bulb being too close and at that angle is burning your tortoise eyes. One bulb doesn't do it in most cases. You need at least two or three for basking, ambient light, and UV.

Read the care sheet that Joe's Mum posted for the correct care info. Questions are welcome.
 

StephLD

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It is a MVB but I will definitely change it to hang overhead.
I was under the impression that it should be kept dry for Hermann tortoises as they are Mediterranean species? We were told by our vet that we should keep at least half his enclosure out of the range of the bulb so that it has a cooler section. Is this right?
 

Yvonne G

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It's really pretty impossible to keep that whole tort table warm enough for a baby tortoise with the light clamped onto the side like you have it. Try to figure out some sort of light rack that goes up and over the whole table, then you can hang more than one fixture to cover the whole table. This is just to give you an example:

light stand d.jpglight stand g.jpglights 1.jpglights b.jpg

I think your little guy isn't warm enough.

The light hanging fixtures shown in the third picture, the one with the cardboard box, are manufactured by Zoo Med and can be bought online.

Yes, he needs a little humidity in his enclosure, but I wouldn't add any water until you get the enclosure heated up. Humidity and too cool is worse than no humidity.
 

StephLD

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It's really pretty impossible to keep that whole tort table warm enough for a baby tortoise with the light clamped onto the side like you have it. Try to figure out some sort of light rack that goes up and over the whole table, then you can hang more than one fixture to cover the whole table. This is just to give you an example:

View attachment 312632View attachment 312633View attachment 312634View attachment 312635

I think your little guy isn't warm enough.

The light hanging fixtures shown in the third picture, the one with the cardboard box, are manufactured by Zoo Med and can be bought online.

Yes, he needs a little humidity in his enclosure, but I wouldn't add any water until you get the enclosure heated up. Humidity and too cool is worse than no humidity.

Ah this makes more sense to me! I’ll get my husband to get one made this weekend! Thank you, I couldn’t quite work out the best to do it.
 

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