Tortoise possibly posioned, HELP NEEDED!

[DIMAV22]

Hello,

I might have really messed up with my Russian Tortoise. When I was working on my yard yesterday I saw some beautiful purple flowers growing and thought Koopa would love these so I fed him one folower and he seemed to love it. An hour later I went to look at him and he was laying very splayed out and foam was coming from his mouth. I soaked him in some water and he didn't move around much. This morning he moved around and dug some holes around his enclosure. But he seems really sick and isn't eating or moving much.

 

[Maro2Bear]

Greetings. Sorry to hear of this. You definitely need to hydrate! A ton of many long warm water soaks.

I’m trying ti ID that flower/bush/vine….but where is Youngsville? It kind of looks like a clematis or azalea or laurel. A bit hard to tell.

See if you can ID the plant….

 

[DIMAV22]

Greetings. Sorry to hear of this. You definitely need to hydrate! A ton of many long warm water soaks.

I’m trying ti ID that flower/bush/vine….but where is Youngsville? It kind of looks like a clematis or azalea or laurel. A bit hard to tell.

See if you can ID the plant….

 

[DIMAV22]

I've been looking hard to try to find this plant without much luck. It in Youngsville Louisiana and it's a bush. With lots of pink flowers on it. Right now most of the buds are closed. I opened one up to take a photo.

 

[DIMAV22]

I think it is an Azalea

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Has it been 24 hours yet?
Since nothing was administered for a poisoning. And it does sound like he was poisoned. If he is acting at least relatively normal now I'd assume he's going to continue to recover.
If he's still very sick, I'd bring him and one of those plants to my vet right away

 

[DIMAV22]

Myes it's been 24 hours and he still seems very sick. He threw up this morning and does seem to be getting better. He does more around a bit and has been digging off and on. I did read that the Azalea plants are very toxic and fatal to tortoises.

 

[zolasmum]

Myes it's been 24 hours and he still seems very sick. He threw up this morning and does seem to be getting better. He does more around a bit and has been digging off and on. I did read that the Azalea plants are very toxic and fatal to tortoises.

I'm so sorry. I wonder if giving him something to flush it through like lots of sliced peeled cucumber might help -getting some fluid down him - but I am not an expert, so I don't know.
I hope he soon feels better.
Angie

 

[Yvonne G]

Lots of long soaks and hopefully you can flush out the toxins

 

[Maro2Bear]

I'm so sorry. I wonder if giving him something to flush it through like lots of sliced peeled cucumber might help -getting some fluid down him - but I am not an expert, so I don't know.
I hope he soon feels better.
Angie

The problem with a sick/poisoned tortoise is it’s hard to get them to eat things that might help out. Soaking is passive & that might help dilute the plant toxins. @zovick usually has sound advice. 🤒

 

[zovick]

The problem with a sick/poisoned tortoise is it’s hard to get them to eat things that might help out. Soaking is passive & that might help dilute the plant toxins. @zovick usually has sound advice. 🤒

It does appear to be an Azalea which are members of the Rhododendron family. Both are toxic.

Not sure what the best treatment would be at this time, other than what the previous posts have recommended. If it were my tortoise, I would just try feeding him his normal diet and soaking him once or twice daily for now. If he only ate a single flower, hopefully he didn't get a big load of toxic material and should recover in a day or two, IMHO.

Note that both the flowers and leaves of the Azaleas and Rhododendrons are considered to be toxic.

 

[DIMAV22]

It does appear to be an Azalea which are members of the Rhododendron family. Both are toxic.

Not sure what the best treatment would be at this time, other than what the previous posts have recommended. If it were my tortoise, I would just try feeding him his normal diet and soaking him once or twice daily for now. If he only ate a single flower, hopefully he didn't get a big load of toxic material and should recover in a day or two, IMHO.

Note that both the flowers and leaves of the Azaleas and Rhododendrons are considered to be toxic.

Thank you for your help. It's highly appreciated. He seems to be coming back around. For a while there I thought he was going to die and it really scared me. My daughter would of been completely distraught.

 

[zovick]

Thank you for your help. It's highly appreciated. He seems to be coming back around. For a while there I thought he was going to die and it really scared me. My daughter would of been completely distraught.

No problem! Good luck with the tortoise.

As I said, I believe that he will make a full recovery in 24-48 hours.

 

[Tom]

In addition to the recommend long warm soaks once or twice a day, feed him a bunch of romaine, cucumber, zucchini, green or red leaf lettuce, and things like that to put a lot of water into him. Spray the foods with water too. These are not items I would normally recommend, but all are very high in water content, so they serve a purpose right now.

And get rid of that toxic bush and replace it with something that is good for tortoises to eat. I figure: If you are going to spend time, effort, money and space on a plant, it might as well be something edible for you or your tortoise, right? Its just a question of time until a windy day blows another flower or two into your enclosure.

 

[Sassafras]

Try to get some Activated Charcoal into him. It’ll adsorb and eliminate poisonous toxins. I once used this on a cat who had eaten some of that poisonous catfood that had been recalled in the past, and it worked really well.
Sprinkle it on food, add it to water hes soaking in, or drinks... anyway you can get it in him.

 

[DIMAV22]

**UPDATE** I ended up soaking him every two hours for about 20 minutes. I would fill the water high enough to make sure he would swallow some. He looked really rough and kept having foam coming out of his mouth. After about his 6th soak he started to look better and I heard him digging last night around 8pm. This morning he is much more active he doesn't have foam coming from his mouth and I got him to eat a good amount of cucumber. Right now he's alert and playing around in his enclosure.

 

[Maro2Bear]

**UPDATE** I ended up soaking him every two hours for about 20 minutes. I would fill the water high enough to make sure he would swallow some. He looked really rough and kept having foam coming out of his mouth. After about his 6th soak he started to look better and I heard him digging last night around 8pm. This morning he is much more active he doesn't have foam coming from his mouth and I got him to eat a good amount of cucumber. Right now he's alert and playing around in his enclosure.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

 

[Ciri]

I'm glad to hear that he is improving. When my desert tortoise ate a poisonous mushroom my veterinarian administered activated charcoal. It's very good at absorbing toxins. But I think the only way to get it into their system effectively is to have a veterinarian do it. Putting it on the food will cause it to absorb the nutrients in the food rather than the toxins. I hope he continues improving.

 

[DIMAV22]

 

[DIMAV22]

**UPDATE 2**
As of 7pm tonight he seems to be back to his normal self. He's been eating, pooping, and very playful. Thank you to everyone who replied and helped me with this ordeal. The way he looked Friday night and Saturday morning I honestly thought he was a goner. But he pulled through and the plants growing in that yard that caused this are now gone. From now on only tortoise friendly plants will be growing in my yard.