threeboxerlover
Member
Hello. My daughter and I have both posted here several times about our little tort, Franklin, and we've gotten some great info, advice and opinions and now we need more 
We recently got another tort (Eleanor) who is just about 5 months old now (separate habitats) and after seeing her we realized that something was just not right with Frankie. So in mid July we took Frank to a vet (recommended on here) to check his eyes. The vet thought he was blind (we never used a coil bulb) and very small for his age (2), as well as suffering from some neurological problem. He's only 42 grams about about 2 inches. He will not eat Mazuri although we offer it every day, he does eat his greens and since giving him eye drops, his one eye is great and he can obviously see, his other is still improving. He eats, he basks, he gets regular soaks, he tramples around his habitat, he sleeps in his spider plant rather than his hide. He just went back for a recheck and the doctor confirmed the temps, humidity, etc was all very good and felt we need to supplement him with flax oil and red palm oil a few times a week. I've never seen that recommendation on here and frankly, the vet is not inspiring a lot of confidence in me as she also said she thought his kidneys were failing since he hadn't gained any weight in three weeks despite eating. He's smaller than Eleanor and definitely lighter, she also eats ALL her mazuri every day as well as all her greens. They both get calcium D3 supplement sprinkled on their foods occasionally and also have cuttle bones available. So my questions are - have any of you ever heard of supplementing with red palm or flax oil? I do not think he has kidney failure - he's not sick - he's just not thriving, growing. We love him and will do whatever it takes to get him on the road to better health. Thank you in advance for any suggestions. Bobbi and Stephanie
We recently got another tort (Eleanor) who is just about 5 months old now (separate habitats) and after seeing her we realized that something was just not right with Frankie. So in mid July we took Frank to a vet (recommended on here) to check his eyes. The vet thought he was blind (we never used a coil bulb) and very small for his age (2), as well as suffering from some neurological problem. He's only 42 grams about about 2 inches. He will not eat Mazuri although we offer it every day, he does eat his greens and since giving him eye drops, his one eye is great and he can obviously see, his other is still improving. He eats, he basks, he gets regular soaks, he tramples around his habitat, he sleeps in his spider plant rather than his hide. He just went back for a recheck and the doctor confirmed the temps, humidity, etc was all very good and felt we need to supplement him with flax oil and red palm oil a few times a week. I've never seen that recommendation on here and frankly, the vet is not inspiring a lot of confidence in me as she also said she thought his kidneys were failing since he hadn't gained any weight in three weeks despite eating. He's smaller than Eleanor and definitely lighter, she also eats ALL her mazuri every day as well as all her greens. They both get calcium D3 supplement sprinkled on their foods occasionally and also have cuttle bones available. So my questions are - have any of you ever heard of supplementing with red palm or flax oil? I do not think he has kidney failure - he's not sick - he's just not thriving, growing. We love him and will do whatever it takes to get him on the road to better health. Thank you in advance for any suggestions. Bobbi and Stephanie
