URGENT ADVICE REQUIRED!!

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maudethetortoise

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I am the proud owner of a 2 year old (we think) Russian. My tortoise has just begun waking from hibernation and she can't open her eyes. They're swollen and when she does manage to open them there's a thick white covering. I have only had maude since last July and this was our first hibernation. She was fit and healthy before hibernation and I have been giving her a daily soak in warm water. She lives in a vivarium with a thermostatic heater and UVB light and she is moving but not much. This is only day 3 of her waking up and I don't know if this is normal (I think not) or if I should b heading to the vets. Please help I'd be inconsolable if anything happened to her.
 

Yvonne G

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Hi Maudethetortoise:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

What would you like us to call you?

...and may we know appx. where in the world you are?

You're going to need to warm this guy up warmer than normal. Place him in a hospital tank (smaller than his habitat) and make it overall 80 degrees. Soak the tortoise every day. It would help if you add either bird vitamins or strained carrots baby food to the soaking water. It sounds like the tortoise has "eye caps." That is a solid form of pus that has hardened over the eye. Lots of soakings will loosen the caps and help them to peel off on their own. If you think the tortoise may be suffering from a respiratory infection, then he'll need antibiotics, so a visit to the vet is in order. But try the warm baby food soaks for at least three days (at least a half hour each soak) and if you see no improvement, then go to the vet.
 

dmarcus

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Hello and welcome to the forum..

I would go with what Yvonne said, she knows her stuff...
 

ascott

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Go with Yvonnes advice..good stuff.

May I ask where about in the world you are? Where physically did your tortoise brumate? What type of brumation container did you use? What material did you put in with him during brumation? How long did he brumate for from start to physically coming out of hibernacle? Did he go into brumation with a full stomach or did he go in without food in his stomach? You say he is two, who had him prior? Is this his first brumation? What was the coolest and warmest of his hibernacle? Did you bring him out at anytime to soak him to rehydrate?
 

Yvonne G

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Just a note here...Angela's questions serve to educate all of us on brumation techniques and are not meant to be accusatory. We all learn from each other, and the more information you can give us, the better we understand the situation. I'm glad that Angela's "inquiring mind" asked these questions.
 

ascott

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Oh yes, Yvonne is absolutely correct....my questions truly are to be only intended to always know more....I am a host to four Ca Desert Tortoise and am always always always trying to gain as much information as possible....as I also support brumation as a practice for the brumating tortoise in my care. Oh so please do know my questions truly are from a good place. Thank you Yvonne for touching on this :D
 

JonahQKline

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All I'm gonna say is do what Yvonne says lol. She Preety much completed what I was gonna say.
 

maudethetortoise

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Hello everyone and thanks for your advice. My name is Nicola and in the uk. Sorry taking so long to reply but this app doesn't always let me post. Since my post I've had maude to the vet who attempted to remove the mucus in her eyes by squirting saline into her eyes. This didn't work and the vet suggested he give her a vitamin injection which I refused at this stage (was I wrong?) he then gave me some antibiotic cream to put in her eyes twice daily and told me to come back in a week. Well almost a week later her eyes look slightly less swollen but there is still a mucus plug over her eyes. The vet said that he would have to anaesthetise her and scrape the stuff off her eyes if they hadn't cleared in a week. I am beside myself now as she is still blind and doesn't appear to be eating. I am continuing to bath her and she is drinking, however, she sleeps most of the day and isn't very active at all. As for info she decided to take herself into hibernation as she stopped eating and drinking herself around the end of October. She is kept in a vivarium with a UVB strip light and a ceramic basking heater/lamp. When I realised that she was hibernating (despite my best efforts to stop her) I placed her in a shoe box with shredded paper and placed the box in the vivarium obviously turning the heat and UVB off. The vivarium is kept in my dinning room so temperature wise I'm assuming was normal room temp. Sorry, I realise I sound like an idiot who knows nothing but maude really is a well loved member of our family and I endeavour to learn more everyday. All advice is greatly appreciated xx
 

Yvonne G

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Hi Nicola:

Please soak the tortoise every day in warm water. Have the water be deep enough so that it comes right up to the nose when the animal is in a resting position. Leave her in the water for at least a half hour. This will soften the eye caps and help them to come off. The soaking along with the eye cream should do the trick.

You were correct to not allow the vitamin injection. If you add strained carrots baby food to the soaking water, its as good as a vitamin injection.

The longer she soaks the better. So maybe you can position a light over one edge of the soaking tub so it will not get too cold.

After soaking and putting on the cream for 3 days, you can then gently try to lift up a corner of the eye cap and see if its ready to come off. I don't like the idea that the vet said "scrape." You should NEVER force the cap off or scrape it off. It will come off by itself very easily without any scraping, just by lifting it off.

Your dining room might not be warm enough. When you have a sick turtle/tortoise, you have to raise the normal temp up to in the 80'sF.
 

maudethetortoise

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Hi thanks for that. My vivarium has a thermostat and I have been keeping the heat around 85 since she woke up. She has tonight started to eat and one of the eye caps seems to have slid down since I put some cod liver oil onto her eyes tonight. Thanks again for your help. I will post a pic as soon as this app allows me x
 
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