OMary
Member
My leopard tortoise has a URI. "She" is about 400g. It appears to be only in the eyes, meaning I am not seeing any bubbles in the nose, just a spot of "goop" in the eye(s) and sometimes unable to open them in the a.m. As the weather was cooling here, night temps dropped to 77 and I didn't immediately catch it. I think that was the cause. Since then, night temps have been 81-82, daytime ambient is 86-88 (up from 84-86), basking area 100-105, humidity 85% (I bumped it up from 80% a month or two ago because there is some pyramiding)- this didn't help when the night temp fell to 77. Substrate is topsoil, cypress mulch in the humid hide. UVB, CHE present.
This URI started about 2 weeks ago. I caught it late, about Day 3 of symptoms, looking back. There were 2 mornings that I was in a hurry for her bath and do believe I had to wake her up for her bath, which is not typical. By that Sat. morning, her eyes were sealed shut and she wasn't eating. I bumped all temps up. By Sunday evening there was some improvement.
I was in the middle of a family emergency, not knowing if I would have to get on a plane at anytime to leave (which is why it wasn't caught immediately too), so I took her to vet that Tues.- I didn't want to chance leaving my partner with a very sick tortoise if I had to leave. Xrays ruled out LRI. The vet recommended Ofloxacin eye and nasal drops, and injected antibiotics. Since she seemed to be on the mend and I don't like to do unnecessary systemic antibiotics, I asked if we could do a swab before starting antibiotics- she was thinking tort has mycoplasma. It took another day until vet had info needed to do mycoplasma swab (obviously they aren't doing many of these) to send to lab in Florida. When I took the tort back to the vet for the swab the following day, she was feeling well enough by then to completely tuck into her shell and they weren't able to get a swab. Since she was obviously feeling better, vet told me I didn't even need to start the eye/nasal drops.
About 24-48 hrs later, she was still obviously somewhat better, but I was still seeing goop in the eyes, so I decided to start the drops. This was about 1 week ago or so. Tort is eating after I place her into food dish after morning bath. She is taking herself to the food dish in the afternoon as well (which is a definite improvement!), but she is still not waking herself up in the morning. Yesterday I waited until noon to bathe her and she still hadn't been up that I know of (I did leave the house for a bit). She is gaining weight again, but she is not 100%.
I am wondering a couple things- is this typical recovery time, or should I be worried? Anything else I should do, like maybe the injections, further increase temps, bath twice daily, etc.? And are these Oflaxacin drops an appropriate antibiotic in your opinion? I was seeing different ones listed on another tortoise site, but I didn't check to see if it was the same class of antibiotics.
Sorry this is ridiculously long, just wanted to give a clear picture. @Tom I know you are busy, but would love your experienced take on this!
This URI started about 2 weeks ago. I caught it late, about Day 3 of symptoms, looking back. There were 2 mornings that I was in a hurry for her bath and do believe I had to wake her up for her bath, which is not typical. By that Sat. morning, her eyes were sealed shut and she wasn't eating. I bumped all temps up. By Sunday evening there was some improvement.
I was in the middle of a family emergency, not knowing if I would have to get on a plane at anytime to leave (which is why it wasn't caught immediately too), so I took her to vet that Tues.- I didn't want to chance leaving my partner with a very sick tortoise if I had to leave. Xrays ruled out LRI. The vet recommended Ofloxacin eye and nasal drops, and injected antibiotics. Since she seemed to be on the mend and I don't like to do unnecessary systemic antibiotics, I asked if we could do a swab before starting antibiotics- she was thinking tort has mycoplasma. It took another day until vet had info needed to do mycoplasma swab (obviously they aren't doing many of these) to send to lab in Florida. When I took the tort back to the vet for the swab the following day, she was feeling well enough by then to completely tuck into her shell and they weren't able to get a swab. Since she was obviously feeling better, vet told me I didn't even need to start the eye/nasal drops.
About 24-48 hrs later, she was still obviously somewhat better, but I was still seeing goop in the eyes, so I decided to start the drops. This was about 1 week ago or so. Tort is eating after I place her into food dish after morning bath. She is taking herself to the food dish in the afternoon as well (which is a definite improvement!), but she is still not waking herself up in the morning. Yesterday I waited until noon to bathe her and she still hadn't been up that I know of (I did leave the house for a bit). She is gaining weight again, but she is not 100%.
I am wondering a couple things- is this typical recovery time, or should I be worried? Anything else I should do, like maybe the injections, further increase temps, bath twice daily, etc.? And are these Oflaxacin drops an appropriate antibiotic in your opinion? I was seeing different ones listed on another tortoise site, but I didn't check to see if it was the same class of antibiotics.
Sorry this is ridiculously long, just wanted to give a clear picture. @Tom I know you are busy, but would love your experienced take on this!
