Very poorly Hermans

[Rachet83]

Hi all - I was hoping someone could give some advice on my very poorly Herman's.

He is 11 years old and has been hibernating for 5 years. He went into hibinatiion in December and came out in February with a snotty nose. I warmed him up and bathed him and it stopped. He had a wee and ate a little within the first 24 hours. 2days later he had stopped moving and had no energy. He was very weak and could no longer lift himself up. (My other Herman's by this point was very active and eating and drinking well). I took him to the vets and they thought he may have mouth rot as he had sores on his tongue. They gave him a shot of vitamins and some antibiotics. They sent me home with him with a seven day course of antibiotics. 4 days later he still wasn't eating, drinking or moving. I had been giving him baths to try and stop him dehydrating too much. I took him back to the vets and they decided to keep him in as he had lost weight. They spent 3.days governing him vitamins and tube feeding him with a rescue formulae. I then brought him home sand have continued to tube feed him 4 times a day with 5ml of this formulae. He still hasn't made any improvements. He has finished his antibiotic course and has a sticky mucus in his mouth which I'm cleaning out twice a day with an iodine solution (advised by vet). They have told me to keep tube feeding him until he eats but clearly something is very wrong. Although he has put on a bit of weight he has not passed any urine or pooh since he has been tube fed - that is approximately 12days of tube feeding and nothing to show for it. The vets are a bit stumped and can't give me much more help. Does anyone have any clues what the problem is, how long is it fair to keep tube feeding him?

Please help!

Thank you in advance

Rachel & milo

 

[Yvonne G]

I'm sorry, Rachel, but I don't think I have any words of wisdom for you. My first thought as I was reading the post was that he had a respiratory infection, but then you mentioned the lesions in his mouth.

I don't think I would have tubed the tortoise just yet. They can go a pretty long time without eating. And the food is processed through the tortoise's body very slowly. You might be putting too much food in there and he can't handle it.

Best thing to start off with when you notice your tortoise is sick is to set him up in a smaller hospital tank where you can keep the temperature up to about 85F degrees all over the tank. Keep him quiet.

Maybe you can find another vet experienced with tortoises and get a second opinion?

 

[kimber_lee_314]

Whenever I hear of mouth lesions, I think of the herpes virus. I had this once when someone brought me a DT that had been living with several Russians. Russians seem to carry this virus. The virus can't be treated of course, but medications can be given to get rid of the lesions (acyclovir - just like with humans who have the virus.) This did work in the case of this DT and once the lesions were gone (which actually went all the way down his throat) he was able to eat again. While he was healing I kept him extra warm and well hydrated by giving him small amounts of Pedialite. I'm not saying this is what your Hermann's has, but it might be something to discuss with your vet. Please keep us updated.

 

[Rachet83]

Thank you for your advice. I will call my vet tomorrow and see if they will follow up on treating the herpies. He clearly has a sore mouth and I feel that this is the most likely diagnosis. I was also concerned about the amount of fluid I've been pumping into him so I will ease off on this and hope that will help him feel more comfortable. I will let you know how I get on. X

 

[Pokeymeg]

Re: RE: Very poorly Hermans

Thank you for your advice. I will call my vet tomorrow and see if they will follow up on treating the herpies. He clearly has a sore mouth and I feel that this is the most likely diagnosis. I was also concerned about the amount of fluid I've been pumping into him so I will ease off on this and hope that will help him feel more comfortable. I will let you know how I get on. X

How is he doing? Any new diagnosis?

 

[Rachet83]

Unfortunately I had to let him go yesterday. I took him back to the vets on Monday, he'd started gasping so I was obviously concerned that not only was he not improving but he had got worse.

They had a look at him and agreed he was worse and said they would give him another dose of antibiotics. I then explained the advice and suggestions I had been given on here, trying hard not to belittle him but I was not happy to continue with the treatment plan he had.

He referred my on to another vet quite a distance away. I took him there on Tuesday and she was immediately very concerned.she hospitalised him and put him on oxygen and gave him fluids and different antibiotics. She bathed him and finally he passed some urine and pee which he hadn't done for 3 weeks. She x-rayed his lungs and although there was an infection there was no fluid or ulcers, so it looked a bit promising but he took a turn for the worse during the night. He had more fluids and was out on a nebuliser yesterday morning but he didn't respond so I decided enough was enough for the poor little chap.

I'm not in a position to postmortem so I won't ever find out what went wrong.

Thank you for your comments and concern.

Rip milo x x x x

 

[Pokeymeg]

That's terrible news, I'm very sorry to hear that

(When my little tortoise died a couple years ago I couldn't bear the thought of an autopsy either. Made me sick to think of it.)