very weak back legs

[babsdiv]

I'm new here and I really need some help. One day this past May I put my 6 year old male sulcata outside to graze and everything was great. Went shopping and came back and he was no longer using his back legs, just attempting to walk by dragging his legs behind. I took him to the vet who did xrays and blood work. The vet said everything looks good just give him a prescription calcium supplement and that should help. Well, all six years of his life I sprinkled calcium and vitamins on his food as well as giving him cuttlebone. He eats timothy hay, cactus, grazes outside (weather permitting), occassionally he gets romaine and dark greens. But he still cannot use his back legs. He is 35+ pounds so that's a load to drag around. Three months of prescription calcium and outdoor sunlight and no improvement. Any ideas?

 

[Tim/Robin]

A bit more familiar with people, but paralysis generally is caused by one of a few things. One could be spinal cord damage. How old is your tortoise? Since you mentioned none, its assumed there was no injury to your tortoise.

Also, neurtoxins can cause paralysis. Our environment has many types of neurotoxins, but it would be hard to imagine your tortoise coming in contact with these while in your backyard. Where do you live? Better chances of winning the lottery than your tortoise coming into contact with say a venomous snake or something. There are cases of ticks causing paralysis in tortoises. Have you inspected your tort that closley?

People can have their own immune system respond incorrectly to an illness and then attacks itself in an illness called Guillain-Barré syndrome. Symptoms include paralysis beginning in legs and working itself towards the head with time. Unlikely that this illness effects reptiles, however.

If it were us, we would seek a more knowledgeable veterinarian. One who specializes in reptiles. Maybe someone in the forum can point you to a good vet if we knew where you live. It seems absurd that any vet would be ok with not finding answers to something as debilitating as paralysis. And since May?!

 

[babsdiv]

Thanks Tim/Robin. There were no injuries, no venomous snakes in my area and did not see any mark or any outside physical problems. The vet gave me a three month or so supply of calcium and said it may take that long. I can't wait any longer. This is really worrying me. I can't stand watching him trying to move around that way and not doing anything more. Also I can't find any other reptile vets in my area. I live in the suburbs outside Philadelphia, PA, so if anyone here knows of a good reptile vet in this area I would love to here from you.

 

[Crazy1]

I am sorry I do not know of any vets in your area. Hopefully someone in your area will post. I have heard of Torts being stung by spiders like black widows that can cause paralysis.

 

[jlyoncc1]

Hi babsdiv - I recently had a box turtle that became "paralyzed". All of his legs were unable to move but especially his front legs. He became very swollen. I took him to a wonderful vet and we were unable to pinpoint anything but she spoke with a friend vet in AZ and we all had the same opinion that he was bitten by something. Spider is my guess as we do have black widows here in NJ. Which leads to my next thing. I am not far from you and I thought this vet was wonderful. She has a sulcata of her own . It should probably be within an hour for you to get there. Marlton Animal Hospital 856-983-5350. Her name is Honey Rothberg. She has really taken care to check my torts and turtles thoroughly, I never felt rushed. Good Luck and let me know how you make out. By the way, we put my boxie on antibiotics and he is now almost fully recovered.

 

[Yvonne G]

I think you are right to worry and not want to wait the full three months to see improvement. Just in case you didn't know, in order for the calcium to be able to be absorbed and used by the tortoises body, he needs the vit. d3 from the sun. You can feed all the calcium you can, but without d3, it will just go right through the tortoise. I sounds to me like what Leslie says, metabolic bone disease. The best way for you to get calcium into your tortoise now, is liquid. There is a product called Calcionate, and also a product called Neocalglucon. Both of these liquid calcium supplements will require the tortoise to be either put out in the sun for the d3, or under a UVB/UVA light for the d3 it provides. Did you say you are in Penn.? I did a GOOGLE search for Vets for Herps, and came up with this page: http://www.herpvetconnection.com/penn.shtml

You can do a search of your own. Just go to GOOGLE and put in reptile veterinarians Pennsylvania and you might be able to find someone close to you. There is also a YAHOO group called http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vets_for_herps/ The vets on the group list are all submitted by the members, and are probably pretty good with reptiles.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Yvonne

 

[DAC8671]

Can you go to the zoo and ask one of the keepers? Maybe they can help you out.