whats the biggest urate youve seen ?

[ADVANceNA]

hey everyone and good morning ! well, if youre here on the west coast good morning, and anywhere else, good day !

so my question is, what is the biggest urate you've seen ?

the reason i ask is because last night Einstein had a HHUUGGEE urate. i mean, it looked like he was laying an egg or something (see pictures), seriously !! he was definitely struggling with it. he would walk a few paces, stop and push push push ! it took him about 20 - 30 minutes to fully get rid of this urate. after he was done i inspected him and the skin had retracted back, doesnt look like it was torn in anyway. he is fine, he immediately started eating after, voraciously i might add. haha he was fine this morning, no unusualness, he is completely acting normal.

the urate was rock hard. what would cause such a huge urate ? he is well hydrated all the time, doesnt take any calcium d3 supplement because he has grown fine without it. the only thing that was different from the norm is the day before, tuesday, he got about 3 hours of sunshine. the longest he has been outside for several months, because the weather lately has been beautiful.

any thoughts and ideas are welcome. thanks everyone !

p.s the picture of him eatting is taken right after he passed that huge chunk of urate. when i say voraciously eatting, he was eatting as if no romaine lettuce and dandelion were left in the world haha.

 

[DeanS]

Hah! Wait 'til he gets a little bigger! Diesel passed one last year that was almost as big as an 8 week old kitten...that's the largest I've ever seen in person...not counting the big constrictors I kept back in the 80s.

 

[ADVANceNA]

Hah! Wait 'til he gets a little bigger! Diesel passed one last year that was almost as big as an 8 week old kitten...that's the largest I've ever seen in person...not counting the big constrictors I kept back in the 80s.

hahahaha ! an 8 week old kitten ? the visual of an 8 week old kitten made out of urate is too funny.

so DeanS, in your experience with numerous torts, you have seen them pass urate that really stretched them out that much ? just trying to grab some reassurance since i had never thought urate would be so big and stretch them that much.

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Brian:


That's an awfully big stone for such a small tortoise.

You don't want that to happen again. You say he well-hydrated. How do you accomplish that? Is he soaked, or do you depend upon his drinking on his own from a water dish? I personally feel its good to place a baby tortoise into a bowl of warm water every day and leave him there for at least 15 minutes.

Eating the same foods high in oxalates every day also causes stones. So feeding dandelion leaves every day might contribute to this.

Some tortoises just seem to be prone to hard urates or stones. Lets hope your little guy isn't one of those.

 

[TortieLuver]

Luckily, I haven't had the experience of hard urates. I have seen some really large ones here on the forum from pictures, but not in person. That is huge in comparison to his size...I felt for him with that last picture. I bet he was relieved after it passed. He's ready for nice soaking now lol.

 

[DeanS]

Yvonne's right! It's VERY big for the tort's size! Just try to keep him more hydrated. Mist him every hour or so...and soak him at least 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the late afternoon. And make sure the water is warm...but not too warm...slightly warmer than lukewarm is perfect

 

[ADVANceNA]

thanks everyone ! hhmm i soak him once in the morning 20-30 min and once in the evening 20-30 min everyday. plus i have a cousin go in and spray him several times a day, on top of this all he has his water dish and humidity is anywhere imbetween 67-80%.

i thought the urate was really big in comparison to his size, which caused my concern. dandelion is mixed in his food maybe two or three times a week. his main diet comprises of spring mixes with heavy influence of romaine lettuce. ill be sure to keep a close eye on this all. im just glad hes alright and normal. thanks everyone !

 

[SILVERSTAR]

my star passed one about a few months back that scared me,it was like marble size and hes only a year old i found out it was bcuz i was spoiling him with prickly pair the little red ball of cactus fruit now i feed only occasionally as treat and immediatly after i saw the stone i starting throwin mazuri into the diet with mineral oil to help him pass anymore that may be in him an hes been fine since.

 

[DeanS]

Hah! Wait 'til he gets a little bigger! Diesel passed one last year that was almost as big as an 8 week old kitten...that's the largest I've ever seen in person...not counting the big constrictors I kept back in the 80s.

hahahaha ! an 8 week old kitten ? the visual of an 8 week old kitten made out of urate is too funny.

so DeanS, in your experience with numerous torts, you have seen them pass urate that really stretched them out that much ? just trying to grab some reassurance since i had never thought urate would be so big and stretch them that much.

For those of you that are new and aren't familiar with all the facts Diesel is a 23-year-old sulcata that belonged to a friend of mine. When I rehomed him he was 29" and 127 lbs...so a urate that size would not be uncommon for a tort that size.

 

[ADVANceNA]

my star passed one about a few months back that scared me,it was like marble size and hes only a year old i found out it was bcuz i was spoiling him with prickly pair the little red ball of cactus fruit now i feed only occasionally as treat and immediatly after i saw the stone i starting throwin mazuri into the diet with mineral oil to help him pass anymore that may be in him an hes been fine since.

hey thanks ! maybe it does deal with his diet. hhmmm my local grocer did change the supplier of the dandelion i always buy for him. hhmmm this calls for a small change ! i think ill stop the dandelion intake for a few weeks and see how his urates look, or maybe just bring it down to once a week. thanks for the input mr/mrs silverstar.

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Hah! Wait 'til he gets a little bigger! Diesel passed one last year that was almost as big as an 8 week old kitten...that's the largest I've ever seen in person...not counting the big constrictors I kept back in the 80s.

hahahaha ! an 8 week old kitten ? the visual of an 8 week old kitten made out of urate is too funny.

so DeanS, in your experience with numerous torts, you have seen them pass urate that really stretched them out that much ? just trying to grab some reassurance since i had never thought urate would be so big and stretch them that much.

For those of you that are new and aren't familiar with all the facts Diesel is a 23-year-old sulcata that belonged to a friend of mine. When I rehomed him he was 29" and 127 lbs...so a urate that size would not be uncommon for a tort that size.

aaahhhh so desu ne. haha yeah diesel would pop out urates that size .... multiple that size.

 

[dmarcus]

Wow that was a big urate coming out of his small bottom, Vegas has let out some big ones but i am happy that they have all been loose and not solid..

 

[Jacob]

Wow, Thats Huge!
Crazyyy

 

[ADVANceNA]

yeah this was his first non small loose broken up urate. just glad the little guy got through it, but totally uncool haha

 

[AdamR]

I don't know about the biggest, my snakes can pass some pretty good ones though. A few days ago I woke up at 4:30am (ish) because I smelled something so foul I thought one of my animals had died! After searching for a few min the only thing I found was urate about the size of a quarter! But OMG it smelled!

 

[Livingstone]

Without a doubt your problem is diet related, not humidity or hydration. If you feed things like dandelion that are very high in calcium (which is good for a growing sulcata) you must make sure you are not feeding anything that has oxalic acid, such as some of the greens is spring mix.

What you are doing is giving that animal a high dose of calcium, then feeding greens that inhibit calcium absorbtion... What do you think happens to that calcium? It doesn't get absorbed, and must be passed (urates).

I am going to refer you to an ancient article written a long time ago by Darrel Seneke, please check your diet for items that contain oxalic acid. You can also add more lettuce to help dilute the other foods, since lettuce is mostly water anyways.
Here's the link: http://www.chelonia.org/Articles/nutrientanalysis.htm

 

[ADVANceNA]

Without a doubt your problem is diet related, not humidity or hydration. If you feed things like dandelion that are very high in calcium (which is good for a growing sulcata) you must make sure you are not feeding anything that has oxalic acid, such as some of the greens is spring mix.

What you are doing is giving that animal a high dose of calcium, then feeding greens that inhibit calcium absorbtion... What do you think happens to that calcium? It doesn't get absorbed, and must be passed (urates).

I am going to refer you to an ancient article written a long time ago by Darrel Seneke, please check your diet for items that contain oxalic acid. You can also add more lettuce to help dilute the other foods, since lettuce is mostly water anyways.
Here's the link: http://www.chelonia.org/Articles/nutrientanalysis.htm

livingstone thankyou THANKYOU !!! i remember reviewing this chart months and months ago and lost it. i cannot thankyou enough !! ive come to the conclusion that the dandelion was the main cause of it. i have since then switched to endive and romaine with dandelion only being given once or twice a week now. thankyou sssooo much again for this, it rrreeeaalllllyyy helps having this chart, i think it should be stickied somewhere.

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I don't know about the biggest, my snakes can pass some pretty good ones though. A few days ago I woke up at 4:30am (ish) because I smelled something so foul I thought one of my animals had died! After searching for a few min the only thing I found was urate about the size of a quarter! But OMG it smelled!

that sounds crazy ! .... crazy gross too hahaha

 

[Livingstone]

The dandelion is not your "problem" the culprit is the other food that prevents the high calcium content of the dandelion from being absorbed. I feed dandelion daily, along with turnip greens, both are very high in calcium. Livingstone has passed urates, but never the hard kind. The reason is that oxalic acid binds calcium in such a way that it produces hard pebbles or stones, since livingstone doesn't eat anything with oxalic acid theres no need for me to worry about how the calcium will be absorbed.

Dandelion is a great staple food.

I am very happy to have been able to help.

 

[ADVANceNA]

The dandelion is not your "problem" the culprit is the other food that prevents the high calcium content of the dandelion from being absorbed. I feed dandelion daily, along with turnip greens, both are very high in calcium. Livingstone has passed urates, but never the hard kind. The reason is that oxalic acid binds calcium in such a way that it produces hard pebbles or stones, since livingstone doesn't eat anything with oxalic acid theres no need for me to worry about how the calcium will be absorbed.

Dandelion is a great staple food.

I am very happy to have been able to help.

aaahhhhh so desu ne. if Einstein is eating only mixtures of dandelion, romaine, endive, turnip, amd rose pedals on occasion, what could it be ? hhmm i did switch the type of romaine for the first time a few weeks prior to him passing that stone. it was a packaged type. i usually buy the fresh romaine and just chop it up when i get home, thats how i buy all of his food since day one. this was the first time i ever got him something processed into a bag at the grocer. could this be a correlation maybe you think ?

 

[Livingstone]

I thought I read that you were feeding spring mix... When you say turnip, you mean the greens right?

Your diet sounds good... Just specify whether its turnip greens or actual turnip root. If it's the root you are feeding then stop that and the rose petals. Neither of them are something that a grazing animal like a sulcata would come across feeding naturally.

I dont think the processing of the romaine has to do with anything.

 

[ADVANceNA]

spring mix i make myself, i just buy all the different leafs for it individually, sorry i should have clarified. ill look out on the rose petals. tthhaanks thanks again !