Young Sulcata- Choking?

[JustJack]

My 2 year old sulcata tortoise appears to be in distress! He is kept in a roomy custom built enclosure inside our house. This habitat meets all the suggested guidelines, including temperature, humidity, and lighting. But to add some variety to his young life we often place him in a safe outdoor enclosure during the day. This has food, water, a "hidey-hut" and extra shade. As I brought him in from this pen today, he displayed VERY unusual behavior! His eyes were watering and crying, he was "bobbed"his head quite severly,and he started making this small chirping sound, that I'm guessing was a cough? We quickly set him down in the cool house, but the problem just got worse! He started bubbling at the mouth,(only occasionally) and and opening his mouth very wide for extended periods of time! He was flailing his front legs trying to push against something, but once he "grabbed" the towel he is on, that motion stopped. He has now calmed down quite a bit, but he is obviously troubled and exhausted. The actual "choking" has ceased, but he keeps opening his mouth and "coughing". The mouth bubbling has also stopped but his right eye is obviously irritated and starting to swell, (he hardly will open it).he is usually very active but won't move right now. Please help! We have been in ownership of him for almost his entire life and we have never seen this type of behavior before!

 

[StarSapphire22]

Sounds like you need to get him to a reptile vet, ASAP.

 

[wellington]

Have you given him a warm soak? I would do that ASAP. Then, is there anything he could possibly have eaten that is either poisonous or that may possibly be stuck in his throat? @Yvonne G May be able to help further.

Good luck I hope all works out okay.

 

[JustJack]

We do have one close by. He's calmed down quite a bit now. Seems like whatever he was choking on has moved on through. We did read a blog about looking for/removing whatever might be stuck, but couldn't see any thing. We will keep monitoring. Hate to over-react, but it scared us.

 

[wellington]

Your not over reacting, your being a good tort owner. I have not had to experience a problem yet, knock on wood I never will, but I would be panicked and scared too. Keep an eye on him and let us know if anything gets worse. If there are any changes for the bad, you may want to just take him in.

 

[JustJack]

So for a quick update, after he calmed down last night we put him back into his enclosure (indoors) and he put himself to bed. When we fed him this morning he wouldn't come out like he usually does; so we woke him up and coaxed him over to the food. He simply turned around and went back to sleep. His eyes looked as though it was a bit of a struggle to open them and he made a couple small chirping sounds. Other than that he hasn't shown any of the other problems from yesterday! What is this chirping sound? Is he dehydrated? Thanks for the responses so far, and please give some more suggestions as to what the problem might have been! We would really like to know what to do in the future!

 

[Tom]

Sounds like he overheated outside. It takes a while for their core temp to drop even after you bring them in. Where are you? Can you post a pic of the outdoor enclosure? What were the outside temps when this happened?