Health concerns...
 

Hello - our lovely horsefield hasn't had the best of years. He woke up with an eye infections, which didn't clear up so we took him to the vets and had to force feed him antibiotics for about a month :(:(:( but although the eye infection has now cleared up, he hasn't been eating since July.

We have decided to keep him up, rather than hibernating, seeing as I don't think he'll be healthy enough to get through the season but now he's trying to dig through his tortoise table and we feel bad for him.

Any thoughts? Has anyone else experienced this? Any tips on getting tortoises to eat? (He's super fussy at the best of times) Worth going back to the vet? He just told us to keep up with the antibiotics when I mentioned it but that didn't make any difference. Should we just let him hibernate?

Unfortunately once a tortoise has decided to hibernate it is very hard to keep them up. Especially horsfields.
Was the vet a specialist in tortoises?

Agree with Sandy it will be very difficult to try and keep him awake now that he has started the wind down process maybe give him a short hibernation and then wake him up early kidding him it's Spring.

hello horacio - you've not been on for a while, welcome back. yes bes thibernate unless there is a medical reason for not doing so - they are so in tune with nature it'll just cause upset keeping him up and itll be too hot and dry in a radiator room or tool cool and sleepy anyway. Next time on the eye drops maybe try use opticom , i find it clears up most things including tortoise hayfever - not suggesting substitutes for a vet though. Tell us how it goes. good luck and dont be a stranger CB

To be honest, I kinda forgot about this site...until I needed help that is. Typical eh? Thanks for the kind welcome back.

So, he'll happily come out and hang out for about half an hour when we put his heat lamp on...still not eating though and it's been two months. Maybe we'll do a short hibernation but I'm worried he's not as healthy as he should be.

I love having a tortoise but they cause a lot of anxiety for such a low maintenance pet!