Horsfield - one eye closed
 

Hi all

I have a Horsfield tortoise about a year old. He lives in a tortoise table with a hide at one end and a lamp at the other for heat and UV with basking logs and rocks. The substrate is mostly topsoil with some dried grass bedding from SW. He's kept indoors but when it isn't raining we take him outside to stomp around.

He eats leafy greens, weeds and flowers and he gets a good soak in warm water every other day.

He appears healthy and happy; he's inquisitive and bright eye'd and will eat from the hand. He's not skittish or sluggish. He loves to explore.

All is well apart from his right eye, which he seems to keep closed for the last few days. Every now and then he rubs it with his forearm like its sore or itchy. It looks a little swollen but there's no excess moisture, pus, or anything like that. I've been bathing him every day since I've noticed it, and when he's in the water he puts his head under by himself to soak it. Then he can open his eye. Sometimes (like today) he'll wipe his eye with his arm and it will open without soaking. The eye itself is bright and black and when he gets it open it looks pretty much the same as the unaffected eye, maybe a little swollen around it.

He tends to clamber up and down his rocks and logs and every now and then he takes a little tumble off the side. Its not far to fall at all but I'm concerned he's scratched his face as there's some roughness on the scales down that side of his face by the eye like its been scraped.

When is the right time to see a vet about this? He is otherwise fine, eating his food regularly and drinking and tramping about like he owns the place.