Shelled Warriors Forums - Spur-thigh with puffy eye

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Spur-thigh with puffy eye

Hello,
We have been keeping spur thigh tortoises for a while now. We have some four and five year olds who always hibernate and are just winding down now. We also have three 16month old tortoises who were too small to hibernate last year but we are planning to this time.

One of the babies has a puffy eye which we are worried about. We took her to a tortoise expert who wasn't sure what was wrong but suggested human eye drops. Do you have any other advice? Not sure what's wrong with her. Also she said that tortoises under 5 should never hibernate. Obviously we were not going to hibernate her since she's ill but does that mean we shouldn't hibernate the other hatchlings (or presumably even the older ones) either? We've already separated her out to try to prevent the others catching whatever it is if they haven't already.

Thank you so much for any comments - we're worried about them but don't know who to ask since some of the advice we were given goes against a lot of what we thought before!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by GemmaR (Post 660852)

Hello,
We have been keeping spur thigh tortoises for a while now. We have some four and five year olds who always hibernate and are just winding down now. We also have three 16month old tortoises who were too small to hibernate last year but we are planning to this time.

One of the babies has a puffy eye which we are worried about. We took her to a tortoise expert who wasn't sure what was wrong but suggested human eye drops. Do you have any other advice? Not sure what's wrong with her. Also she said that tortoises under 5 should never hibernate. Obviously we were not going to hibernate her since she's I'll but does that mean we shouldn't hibernate the other hatchlings (or presumably even the older ones) either? We've already separated her out to try to prevent the others catching whatever it is if they haven't already.

Thank you so much for any comments - we're worried about them but don't know who to ask since some of the advice we were given goes against a lot of what we thought before!!

I would say this vet is not a tortoise vet.
As what does he/she think they do in the wild?
They dont come out of the egg five years old:0)
I would find another vet.
And certainly dont hibernate the puffy eyed one until you find out what the problem is.
It might just be the husbandry needs tweeking.
You have not given us much info on how they are kept:0)

Hello,

Thanks for your reply! Apparently they're the person the vets call in if they don't know what to do for a tortoise but they suggested things like vivariums which are a terrible idea for Spur-thighed!!

We keep them in a tortoise table with the proper UV lamp and feed them on a diet of weeds from the garden. They have a small tray of water to drink from and get daily baths. We put ground cuttlefish on their food every day and a small amount of nutrobal about twice a week. They also have a cuttlefish bone in the table to gnaw on. Not sure what else you need to know?

Thanks again for your help!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by GemmaR (Post 660858)

Your tortoise might well just had got a poke in the eye, its easily done. Or got poked in the eye by another tortoise.
It might well be simple to cure. But you have to know what you are dealing with.

I agree, I don't think the vet sounds like a specialist vet. As Sandy has said, what does he/she think they do in the wild, my two year olds are hibernating for the first time this year, other people hibernate them younger. It's more about you having the correct info about wind down and hibernation, rather than the age of the tort.

Thanks for your replies. What do you think the best thing to do is? Do you know of any vets in the Plymouth area who are tortoise specialists? We're planning on going ahead with hibernation for the other ones anyway, just not for so long. I could try and put a picture up if that would help?

Hi Gemma can you post us a picture of the eye in question so we can see it and hopefully give you better advice than you got from your vet.

What susbstrate are you keeping your tort on please? And how dry is it?

Hi Gemma. I'm not sure about exotic vets in Plymouth but if you're able to travel to Paignton, Silverton Vets are reputedly good as are Quarry House in Torquay.