Horsfield Care Sheet for my dogs' Vet

[kazzabb]

Yesterday my dog's vet said he had a horseback (!) tortoise coming back into the surgery who had an eye problem last week and the eye problem is still there, and it's stopped eating. It's a year old. When I asked the vet some key stuff he didn't know (didn't ask any questions) and has given it antibiotics.
I've asked the vet to ask the owner about substrate and it's depth - key I think especially for horsfields, lighting/heating, diet, supplements, poo's and wee's, bathing/hydration, viv or table, parasites, farmed or UK breeder, as none of this was asked about. My vet is going to suggest to the owner that he bathes his tort in deep water so that only the top 1/3 of the shell is showing. I did freak at that stage. Vet had learned this from a reptile / tort speaker at a vet's conference in Scotland recently. I do hope he was taking the piss to see my reaction.
Can someone direct me to a suitable care sheet for Horsfields? (I will check out the TT website too) but want something to print out, for this and other the med species so that I can give them to my vet to pass them onto new owners.
Cheers, Karen

[Catwoman63]

oh my god Karen, i wouldnt trust that vet with my tortoise even if he did have a care sheet!!!

Some of the longtime owners on here (im talking about 20+ year owners who have much more experience) hopefully will have care sheets that they can send you, us horsfield owners can give advice of how we look after ours, it will be different for different owners but the basics should be the same.

When and if i have hatchling baby horsfields i will put together a care sheet for the new owners, i can only base it on the way i care for mine, it works for me and my tortoises are healthy and active.

Lets see if long time experienced keepers can help you, if not then i will be happy to give you information on how i care for mine x

[Merlin M]

Oh dear!! Good thing he mentioned it too you!!
I, like Bev, am happy to give advice based on how I keep mine if don't find a good caresheet but I am far from experienced...

[Suze65]

OMG Karen, how did you keep a straight face, you would think most vets would a least know the species name, and if they don't know anything about tortoises at least say so and refer the owner to a specialist vet .

[ClareandCo]

This:

http://www.tortsmad.com/russians.htm

[kazzabb]

Originally Posted by ClareandCo

This:

http://www.tortsmad.com/russians.htm

Brilliant, thanks.
Karen

[Catwoman63]

That is a great care sheet, however it doesnt mention bathing, so it might be worth telling the vet that they need to be bathed in warm water to help with hydration, especially the little ones, but im sure you will let him know that Karen lol x

He wont know about signs to look for in a sickly tortoise, shell rot, mouth rot that sort of thing, so it will also be worth printing some details about the health issues as well x

[TillyTortoise]

Best thing to do is to tell you vet to recommend any owners with tortoises to contact a specialist.

[ClareandCo]

In the Q&A section there is mention of tortoise bathing.

[Catwoman63]

Originally Posted by TillyTortoise

Best thing to do is to tell you vet to recommend any owners with tortoises to contact a specialist.

Yes i think thats probably best to do that, i wouldnt want to take my tortoises to my vet that deals with my dog and birds, and even then i only let him deal with my birds because he keeps birds himself.

If he didnt know about birds then i would also take them to the exotics vet i take my tortoises to x