19-09-2013, 08:33 PM | #1 |
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Dehydrated?
We've been getting a little concerned about Nellie who appears to be winding down for hibernation. Been gradually eating less over the last week and stopped eating on Tuesday. She's been sleeping down the cold end of the viv for most of the day. Yesterday I went to give them their evening feeds and Nellie's food was untouched. Moved her up the hot end and let her warm up until she started looking around. Then tried to tempt her with some of her food up there. After 15 minutes she eventually decided to eat that with some convincing. It took putting another couple of pieces of food in front of her to get her appetite going and she went down very slowly to eat a small portion of the food. Now I'm aware that it's far too early to hibernate a tortoise and don't actually intend hibernating them anyway so we've been waking Nellie up and putting her under the heat lamp morning and night. It appears to be working, she ate something earlier today and I left her eating her tea earlier after 10 minutes to wake up.
My concern is whether she is dehydrated. I suspect this because her eyes appear quite sunk in and the lining of her mouth is virtually white. We are giving her daily baths in case but wanted to check as I'm not certain of the signs.
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Owners of: 2 Horsfield tortoises, Nellie (male) and Morla (female) 1 female axolotl, Algie 1 male Noseby panther chameleon 2 White's tree frogs, Lilly (female) and Rollie (male) 1 hypotranslucent smoothie chilli red female bearded dragon, Blaze |
19-09-2013, 10:14 PM | #2 |
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Might be worth a visit to the vet, as a virtually white mouth is a sign of anaemia/ surpressed immune system & not a good sign. Has your tort been tested for parasites? & what are her temperatures like?
(warm/cool end & overnight?) |
19-09-2013, 10:30 PM | #3 |
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Well I guess we'll have to push that in asap then. We were going at some point anyway as both need a beak trim. That doesn't sound good and I hope not, I will point out that was yesterday. Today she has a bit of pink back so perhaps if it is parasites they've jumped on the bandwagon and sorting her for the rest might sort her (still calling him a her, bad habit). They haven't been tested recently, they did suffer with them after the stress of moving at first. I think we have a particularly weak pair of tortoises. The temperature was 28 at the hot end yesterday and has been set for 35 today. I can't comment on the gradient at this moment as I don't want to disturb the animals now that the lights are off.
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Owners of: 2 Horsfield tortoises, Nellie (male) and Morla (female) 1 female axolotl, Algie 1 male Noseby panther chameleon 2 White's tree frogs, Lilly (female) and Rollie (male) 1 hypotranslucent smoothie chilli red female bearded dragon, Blaze |
20-09-2013, 06:10 PM | #4 |
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OK hot end is 33C steady and cold end is 26C. Before we upped the temperatures the hot end was 28C steady so I imagine on a night the cold end probably was getting below 18C. The good news is that today her mouth is a healthy pink, she has eaten one half of her morning feed and slept under the lamp. She woke up on her own, came out on her own like she normally does and ate on her own. Still a little sunken eyed and lethargic but we are getting there. Will still make appointment for vets.
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Owners of: 2 Horsfield tortoises, Nellie (male) and Morla (female) 1 female axolotl, Algie 1 male Noseby panther chameleon 2 White's tree frogs, Lilly (female) and Rollie (male) 1 hypotranslucent smoothie chilli red female bearded dragon, Blaze |
21-09-2013, 12:43 AM | #5 |
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How long are your lights on for? Might want to think about keeping the night time temperature around 20C.
Danny
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21-09-2013, 01:53 AM | #6 |
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Yeah I know. We hadn't noticed how much of a change there was in ambient temperature so hadn't adjusted heat lamps accordingly. The lights were on 7 til 7 but it'll be a big operation to put them on that again. Basically they're on 12 hours but not sure when, we had a power cut and the timer is behind the vivs. Not a lot we can do about it either sadly.
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Owners of: 2 Horsfield tortoises, Nellie (male) and Morla (female) 1 female axolotl, Algie 1 male Noseby panther chameleon 2 White's tree frogs, Lilly (female) and Rollie (male) 1 hypotranslucent smoothie chilli red female bearded dragon, Blaze |
21-09-2013, 10:18 AM | #7 |
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might be worth getting one of those digital timer switches that have a battery backup. I have one I use every year for the Christmas lights and every year it is still working and then recharges itself during use.
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21-09-2013, 01:03 PM | #8 |
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That might be an idea for us. Any idea on where I could look for such?
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Owners of: 2 Horsfield tortoises, Nellie (male) and Morla (female) 1 female axolotl, Algie 1 male Noseby panther chameleon 2 White's tree frogs, Lilly (female) and Rollie (male) 1 hypotranslucent smoothie chilli red female bearded dragon, Blaze |
22-09-2013, 10:18 AM | #9 |
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