Poorly Tortoise :(

[EmilyP]

My email is emilyparker110@hotmai.com
Her weight is 585g which on Jackson ratio is 0.213 so it is good and her shell growth and shape is good, so there's no indication that she has been ill for a long time. i'm going to try to get the Abidec but might not be able to get it till Monday afternoon now. what does reptoboast do?

[Alex]

That is good her weight is good. Reptoboast is very similar to abidec, vitamins & mineral but designed for reptiles rather than humans. I haven't compared the two but many people on here use one or the other.

[EmilyP]

i just Googled reptoboost, abidec and critical care formula and they all contain vitamins so i'm wandering if i should use them or not because the vet gave her vitamin drops last week and i don't want to overdose her on vitamins.

[Lottey]

Hi Emily, I used Reptoboost at the beginning of the year to get an old tortoise going after hibernation. I spoke to vetark (01962 844316) and they were very helpful. You could ask them if it will be ok. They were very helpful and I just bought the reptoboost direct from them and it arrived the next day. Vetark told me critical care should only be given by a vet as it is very easy to overdose on it.
Your tort might not like the bath water getting colder, you could try refreshing it with warm water. I hope you tort gets better soon

[Lynnie Lou]

I read on here a few times to add Marmite. Crazy I thought, but after half an hour my Hatchlings were digging into their food like no tomorrow. Don't add too much, just enough to colour the water, (we're soaking here btw, sorry) Marmite is full of Vitamin B and it something most of us have in. Hope she's okay, try not to worry. X

[EmilyP]

I don't think she has been urinating! the vet thinks she may have kidney stones or failure but he wants to wait and see how she is later on in the week. but that seems quite a long time to wait because we took her to him this time last week and she is no better and has not had a wee in that time, yet she keeps drinking.

I'm not going to bath her in Marmite because if she already has kidney problems the protein in it may make it worse. thanks for the advise though
I think i'll just stick to warm water and hope for the best but she's still not looking very good.

Also is it true that calcium can give them kidney problems, because when we first got her we were told she should have a calcium supplement everyday.

thanks for all the replies, Emily

[egyptiandan64]

Calcium could have caused a problem if you were/are feeding weeds that contain oxalic acid. Oxalic acid combines with calcium to cause stones. So it wouldn't be the calcium alone. I take it the vet didn't take any x-rays (this would show stones if your tortoise had them).

Danny

[Alex]

Hi Emily

The reptoboast/abidec will help if kidney function is impaired.

Couple of questions? How long do you bath for & how often? Is water always present in the enclosure and what substrate do you use?

I would recommend an X-ray as Dan has said. This will quite clearly show if there is a stone present and even if there is it may be passable naturally depending on size.