Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, no one responded to my first post, I took my tortoise to the vet twice now. He did some xrays and found out she is constipated. I have been following his directions and soaking her 3 times a day in warm water. This does not seem to be working. Does anyone have any idea on what else I could do. I am at my wits end. I have tried everything to help her. The other tortoise she is housed with is doing great. I give them grasses, romaine, green leaf, and once a week a small dish of fruit. Currently she is not eating anything and is not moving around a whole lot. My vet is a reptile specialist and says he is stumped.

>>Hi, no one responded to my first post, I took my tortoise to the vet twice now. He did some xrays and found out she is constipated. I have been following his directions and soaking her 3 times a day in warm water. This does not seem to be working. Does anyone have any idea on what else I could do. I am at my wits end. I have tried everything to help her. The other tortoise she is housed with is doing great. I give them grasses, romaine, green leaf, and once a week a small dish of fruit. Currently she is not eating anything and is not moving around a whole lot. My vet is a reptile specialist and says he is stumped.

Did the vet think that you tort was dehydrated? Has your vet attempted to administer IV fluids? What kind of substrate are you using?

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>>Did the vet think that you tort was dehydrated? Has your vet attempted to administer IV fluids? What kind of substrate are you using?

Dehydration was my first thought too.
My own tortoise became constipated once in July when it was extremely hot & dry where we live. I realized that the grass she was grazing was dry & she was becoming dehydrated so I fed her a big pile of sopping wet green lettuce. Lettuce is something I don't feed her but in this case I figured it could only help & it did.
If yours isn't eating then I'm wondering too if some IV fluids wouldn't help in this case.
Ask the vet about that & please let us know how things are going.
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PHRatz

My vet said to soak her. He did check for dehydration and said she was not dehydrated. I have been catching her taking a drink or two. The bedding I am using is a forest bed/sand mixture that was recommended to me. Mrs. P. (tortoise) has her own dish. She was a rescue and I tried to keep things the same until she grew used to her new surroundings. I am not completly sure what the family was feeding her before I took her in.
-To the person who said absolutely no fruit, I have found some websites that has said you can give them a little fruit. My vet approved this. They only get it once in awhile (it is mixed in with their lettuce and grasses). I have tried cactus pads, and she does not like them. My bigger tortoise loves them, he pretty much eats anything. Both of their diets are the same and he is perfectly fine. I even took him to the vet for a check up, and was given a clean bill of health.
-The thing that puzzles me is both are feed the same thing and they live in the same habitat. (12 by 24 indoors only outside is better) She is sick and he is not.

Thank for your help
Bussie3

TRY SPRITZING HER FOOD WITH MINERAL OIL!

I am not a big fan of fruit. it destroys gut flora. try some aloe or cactus. that always helps me.

it could be the fruit constipating.

hunter

>>I am not a big fan of fruit. it destroys gut flora. try some aloe or cactus. that always helps me.
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>>it could be the fruit constipating.
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>>hunter

I missed that.. you have such a good point here hunter.
Fruits are not supposed to be on the menu for sulcata because it does interfere with gut flora. It's not in their natural environment they way it is for tropical tortoise species.
The diet is supposed to consist of about 75 percent grasses, 25 percent leafy greens, cactus pads, & such but no fruit.
Google up the Sulcata Station & the Tortoise Trust, both have very good articles on sulcata feeding.
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PHRatz

It is not likely the fruit, although it definately will destroy natural gut microenvironment, if your tortoise is a sulcata which I would assume from the forum you posted in you should really cut the fruit out of the diet. If you are going to feed fruit limit it to apples, and make them a very occasional treat. Im not sure how the tort would react to the mineral oil, but its worth a try. Did you see the X-ray taken by the vet? If so was the blockage in the large intestine or small, tortoises are hind-gut fermenters like horses, if the blockage is near the rear (large intestine or ceaca) an enema may be necessary.

Also, i read the vet was stumped...whats up with that?

When my vet says, "i'm stumped", he gets on the phone with other vets, i get on the phone with the tortoise community, and we try to figure it out. worse comes to worse, we travel to Athens, GA to go to univ of Ga vet school hospital.

I never trust a stumped vet. go to arav.org for a 2nd opinion.

not joking, but is there such a thing as a tortoise enema?

what is the water temp you are soaking the tortoise in ? the temp of the water should be 85 to 90 degrees f and how long are you soaking the tortoice ? i would suggest you soak the tortoise for at least 1 hour and change the water when it get cool and fill the soaking container up with water high enough to reach the tortoises shoulders. what are your tortoces enclosure temps ? sulcottas need temps of 95 plus i would use both a heat lamp and a heat pad under the tank to warm up the tortoises belly place them on one side of the tank . sulcottas usually take a nice dump when soaking in water that is 90 degrees f and with a heat pad under the tank it should help loosen the spinkter muscle and let the tortoise poop .

My fairly educated guess is your sulcata has an impaction.
The reason one turtle has it and the other does not is that the sick turtle is eating the bedding.
I'd switch to timothy grass for bedding, and make sure you feed enough lettuce to regulate hydration.
Soaking will not help an impaction. (It prolly won't hurt unless the sulcata *strains* too much.)
Sulcatas are notorious for eating *everything* even bedding.
If your bedding is part of their diet, problem solved.
Now about this impaction, if your turtle still hasn't 'moved' find a vet that knows what an 'impaction' is and has dealt with exotics like sulcatas.
Good luck.

you are using forest bedding for a sulcota tortoise ,thats a big no no sulcottas are not from the forest ,they are from africa and africa is far from a forest ,you can use alfalfa pellets( rabitt food) for bedding at least if the tortoise eats the alfalfa pellets it will pass them forest bedding can get impacted in the tortoises intestines and cause exaxtly what has happened to your tortoise ,i keep my sulcottas on alfalfa pellets(rabitt food ) and they don't have any problems pooping ,they do eat the pellets and not any impactation at all and my tortoises are at least 5 years old . the only thing you have to do when using rabitt pellets is remove any pellets that have poop on them after the tortoise poops and i change the rabitt pellets every 2 -3 weeks and scooping is done every day . no wonder your tortoise won't eat and is not pooping it's impacted with forest bedding . your vet should have asked you what substrate you are using for the tortoise and then when he found out it was forest bedding the vet should have xrayed the tortoise or even did and ultra sound to see if forest bedding was impacted in the intestines and do the necessary medical procedures to remove the impactation. i suggest you call your vet and tell the vet about the bedding you are using and get the tortoise to the vet asap before the tortoise dies.

How big/ old is the tortoise? I would not jump to any conclusions, it is not all that common that forest bedding causes impaction, if it was sand that you were using then I would understand.

She went to the bathroom last night. She has been showing some imporvements this morning. We have started to force feed her two days ago. We also started her on some laxitives. The vet said there was nothing showing up on her original xrays to say she was bound up. Nothing was blocking her track.
The forest bedding and sand mixture was placed in the enclosure after she got sick. I thought she was unhappy with her indoors home. I place this mixture in her enclosure and was hoping that would fix the problem. In my smaller two enclosures I have the same mixture in, I even planted some grass seeds in their tanks. In her origninal tank I planted some grass seeds and this morning I have noticed some grass growing in their tanks.
Thanks for your help
bussie3

Keep an Eye on her. remember...heat and hydration are the key. Keep that correct, you'll have a happy, healthy tortoise.

oh yeah...ALOE VERa works great as a natural, safe laxative.
Hunter