Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I need some help for my poor little star tortoise.
Recently (here in Korea) I picked up an Indian star tortoise from a small local rescue and knowing he had something wrong with him I did take a risk but things have not really been improving. He is blowing small bubbles from his nose from time to time and periodically sneezing, but there is no large amount of discharge ever apparent.
He keeps his eyes shut quite often and I have never seen much signs of him eating. While I have been soaking him periodically to ensure he is hydrated the signs I have seen in the past six days do not bode well for my small friend. He certainly is lethargic and has a respitory infection but I am unsure of what to do beyond proper husbandry. This is compounded by the fact that I am in Korea and do not speak the language, know of no vets and given Korea's laughable track-record for animal care I am sort of stuck.
I know you can inject a medication to treat such respitory infections but I hear that star tortoises react particularily bad to this medication (not to mention a small juvenile already in poor health).

If anyone has any ideas or medications that could help could you please let me know asap as I am really quite concerned by this little guys state. Or alternatively, if you could refer me to a good website or two I would be more than grateful.

keep him warm and comfortable - from your description,without immediate veterinary intervention, it sounds like he is on the way out

Your Star sounds like it is in a very bad way. As mentioned before - keep it warm and you might want to try and force feed him some crushed up food. (Not too much at a time). You can do this by placing a feeding tube attached to the end of a syringe and pushing it down his much. Take care not to over feed, injure or get food into the lungs. I would bend up some grass for him. There should be lots of grass around in Korea at this time of the year.

Also - even with the language barrier - I have found Koreans fairly helpful. If you go to the pet shop and ask for an animal doctor (Vet) they should point you into the right direction. I am not sure how good they will be with reptiles as a Tortoise is not a dog.

Be careful about the medication they suggest as Tortoises do not react to well to most antibiotics (it destroys their kidneys).

Good luck and keep us updated.

http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/fedart.html
http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/nursing.html
http://www.tigerhomes.org/animal/tube-syringe-feeding.cfm
http://www.turtletimes.com/Forums/index.php?showtopic=20744

One last thing - keep him warm and hydrated

Hi,
How is your little star going? Has the little guy improved?

Well thank you for replying.
I am happy to say that the little guy is rebounding pretty well, in the usual slow tortoise way. He has begun to eat food and move around much more than at first. I think this is due to an improvement in his husbandry under my care compared to his cramped and poorly lit store quarters.

Also, I have sought out and recieved excellent treatment from a tortoise specializing vet here in Korea (which I thought there would be none of). He recieved a mild antibiotic (not baytril) a fecal exam and a series of x-rays, all of which revealed a healthy but dehydrated and stressed little tortoise. He has no pneumonia or internal parasites and well things are looking up. While he still wipes his nose a lot and blows tiny snot bubbles every now and then he is not gasping for air, having mucous buildup or any other problems.

The vet did him well and said he should be fine if husbandry is maintained stable and consistent, something I already knew but which always is nice to hear from a medical person. Ps. if anyone is in the republic of Korea I can refer you to her, services here in ROK are incredibly cheap compared to North America, all services rendered in a clean modern clinic cost roughly 27$ US!!!

Thank you for the follow up - and as you have pointed out Medicine does NOT cost that much - the cost to the US Vets is their insurance - if the government limited the liability for vets or the vet association took out an over all insurance the cost will be much lower. (Like 10% of what they charge now.)