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Has anyone ever had a test done for upper resp. track disease for their sulcatas?

Is this something sulcata owners have to be concerned about, or only found common in desert tortoises?

Reason for the question, The vet and I battled a case of resp. infection last month with my newly aquired sulcata...no more signs of it, but now the URTD question is really bothering me.

Thanks...

>>Has anyone ever had a test done for upper resp. track disease for their sulcatas?
>>
>>Is this something sulcata owners have to be concerned about, or only found common in desert tortoises?
>>
>>Reason for the question, The vet and I battled a case of resp. infection last month with my newly aquired sulcata...no more signs of it, but now the URTD question is really bothering me.
>>
>>Thanks...

In the desert tortoises I believe you're thinking of the Mycoplasmosis problem, I know a lot more about that in pet rats than tortoises. Although the species of Mycoplasma differs in tortoises & rats it works basically the same way, it's a lousy disease to deal with. There is treatment for it to lessen the affects of the disease but there is no cure for it.

It really shouldn't be much of a concern for sulcata if they have not been exposed to a desert tortoise. There are many other pathogens that can cause illness in tortoises so just because they have had an upper resp. infection it doesn't mean it's necessarily the same pathogen that the desert tortoises carry.
Myco will pass from tortoise to tortoise but if your sulcata has never been near a desert tortoise it's not very likely that Mycoplasmosis was the problem.
If the resp. infection keeps flaring up over & over then if it were me I'd want to go ahead & run some tests.
There's always a good chance that your tortoise had something else & the treatment your tortoise has been through worked.
I hope that's the case.
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PHRatz

Thanks very much for the insight.

I'll keep a close eye on any resp. infection signs. So far it has been about 6 weeks since I have heard any gasps.

Hoping for the best and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

>>Thanks very much for the insight.
>>
>>I'll keep a close eye on any resp. infection signs. So far it has been about 6 weeks since I have heard any gasps.
>>
>>Hoping for the best and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

6 weeks is a long time so hopefully whatever it was is gone now.

In pet rats most of them already are infected with Mycoplasma pulmonis when they're born & many of them remain chronic for their entire lives which is greatly shortened because of the disease.
Those who are chronic have to be treated over & over, and treated often. Those I've personally had treated would never be symptom free by the time 6 weeks had passed. They'd take meds for a couple of weeks, seem ok & then 2-3 weeks later it's back on the meds. It keeps going like that until they get so bad they either die quickly on their own or have to be euthanized because they're suffering.
Of course if people wouldn't breed the infected this wouldn't be a problem.
I just read some articles about it on the CTTC website... very interesting to see how similar the articles on the desert tortoise disease are to the disease in pet rats.
Hopefully you've beaten whatever this was & it's not going to be anything to worry about.
Happy New Year to you too!
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PHRatz