Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

I just got a new golden greek tortoise online. He came yesterday. As you know, it's nearly impossible to do a careful inspection of the tortoise before puchasing it through pictures. Well when I got him, I realized that he has a slight puffiness to his eyelids. This wasn't visible in the picture. Otherwise, he seems fine. He is eating like a pig, he is heavy, and he does not have a runny nose or any sign of one. He is quite shy right now and stubbornly withdraws into his shell when picked up. I have read that puffy eyelids can be a sign of many things from a vitamin deficiency to a URI. I am thinking that it is a vitamin deficiency. Do you think that the puffy eyelids will go away with an improved diet and added vitamin A? Any other tips for this problem?

Thanks

First thing to try is a good soak in a tepid bath. Then make sure the humidity is high enough in the enclosure.
Sometimes puffy eyes is caused by nothing more than a lack of humidity.
If plenty of humidity doesn't help then the next step would be to make sure he's getting enough vitamin A through his food.
The problem with straight out giving them vitamin A is that you don't know how much is too much. It's one of the 4 fat soluble vitamins & if they get too much it can be toxic.. but you're not going to give too much if he's eating it naturally from foods.

If giving more A rich foods doesn't help and if you see other signs of problems such as bubbling from the nose, lethargy, unwillingness to eat then a vet would be needed.
You do need a vet who knows how to treat a tortoise.. those who don't often want to inject them with A right away. That can be a bad thing for a tortoise too because injections can cause sloughing of the skin that will lead to more problems.

Try humidity first then see what happens.
Being shipped to you could have caused some dehydration.
Good luck & let us know how it's going.
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PHRatz

Thanks for the advice! I have been soaking him and feeding him carrots in small amounts. The swelling around his eyes is starting to go down, although his eyelids are still a strange pale color. However, this might simply be his skin color. He is almost patternless and a very light golden greek. He isn't eating as much as my other greek tortoises, but he is very stressed and untrusting. He likes to stay in his log until no one is around. My other Greek tortoise took a couple of weeks to start eating normally when I first got him, but I'm going to watch that carefully regardless.