Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a sulcata "Sherman" who is over a year old now. Three weeks ago I noticed that he was rocking from one side to the other trying to poop. When I looked at his vent I noticed what looked to me like a white rock. When I scraped the "rock" it broke up a little. I took him to the vet and they said they weren't bladder stones but rocks. To me it seems like they are solidified white discharge that is usually runny. They told me he should pass them. So now he has not been consuming food like usual and hasn't pooped for about a week. I have been soaking him in warm water daily. Is there anything that would help him to poop? Could he be constipated? Thank you in advance for your help.

Paul

First I am new here, but a friend on another group just had the same problem with her tort. The vet had to actually go in and remove part of the "rock" with forcepts. They still aren't sure what it was, but they are not done tring to identify it. The tort is successfully pooping out the rest. She showed us pics of the "rocks" and it was white and hard. It looked like rocky urates to me and the others in the group. The tort is now eating better, but is leaking urine so she is not done at the vet.

I hope that you tort is not suffering the same thing. I just thought I would share the info.

Dozers_mama, Steph in oregon

Are you feeding a lot of high fiber foods? The white droppings are usually called urates...I see them sometimes after soakings or if I surprise the with a special treat like watermelon or pumpkin..but they've never been hard. They look hard after they dry up but usually they are somewhat runny.

The soakings are good--I would recommend lots of grass and weeds and maybe back off of some other foods if they are on commercial diets or salad mixtures...but another vet visit may be what you need if he's still not passing and eating like normal.

With the weather getting cooler it is common for them to slow down a little but I still find mine eating like they did before. Heat should be provided when the temps start to drop.

Soakings are good.. usually when the urates get that hard then the torties are needing more water.
Dehydration will cause rock hard white urates.

Destiny became constipated one summer in July and I could tell she didn't feel well. She sat with her eyes closed & she was straining. We took her for a ride in the car which always makes her go. She did, it took a long time to get her to go but she did & it was very dry looking.
I realized as I looked around our yard, it'd been so long since it had rained that even with watering the lawn with the sprinklers the grass was crunchy when I walked on it because it was so dry. She was eating nothing but dry food so I got some greens from the grocery store & fed them to her after I'd soaked them in water & they were dripping wet.
She ate them, the next day she pooped normally so I realized that I need to add some very wet food to her diet when it's extremely dry outside.
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PHRatz

See sometimes you take kids for car rides to make them fall asleep and torts to make them go to the bathroom!!

Great story

>>See sometimes you take kids for car rides to make them fall asleep and torts to make them go to the bathroom!!

LOL exactly. We do what we have to do for the "kids" whether they are human or not.
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PHRatz