Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm not new to reptiles and such. I have had map turtles for awhile now, along with my many snakes, tree frogs and toads. This is my 1st tortoise...a russian I got in april. I read up about them here and on russiantortoise.org so I'd know how to take care of her.

I've had 3 trips to a reptile vet in 4 weeks and have been told she has an eye infection and looks horrible. I'm confused b/c she looks like she did when I got her in april except she's a tad bit bigger.

So, I wanted to post some pics and see what ya'll thought.....

I was also told by 2 vets that she had a vit A defiency despite her diet that they said was good???

She is being treated for her eyes and looking better.
I was told by the vet today that her skin looked abnormal and puffy.

She's suppose to be around 9 months old.(??)....I wasn't given an exact hatch date. She has gained some and weighs 30 grams. She's also grown about an 1/2" which makes her 2" now.

I was thinking that the tortoise looked a little puffy, and being that your vet is concerned with this after actually examining it, I would be concerned as well. I cannot see anything with the eye in the pictures, but if it's getting better, then good.

It might be a good idea to run some blood samples and verify that everything inside your tortoise is running A-okay. I'm sure your vet has at least mentioned this.
A vitamin A deficiency? While they symptoms "may" indicate this, it would not be a final diagnoses unless adequate diagnositics were done. Treatment with vitamin A supplementation has no negative effects, and thus was probably given to cover bases.

Once you have settled in with a vet that is easy to work with, and seems knowledgeable and resourcefull with reptiles (it is impossible to know it all!), I would stick with him/her as moving from vet to vet reduces a DVM's ability to help your animals.

Ian

The vets that have seen her are all in the same practice. Her original vet had the older ones look at her too. As far as bloodwork I mention it but they didn't think it was nessecary yet. She has gotten vit A injections and it was after the last one that she puffed up so they said to stop on that and see how she reacts. Heck, she acts like nothing is wrong with her. She eats, drinks and has normal poops and quite active.

not to be a radical alarmist, but what are you feeding your tortoise to make the vet think that it has a vitamin A deficiency? if you are feeding your tort a variety of greens, then it is getting a high amount of A and A precursors. vitamin A deficiency was a common maladay of water turtles fed crappy dried flies.

torts get swollen eyes for a number of reasons, the last of which is vit A deficiency. don't allow any more vit A shots. torts can OD on vit A. watch for skin softness, oozing, and sloughing -- these are signs of vit. A overdose.

good luck,

matt

I feed everything that people here and russiantortoise.org said. That's why I was 2nd guessing the vets. I'm a tech but we don't do reptiles where I work and didn't we do much with them in school. I right away looked up the vit a injections and read about the bad things. I even told the vet I didn't think it was that but they didn't agree. She hasn't gotten anymore injections!!

I've pretty much stop doing everything they said and doing what I researched and she's doing much better now.

Any chance you've beed feeding the tort foods high in protein or fat? While it may be swelling, the second pic you posted looks like uneven growth (he looks to be growing faster than he should. faster than his shell.). If this is this case, you can expect (in extreme cases) digestive and respiratory problems.

what is his diet like, honestly?