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I'm quite upset about this. I've never had one of my herps get sick...outside from adopting something that was already ill, and it dying afterwards.

I traded in a pair of Cunningham's skinks, and ended up buying this female red foot tortoise with part of that money. ( Here she is helping my wife scrapbook. )

She is the first tortoise I've ever owned.

So, I set her up in a 90 gallon tank ( pretty tall ) which I had laying around -- bed-a-beast mixed with larger husk fibers, a ramp dish, some hiding spots, etc...

Well, I've been working alot. I worked 22 hours straight on Thursday-Friday, got to sleep for 2 hours, then went back for another 5. When I came home I saw she had her head out of her shell...not like her at all.

Her eyes were swollen shut...I swabbed them open, watched her, and put on terramycin in case of an eye infection.. 5 hours later, she had bubbles coming out of her nose. *sigh...respiratory infection * Then, she was losing large amounts mucus through her mouth...

It was caused, of course, by my lack of care --- her cage just wasn't warm enough, nor humid, because of my absense. ( and this wouldn't be the first time I've had to be focused on work for a while )

So I brought her to the vet this morning -- injected her with Baytil, and will do so for a total of 5 doses, once every 5 days. I am also soaking her in tepid water, which seems to be beneficial, as she passed a massive amount of urine after the vet visit. The only good news here is the vet isn't charging me...

Already, she is holding her head inside -- not laying around --- and no runny nose/mucus for well over 12 hours.

So I should hope things will recover well.

Let this be a lesson -- check temperatures often, even if you've been keeping reptiles for a while. I got lazy, didn't notice her decline....and now I could lose her.

Anyone else have this problem before? I'd like to hear your experience....

-Zeb

It sounds like you really know what you're doing, so there should be no problems there. I too am guilty of sometimes letting my work/what little social life I have get in the way of keeping my reptiles healthy. That's actually why my bearded dragon is in not-so-good condition. I was younger and dumber when I got him, so after the so-called 'charm' wore off that I had gotten a reptile, I kind of forgot about him, except for putting food in his cage. That's something that's just unacceptable though, and I realize I was stupid for doing that to him. Luckily I found that it wasn't just the 'charm' I was looking for, but really a long-lasting companion, so I've been pampering him and the rest of the reptiles.

But the temps were still something I wasn't really thinking about, and because of that, when my mali uromastyx's tank got a little bit too hot this summer, I think I might have caused some thermal burning on her back She was a rescue who already had third degree burns on her back because a heat lamp fell on her, so she does have skin that is much more sensitive than others', but it was still a very dumb mistake for me to make.

Now I'm getting more into my career as a musician, and I have to be very careful that doesn't get in the way of taking care of my lizards and my russian tortoise. I teach drums/percussion on tuesdays, as well as a little on thursdays and mondays, and starting tomorrow I will be extremely busy with a professional drumming job until the new year. That's the kind of thing I have to be careful with.

Great looking tortoise by the way! My russian tortoise is really my dad's tortoise, so he will probably stay with my parents after I move out, so I think when that happens, I might buy a baby redfooted tortoise to raise. They seem like a great species.