Redfoot Tortoise with Upper-Respiratory Infection

[ceeej31]

About a month ago I noticed that my redfoot tortoise, Sam, was showing signs of a respiratory infection (swollen, glassy eyes, labored breathing, wheezing sounds, etc.) he was eating fine so I wasn't too worried but I decided to book a vet appointment to be safe. Sure enough he has an upper respiratory infection. In addition to antibiotics, the vet gave Sam a vitamin A/D injection. This is not the first time Sam has gotten a respiratory infection so the vet decided to take the same route we took the first time, .16ml of baytril given orally every day for two weeks, this same system had worked in the past so i didn't expect to run into any problems. Well after the two weeks were up Sam's infection had not gotten any worse but it had not improved much either. So today I went back to the vet and the vet and I both decided to try baytril injections this time around.In addition to the baytril (one 0.14ml intramuscular injection every 24 hours) the vet also prescribed 3 more vitamin A/D injections (0.1ml today, 0.1ml in three weeks, and 0.1ml in six weeks). The vet told me to call him if Sam doesn't improve within a week in which case he said we could try stronger medications.
I was just wondering if there was anything else I could do to improve Sam's health, he is still eating well and behaving normally apart from his labored breathing.
Sam's enclosure is a standard 45 gallon aquarium (36"x12") but i am moving him into a 40 gallon breeder (36"x18") with three of the sides painted an opaque blue on Sunday.
UV lighting is provided by 4 compact fluorescent exo-terra 5.0 bulbs
Heating is provided by 50 watt incandescent exo-terra sunglow daylight spot bulb.
I also mist his cage with warm water every other day but since my thermometer and hygrometer broke a few months ago I am not sure of the exact temperature and humidity levels, but i do know that his tank is quite warm and humid 24/7. I will be getting a new thermometer and hygrometer on Sunday.
His diet is mainly collard greens but he also gets bok-choi, romiane, bananas, strawberries, grapes, cantaloupe, and occasionally superworms.
His water dish is big enough for him to soak in and he gets fresh clean water every day.
As of today Sam weighed 679g and measured about 7" long
sorry for the long post but i wanted to be as thorough as I could

 

[coura]

Go to a diferent exotic vet, just like with people its allways good to take second opinions. Also just from your post I can see the vet that took care of your toise isnt very experienced on toises, if he were he would know that tortoises and baytril dont mix well at all. In my experience baytril can cause serious harm to tortoises. In contrast sliders, painteds and map turtles take baytril just fine. Also it is very important to reconsider your husbandry metods, unless your toise has a specific virus, it is very unlikely for a well established clean toise to get such desiase, even a rater delicate one like a red foot. Something has to be causing it, even something like a aerosol in the same room or people smoking!

 

[ceeej31]

Go to a diferent exotic vet, just like with people its allways good to take second opinions. Also just from your post I can see the vet that took care of your toise isnt very experienced on toises, if he were he would know that tortoises and baytril dont mix well at all. In my experience baytril can cause serious harm to tortoises. In contrast sliders, painteds and map turtles take baytril just fine. Also it is very important to reconsider your husbandry metods, unless your toise has a specific virus, it is very unlikely for a well established clean toise to get such desiase, even a rater delicate one like a red foot. Something has to be causing it, even something like a aerosol in the same room or people smoking!

thanks for the tips.
what do you mean specifically by baytril harming tortoises?

 

[coura]

thanks for the tips.
what do you mean specifically by baytril harming tortoises?

Baytrill atacks the articulation joints of a toise or another growing animal, so it is higly unadvizable in high doses to young animals as it can deform them and cause severe pain and swelling. In toises the major simpton it causes is vomiting soon after it is administered, not fun. If your toise dint experienced thouse simptons she was lucky, but there is no need with so many better antibiotics now becoming available.

 

[ceeej31]

Baytrill atacks the articulation joints of a toise or another growing animal, so it is higly unadvizable in high doses to young animals as it can deform them and cause severe pain and swelling. In toises the major simpton it causes is vomiting soon after it is administered, not fun. If your toise dint experienced thouse simptons she was lucky, but there is no need with so many better antibiotics now becoming available.

i see, i did a google search on baytril and tortoises, and came up with similar results, i just checked on Sam and he is acting completely normal right now, he also did not show any reaction immediately after his injection today. i will call the vet tomorrow and discuss it with him, i will also look into getting a new vet.

 

[EricIvins]

Ditch the Baytril.......It doesn't work well anymore.......Get a culture done and use the right Anti-Biotic for the job........If you don't get it caught soon you'll wind up with a Tortoise zombie that will never get better and will die a slow, lingering death....

 

[ceeej31]

Ditch the Baytril.......It doesn't work well anymore.......Get a culture done and use the right Anti-Biotic for the job........If you don't get it caught soon you'll wind up with a Tortoise zombie that will never get better and will die a slow, lingering death....

thats what i will probably end up doing. thanks to both of you