Amoebiasis

I took my Tort. to the vet for the first time. His eye infection was getting better but still he had issue opening his eyes. Doctor gave me one eye drop to put twice a day. This eye drop is for the kind of infections caused by bacterial infections. I have been using this for last 5 days and his eye is getting better. During the last vet visit , my vet also took his faecal sample to examine .
After two days of the examination, my vet told me my tortoise has got Amoebiasis and he has to be treated for this. He has to undergo an antibiotic course. The taste of the medicine is pretty bad, so vet has to forcefeed his the medicine.

Today was the first day of the treatment. I took my tortoise to the vet. As he is so tiny, my vet and his assistant took around 10 mins to opening his tiny mouth. Then he put the tube into his mouth and slipped upto his stomach.

My tortoise has to do this 5 more times. I know it hurts him, but i think this will do good to him.

Apart from the antibiotic treatment, I have to keep his bed super clean. I will dispose his old bedding today and wash his house with clorox diluted water. I will make a bed of news paper and hay so that every other day I can throw away the substrate. Also we have to super careful about our own health too as amoebaisis is super contagius.

Some Websites I Visit frequently to learn about Russian Tortoise

Here are some websites I frequently visit to learn about Russian Tortoises.I still have not found an website where behaviour of Russian Tort has been studied or explained. All these tortoise websites discuss about habitat/food/hibernation/injuries etc.     
    1. http://russiantortoise.org/   

    2. http://turtlerescues.com/russian_tortoise_care.htm   

    3. http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/vivarium.htm      

    4. http://www.tortoisecare.org/

   
                                  Still these websites are pretty good for learning about habitat etc. I will be writing my own report about my Russian tortoise behaviour. Some days I feel my tort gets happy when I life his, and some days he says "don’t bother me you human being".                                                  

My Russian Tortoise flipped under the UV lamp!!

Yesterday I assembled the new zoomed tortoise habitat for my Russian tortoise.
Here is the link to this zoomed house.
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3006741
Before leaving for office I made a substrate of sand+ timothy hay(first mistake) and left my tortoise in his new house(second mistake). Then I left for office. I came back from office after around 9 hrs and found my tortoise flipped directly under the UV lamp. He had pooped all  his body and was looking very dehydrated.  He had small wounds on his limbs as he might be desperately trying to flip and the edge of shell might be cutting off his skin. By the time I saw him, he was looking absolutely scared.
 I am completely responsible for this mishap. I should not have left him in his new house without testing it out. I should have moved him to his new house in the week end so that I could have observed him through out the day. Also if the substrate was made out of sand+hay+stones+top soil+ coco coir, I think things would have been different. Also the thickness of his substrate was less than 1 inch.His substrate was almost flat. So he did not get the elevation he would have got with a thick substrate.

So today (as its still a week day) I have brought him back to his old house. I have made a 2 inch think bed with Sand+ organic soil+hay+ river stone+coco coir. The thickness of his bed is more in the basking spot because if he flips under the lamb , that could take his life. I have washed his wounds with luke warm water and given him more hiding spots.

Compact UVB BULB

I just bought a compact UVB bulb for my tortoise. I have been using this bulb since last two days. Just now I read an article that compact bulbs are not good for reptiles . Some reptiles can go blind because of the this.
Here is the link where I read this.
http://www.uvguide.co.uk/phototherapyphosphor.htm

I am going to defocus the UVB buld light so that tortoise will get UVB but the lighting will not be that bright. Also I am going to lot more hiding places so that he can hide any where if he does not like the light.