Our 11yr old Russian Tortoise is very ILL!

Question
Hi, thank you for taking my question...

We have a Russian tortoise named Gilbert that is 11 yrs. old now. He has lived with my brother and his girlfriend for the past 10 years, and with us for the past year. We were told that he will only eat romaine lettuce. I have tried to give him strawberries and some dandelions, but he will not eat them.

Anyways... Yesterday, I noticed that he was out of water in his cage. I decided a bath would be good for him so I rinsed the sink and put him in. He was in for 20 min or so. When I got him out he was lifeless!!! His head was just hanging out of his shell and his limbs were dangling.

I ran him outside and put him on the warm concrete, and talked to him and he was moving his eyes around at me. I then too him inside and put him under his heat lamp and UV lights... hoping that would help. I checked on him over an hour and he seemed to get a little life back in him, so I took him back outside because it was nice and sunny, and he loves the outdoors.

I checked on him in 20 minutes and when I picked him up his mouth was wide opened and he was bubbling and foaming! All night he did the hiccuping thing, and has been very lethargic.

The vet said he is calcium defied, and has a very poor diet. She made me feel horrid. A girl that I talked to at the pet store was really nice and thinks he might have swallowed to much water...

His eyes keep pushing in a bit into his head every so often this morning too. Have you ever heard of this before???

Do you have any recommendations as to his diet if he will only eat romaine lettuce? What else can I offer him? I just don't know where to start...

And he looks very dry... his shell anyways... any help with that??

Thank you so much for your time and help, it means a lot to me and our family! We LOVE this little guy Gilbert!!

Answer
Hi Katie, Correcting the diet is secondary right now. It really sounds like he aspirated water while in the sink and is in severe danger of pneumonia. The mouth breathing, hiccupping and bubbling are strongly indicative of that. Those are very serious symptoms in a tortoise. Did your vet not address those symptoms specificially? I'm rather surprised that she did not start him on antibiotics immediately or even hospitalize him! He may have slipped below the water surface level momentarily on the slick sink surface. You also have to be careful about water temperature when soaking reptiles. Water that feels warm to our hands is likely in the high 90'sF and that can result in quite a temperature shock to reptile.
The key thing now is to keep him warm, that will boost his own immune system but I honestly think you should have him seen by another vet rather quickly.

I have linked an excellent site on the care of Russians. When he has recovered from this episode and is eating again then please post a follow-up and we can discuss how to improve his diet. Good luck with his recovery.

http://www.russiantortoise.org/