Russian Tortoise Cause of Death

Question
Unfortunately, our pet Russian Tortoise, Shy Guy, died last night. We owned him for about 7 years. I'm writing you because my wife is convinced she "killed" him.
Last night, she gave him a bath, which we usually did about once or twice a week. This induced bowel & urinary movements. We have a small tub that we filled only a half inch or so. She thinks she left him in there too long, or that the water was too cold.
Anyway, later on, Shy Guy started vomiting. We normally fed him romaine lettuce and arugula, which he ate a lot of. I would say that the arugula was the bulk of his diet, but he did eat some of the romaine too. The vomit looked pretty severe to me, and there was some discharge coming out of his nose as well. Being that it was Sunday night, we simply thought it best to keep an eye on him until the morning. Within several hours, Shy Guy was dead.
We're heartbroken, of course, but I'm hoping a professional can put my wife's mind at ease. I can't imagine she's responsible for this. From what I can gather, Shy Guy could have had organ failure of some kind, a worm, or even poison. I realize you can't offer a definitive answer, but can you please shed some light on our situation? The bath water was not over his head, and she left him in there about an hour accidentally.  

Answer
Hi Bill,

I doubt there's a tortoise owner anywhere that hasn't accidentally left a tortoise in the soaking water too long, so set your wife's mind at ease.  It's very difficult to say what causes a tortoise's death without a necropsy.  Very often they have been sick for some time without showing symptoms, so it could have been anything from kidney disease to natural causes.  Another factor is that the Russian tortoises that are obtained from pet stores (as opposed to hatchlings from a private breeder, for example) are wild caught and imported here under horrific conditions.  It's very hard to say how much that kind of stress affects their longevity.  No matter what a pet store tells you, if they have adult Russian tortoises they are wild caught, not captive bred.  There aren't very many adult CB Russian tortoises available, and it's highly unlikely to see one in a pet store.  Even hatchlngs would be uncommon.  So it's very possible that importation conditions had some effect on your tortoise's long-term health.

If you decide to get another tortoise, you might want to do some research on current information regarding care, diet, etc.  Knowledge of the needs of tortoises is always improving, so there's always new information to learn.  It's unlikely that diet, for instance, caused his death--a varied diet is important and romaine isn't high on the nutritional list--but obviously a tortoise that's eating an optimal diet is less likely to develop health problems.  It used to be thought that providing lettuce and/or a pelleted diet would be adequate, but now it's known that different greens and weeds provide different nutrients, so focusing on variety is key.  Likewise, the need for some moisture in the enclosure is something that's fairly new.  While they are an arid species, they spend much of their time in burrows where the humidity is much higher than on the surface, so it's necessary to provide a decent moisture level in captivity to replicate these conditions.  An excellent website to read up on care information is at www.russiantortoise.org.

I'm very sorry for the loss of Shy Guy, but please let your wife know that she didn't cause his death.  It's likely that he had a underlying illness that simply didn't show symptoms until it was too late.  The important thing was that he was loved and cared for while you had him.

Hi Bill,

Sorry, should have put this in my original post.  If you do decide to get another tortoise in the future, post again and set it to *private* and I'll give you my email.  I'll see if I can help you find one, either through rescue or through a private breeder.  :)