How should a leopard tortoise be treated when it has diarrhea and refuses to eat right after arriving home?
Many friends happily waited for the leopard tortoise they love, only to find that the leopard has started having diarrhea, won't eat, and even if it eats a little, it passes whatever it eats. What should be done in this situation? And how should it be treated? In fact, there are many ways to treat diarrhea in leopard tortoises, and the key is not to feed a large amount of medication, as this will instead cause further damage to the leopard tortoise's body. Not only after diarrhea appears, but from the moment the leopard tortoise arrives at your home, conditioning should begin. Take a look at the conditioning methods compiled by the editor!
I. Treating diarrhea in leopard tortoises
1. Feed once every other day
Do not put a water dish in the enclosure where the leopard is kept. On the one hand, do not let them drink too much water, to control the diarrhea situation; on the other hand, let them take in more water from the vegetable leaves during soaking and feeding.
2. Feed a little bac each time
You must watch them eat it. At the same time, add a small amount of berberine powder to each soak, and it must be a small amount - after all, too much medication damages the tortoise's internal organs. Roughly, when the powder you add makes the soaking water as yellow as dog urine, then soak them. At this time, according to the first point, since the leopard has no water replenishment, it will drink water during the soak, and thus also drink the berberine. The best reason for this is that it saves us from force-feeding, which causes food refusal. After soaking, dry them off, especially the gaps between the four legs, then in combination with the earlier methods for promoting appetite, give a little vegetable leaf with bac. A whole bottle of bac is very expensive, and you certainly won't use it all up. On Taobao there is bagged bac for sale, 10 yuan per bag, enough for your conditioning.
3. Severe cases
If you find that the leopard eats vegetables and passes vegetables, or the droppings are jelly-like or almost watery, then that indicates it is relatively serious. Eating vegetables and passing vegetables shows that the tortoise clearly lacks digestive enzymes in its body. The best way to supplement digestive enzymes is to feed pellets. If it eats pellets, give pellets, or give them together with vegetables, and try to feed fruit to increase appetite. It is best to soak the pellets and then dry the water off with tissue, otherwise there is too much moisture. If the droppings are jelly-like or almost watery, then there should be worms in the body. I forget exactly what kind of worms, but what you need to do is use metronidazole. Go to a pharmacy and buy some metronidazole. The specific feeding method can be grinding it into powder for soaking or sprinkling it on the vegetable leaves for them to eat. If a state of food refusal appears, then use water and the crushed powder to force-feed. Metronidazole works quickly, and by about the second or third day it will resolve this severe diarrhea state. But note that this is also a drug to use with caution; do not give too much. If the diarrhea is not that severe, then it is better to use the same methods as above: bac + berberine powder + pellets + no water dish.
4. Deworming
If you have a leopard of 9-12 cm, then after bringing it home you had best deworm it. The method is the same: grind albendazole into powder and sprinkle it on the vegetables. Give it repeatedly for a few days, and when you see messy worms or such appearing in the droppings, that is enough. Do not give too much, but do not give it just once and stop either.
5. Create a basking spot
Keep the temperature at 28-32°C. Under a heat lamp it should be a bit higher. You can put the tortoise under the heat lamp every day, but do not let it bask above 35°C. If it is too hot under the lamp, do not place it directly underneath; put it a little to the side. Otherwise it will bask until it dehydrates and dies.
See whether after basking it crawls away by itself? If it does, that is very good. If it does not, you must move it away from under the lamp, and after basking for 30-40 minutes, continue the next day. Then soak it in water every day. When soaking, pay attention to the water temperature; you can put the water dish under the heat lamp to bask so the water won't get cold too quickly.
6. Keep environmental humidity at around 70-80%, and absolutely do not let it fall below 60%
The reason is that tortoises need environmental temperature to maintain normal metabolism, but with high temperature and low humidity, the tortoise will quickly dehydrate, which is an even bigger problem. High humidity can ensure sufficient moisture in the tortoise's body, so there will be no danger.
7. Leaf lettuce and romaine lettuce have little nutrition, just a lot of water
Tortoises are like people: if a person eats something bad at noon, that afternoon they immediately have diarrhea, because the person's stomach and intestines move quickly to expel the bad stuff. Tortoises can also have diarrhea because of stress or nervousness. So the baby corn you feed may possibly be passed the next day. The reason a tortoise has diarrhea is also that its stomach and intestines move too quickly. High-fiber grass powder will slow down the tortoise's stomach and intestinal movement.
If it eats nothing but leaf lettuce, then we have no choice but to feed a little, but feed the leaf lettuce that was washed yesterday and left to dry overnight. Otherwise, if you feed too-fresh leaf lettuce, it will have diarrhea for even longer. Then sprinkle a truly tiny bit of grass powder on the leaf lettuce, or crushed, powdered tortoise pellets. At the beginning, it must be a truly tiny bit - see whether it eats it? Start from so little that it can barely notice it, then slowly increase. Be mentally prepared, because you have already entered a long-term battle stage. You must be extremely patient. Slowly increase the amount of grass powder and tortoise pellets until it is willing to eat the tortoise pellets.
8. Try other foods
You can try mulberry leaves and grape leaves. They should be dry and crisp.
II. Initial conditioning and feeding after arriving home
In order for the leopard to smoothly adapt to the environment after arriving home, and to begin conditioning them.
1. The first day after arriving home
No matter what condition the leopard was in when you bought it, no matter how much it can eat, do not give it its fill just because it looks especially good, because there is a chance it will overeat and die. I once had a four-toed tortoise that after arriving home could really eat, noticeably eating more than the other four-toed tortoises, but after being given its fill so recklessly for two days, it mysteriously died in the water dish. You must control the feeding amount, because we do not know how often the seller fed it. If it was not fed for a long time, only given food once every several days, then suddenly giving too much food makes it easy for the digestive tract to become blocked or for food refusal to occur due to eating too much. Therefore, on the first day after arriving home, based on the individual's size, we give a little bit of vegetables, one leaf, or a little more than one leaf. After that, proceed gradually day by day, adding a little more each day, and do not feel sorry for it; adopt the method of feeding once every other day. In this way, I guarantee the leopard's condition will gradually stabilize.
2. The leopard not eating after arriving home
Do not worry. That may be physical discomfort caused by bumping during transport, or food refusal due to not adapting to the environment. What we need to do is prepare in advance a hidden place, or a cave, den or something, to give it a certain sense of security. If the leopard itself is fine, then we should not stare at it too carefully when feeding it for the first time, and do not stuff food into its mouth just because it won't eat, as that will make the leopard nervous and even less able to adapt to the environment. When encountering a situation where it won't eat, the only thing we do is try cutting an apple or other fruit into pieces and placing them in front of it. If it eats, that is very good, and afterward gradually feed a mix of apple and vegetables. Then slowly reduce the amount of apple, and slowly it will recover and eat vegetables.
3. Use animals' conditioned reflex ability to promote appetite
Along with the above feeding methods, every day after washing the vegetables, place them outside the enclosure so they can see them. This way they will definitely want to come over and eat, and you will see them anxiously walking back and forth against the glass. At this time, do not hurry to put the vegetables in. Take a stalk of vegetable and lure the leopard through the glass, letting it walk along with your vegetable. Over time, you will find this is a very good method for maintaining the leopard's appetite. Just like the experiment where dogs salivate when they see a red light, repeatedly making the same action toward an animal will make them develop an appetite even if you do not feed them. When the vegetables have been left a while and have less moisture, then you put the vegetables in, and at this time you will find the leopards all rush over and eat it all up. "Here you must note: feed little, not much. That they still look for food after finishing is a good thing. Do not feed them until they are stuffed every time, as that will hinder their appetite for the next feeding."
4. About feeding pellets and calcium powder and vitamins
I suggest still giving an appropriate amount, since those things contain small amounts of nutrients that vegetables do not have. Giving too much is not good, but an appropriate amount is very good. Pellets not only contain many nutritional components, but mainly also digestive enzymes, which can help the leopard's intestines move. If the intestines are beautiful, the leopard is beautiful. Some people say that eating too many pellets causes pyramiding. That may be because eating too many pellets causes the tortoise to grow quickly, and during this it does not get good calcium supplementation, making the calcium-to-phosphorus ratio imbalanced, so the pyramiding condition appears. Moreover, feeding pellets when the tortoise has just been bought will very well promote their digestion and control the diarrhea condition.
Therefore, when keeping tortoises, everyone must have a sufficient understanding of the tortoise's habits, and at the same time must also have a heart willing to spend time and energy on them. Only in this way can the leopard be kept healthy and well!