The Arctic Reptile Ranch: It's Never Just a Tortoise....

That is a quote I credit my wife with from about 4 or 5 tortoises ago. Typically this refers to "needing" to buy a new/ upgraded enclosure or more lighting or thermostats or other shell-puppy(as we call them) accessories. That $400 or $600 plus shipping quickly spirals upwards in overall cost.

A week and a half ago I found a female cherryhead for sale in my state at a very reasonable price, $200. To add to that luck, I had just moved my larger redfoot to a bigger enclosure and just happened to have a full set up ready for a new tenant. This time, it was really just going to be the cost of a tortoise! Had I been more familiar with non-traumatic sickness in tortoises I would have spotted the issue immediately.

Standard new-acquisition-excitement combined with convenience clouded my objective thinking skills. In fact the person was willing to hold onto her for a week and a half and deliver it to Anchorage from Fairbanks, a 6 hour drive. We met in a an easy to find parking lot in Anchorage, she handed the wife the tortoise and I handed her the money then talked briefly about what she had been feeding it and how long she had it. They drove away and we got ready to drive home and I immediately heard the sound of fluid filled breathing.

Realizing after just a brief conversation with the seller that it was amazing the tortoise had lived as long as it did; this girl has a better chance of making it with us than its previous owner so we made the decision there to keep her and do what we can to help her recover. In for a penny, in for a pound we are! Maybe we were over reacting and the girl is just stressed from the long, air conditioned car ride that she spent on a person's lap :-/ Nope, not that easy.

Clear fluid discharge indicative of a Upper Respiratory Infection

Least of worries but still an issue is the over-grown front beak. I'll take care of that once the URI is gone.

Extended limbs & neck are a sign the tortoise is trying to open up its distressed respiratory system

Despite having been sick for at least 3 weeks, likely more, the URI hasn't progressed too far. Her bubbly snot is still quite thin & clear and her ENT pathways appear free of build-up. And something I should have notice in the CL advertisement is her drooping head and limbs(attempts to maximize internal lung surface area)

One odd symptom however is stunted locomotion. She walks oddly and lists side to side like a boat in a storm. In fact she has twice rolled herself onto her side. Could there be other factors at play besides a URI, perhaps kidney damage from being kept improperly is making walking a painful task. I tried asking some followup questions from the seller to help with diagnosis to no avail. Not surprisingly, she has shown zero interest in food but over the last three days I've soaked her daily in a water/pedialyte solution. This has added a meager 40 grams to the 1700g weight from Saturday. While it has no caloric value, this solution could help replace electrolytes essential to nerve conduction and muscle function.

We took a trip to the vet today. Our vet confirmed the obvious URI. The vet took snot swabs to be cultured over the next week and also did blood work to check kidney function for me as she was also kind of bewildered by the odd walking.

We left $317 poorer

We also got some parting souvenirs, 10 days of baytril and this stuff called critical care intended to give calories and vitamins to sick critters and help stimulate appetite.