Runny nose, help!!!!

[katyg]

yes, she is. To be fair she seemed pretty good otherwise, she agreed with all the advice I have had from this site, and not the pet shops!

She did say to keep him a bit warmer than usual at night, but she didn't say 32 degrees. I wish I had as it seems as though that could have made a difference.

What do you guys make of the fact that I only see snot in the morning? I'm hoping that's a good sign!

[GreenSlider]

for their immune systems to work at optimum, they need optimal temps, lower temps would depress the immune system..and reps have quite aggressive immune systems, they can survive nasty episodes better than mammals..but less than ideal temps will nullify that advantage

[Mrs Mental]

I'd getd back to the vets to be honest lovey and get a second course and keep the temps up - fingers crossed he'll be right as rain in a couple of weeks then.

[the mighty P]

try not to worry, the other guys and gals posts are right pet shop keepers dont have a clue they will tell you anything and sell you anything even if its not what you need to make money- i myself went and believed everything the guy said to me in the pet shop
but you are doing everything right now he is seeing a vet and you have made changes for the better
my tortoise had a runny nose a few years back - and he made a full recovery fingers crossed so will your little darling

[Ron Magpie]

To be fair, not all petshop staff and owners are completely ignorant- some really know their stuff. Not enough maybe, but some.

[the mighty P]

Originally Posted by Ron Magpie

To be fair, not all petshop staff and owners are completely ignorant- some really know their stuff. Not enough maybe, but some.

in my experience its the bigger pet shops that are better, like pets at home - they are great and another one local to me are rather good.
the pet shop i got my tortoise from was a pile of poop in hindsight, i too was told just throw some salad in have a heat bulb and the uv lasts for ages (he sold me an aquarim strip light)

[Ron Magpie]

Well, I keep plugging my local (general) petshop, but they do a good job. They only stock 'bread-and-butter' species 'cos that's what they know and are knowledgable on, but they will order in stuff on request- I've had several frogs through them, and I'm getting another cane toad soon

The corn snake I brought from them came complete with info: hatching date, sex, morph, and a record of feeds and sheds up till the day I bought him. I also got my rescue maps from them. One of the assistants in there made a passing remark recently about mixing up the colours of the frozen mice I was buying for the corn, so he didn't get fixated on one type- I knew that, but I was well-surprised she did!

[katyg]

Thanks for all the advice! Not too sure I agree with PAH being a good pet shop, they are selling Tortoise/ viv set ups at my local store! I find their tropical fish awful too, but that's another story............

Back to Pickles! I had a chat with the vet, and she's keen to leave him be for a week or two. She is going to send me a swab so I can take a snot sample and send it off to the lab, so that could be really helpful. No snot today though, so who knows, maybe he is on the mend!!

She has done a bit of research into tortoise tonics (!) and recommends a product called Propalis, an echinacea based, alcohol free liquid.

Has anyone used this? Apparantly you can give a drop a day. She stressed that there has been no actual research into the effectiveness of this, but some reptile keepers find it helpful.

[Lulu&Dunnston]

guys,

what does a runny nose mean.... i've just noticed mine has one and i'm really worried!!

[purplepixie]

RNS is a tortoises nose running, just like ours when we have a cold. Its the start of infection, and needs to be sorted by a tortoise vet.
Sometimes they can blow bubbles through their noses, after they have had a bath, which is normal.
But any signs of a runny nose should be checked out by a tortoise vet.