If you’ve lived with your pet tortoise for a while you’re likely quite used to the animal’s behaviors, if your pet’s behavior starts to change you’d understandably become worried.
Your tortoise gasping all of a sudden is an unexpected change, this article looks into why your pet does this.
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Tortoise gasping:
Animal behavior can be quite baffling, tortoise behavior included, and the reason behind why your tortoise may do certain things may be baffling as well.
Here is why your tortoise may be gasping:
Choking:
One reason why your pet tortoise may be gasping may be that the animal is choking on something or something is stuck in its throat.
Another sign of something stuck in your pet’s throat, in addition to the gasping, is the animal wiping its mouth with its claw as though something is stuck in its mouth.
What to do:
Your pet will likely get this object out of its mouth on its own, or you can choose to help if it can’t.
The gasping movement will help the object move down your reptile’s throat. Your tortoise eating will also help to get the object down its throat.
You can help by soaking your reptile in some water, the animal drinking the water will flush the object down its throat, just keep an eye on your pet as it soaks.
Respiratory infection:
A respiratory infection may also be the reason why your tortoise is gasping all of a sudden.
Respiratory infections in tortoises are caused by fungi, parasites, bacteria, and viruses. Gasping is a symptom of this condition.
In addition to gasping for breath, other symptoms of this condition include sneezing, open mouth breathing, eye or nose discharge, lethargy, a lack of appetite, abnormal body posture, weight loss, lopsided swimming, and exaggerated limb movement.
What to do:
Because this condition is so serious, and life-threatening in fact, you would need to treat your pet as soon as you can.
Taking your pet to the vet for treatment is recommended because the labwork that is needed to determine what caused the infection can only be done by a vet.
Antibiotics are usually given to treat this infection and these need to be given by your vet.
Oral or injectable antibiotics may be given to your pet as a treatment and your pet may need to stay overnight at the vet for observation.
You can give supportive care to your pet at home while you’re waiting to take it to the vet.
Do this by first making sure that its environment is as clean and pristine as it can be. Increase the temperature and humidity settings in your pet’s enclosure to help it fight the infection.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other turtle/tortoise related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Baby Tortoise Crying Noise At Night Sick, Why Is My Turtle Making Clicking Noises?, Tortoise Making Whistling Noise When Eating, Tortoise Clicking Jaw, Tortoise Swollen Neck, Tortoise Making Whistling Noise, Tortoise Gasping, Why Is My Tortoise Squeaking At Night?, Sulcata Tortoise Making Clicking Noise