Limping isn’t a good sign in humans and if you’re thinking that it isn’t a good sign in tortoises then you’d be right. This article looks into why your tortoise is limping
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Why is my tortoise limping?
Odd behavior in your tortoise will likely make your eyebrows raise and for good reason.
Here is why your tortoise may be limping:
Injury:
One of the reasons why your tortoise may be limping may be because it is injured.
These animals may have tough shells but the rest of their body is not impenetrable, their bodies are quite fragile.
These little animals can become injured if they jump off of something and injure their leg/s or if they fall off of something and become injured.
What to do:
Monitor your pet for the next 24 hours to see if its condition improves.
If your pet gets better over the 24 hours then your pet should be fine but if it does not then get your pet to the vet.
Your vet will likely do x-rays on your pet to determine what the problem with your tortoise is.
Once the vet determines the severity of the problem they may do surgery and prescribe the appropriate pain and antiinflammatory medications if needed.
Metabolic bone disease:
Another reason why your tortoise may be limping may be that your pet has a condition called metabolic bone disease.
MBD can develop if your pet has nutritional imbalances, or, if the animal lives in an improper environment.
This condition will cause your pet to develop soft or deformed bones and this can cause severe pain in the animal’s bones.
Your pet tortoise may be limping because its leg is in pain and the animal is trying to avoid applying too much pressure to it.
If not addressed this can lead to an untimely and painful death.
Other signs of this condition in your pet include a flat shell, bowed legs, constipation, lethargy, bilateral softening of the jaw, a soft shell, or, a jerky gait when the animal walks like limping.
What to do:
Thankfully this condition can be treated at home by adding more calcium to your tortoise diet.
Doing this will reverse the effects of this disease.
You can also start to reverse the effects of this condition by giving your pet more UVB light.
Bladder stones:
Another of the reasons why your tortoise may have issues with its legs and may be limping may be because the reptile has bladder stones.
Bladder stones grow in tortoises that have nutritional imbalances.
These stones can grow to be tremendous in size and this can understandably cause issues in your pet.
One of the issues that these stones can cause in your pet is paralyzation in the hind legs.
The limping may be the start of the paralysis in your pet.
What to do:
This condition can be difficult to diagnose so it is advised that you take your pet to a vet or even better a vet who specializes in reptiles to have the animal checked.
The most reliable way of diagnosing this condition in your pet is by taking an x-ray of the animal
If the stones are too large then the stones will need to be broken and then removed through a small opening at the shell during surgery.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other tortoise/turtle related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Sulcata Tortoise Leg Problems, Tortoise Back Legs Stretched Out, Can Tortoises Break Their Legs?, Tortoise Having Trouble Walking, Tortoise Not Using One Leg, Why Does My Tortoise Bite His Leg?, Why Do Turtles Bite Their Feet?, Why Is My Turtle’s Back Leg Swollen?, Why Does My Turtle Sleep Standing Up?