Stomatitis and Baytril in tortoises

Re: Stomatitis and Baytril in tortoises

Gillian Mostyn — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 22:24:02 GMT

You are very welcome to contact me anytime. Happy to be of any help I can.

TBH, there is no 'big secret' about treating tortoises - or any other exotics. Obviously having a good understanding of species-specific husbandry, anatomy etc, is required - but generally the rules of diagnosis are the same as for any other animal you see. You wouldn't see a really sick dog and just give it multivits and a course of antibiotics, without making any attempt at diagnosis - the same should go for exotics. The biggest problem is that a simple clinical exam is unlikely to give you as much info in a tortoise as it would in a dog - so you often have to do tests at an earlier stage.

Re: Stomatitis and Baytril in tortoises

Vikki Halliday LLB — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 22:37:51 GMT

Wow! Gillian you sound like a bit of chelonian whizz? Can I contact you for advice if I need some? I have to admit I would have gone down the multivit/husbandry/Baytril route, with perhaps tube feeding if anorexic.

Re: Stomatitis and Baytril in tortoises

Gillian Mostyn — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:38:57 GMT

You can't treat stomatitis until you diagnose the cause - there are many and varied! Many systemic problems will result in a sick tortoise, and then secondary stomatitis. Often it is the indicator of underlying problems, not the problem itself.

Primary stomatitis needs a swab to confirm infective agent - including fungi and viruses (HERPES - arghhh!!!). That will then indicate the best treatment option.

As far as baytril dosage is concerned, there are a few opinions but I tend to go for 10mg/kg SID PO (but often by oesophagostomy tube if the illness/stomatitis is bad enough to cause anorexia.)

[I don't mean to be anything other than helpful when I say that if you are not comfortable running a lot of diagnostics (bloods xray etc) due to lack of familiarity with the species, you're better off referring to someone who is familiar with the species rather than having a go with baytril. Without finding the underlying problem you are unlikely to succeed. )]