Hi Darren

From previous posting (18/6/08)

The important thing is her urates aren't gritty.
If she passes water when in the bath, this is a sign she is indeed taking on a fresh supply of water.

Darren

6/7/08

Yesterday when I was bathing Keya she was pushing to go to the wee but nothing was happening, this morning she did push and what followed was a whoosh of bloody discoloured wee with very gritty bits. The thing that puzzles me is that her wee's & urates have been normal ( resembling white toothpaste & soft) , also her poo's are as they should be. She is happy in herself and eating and drinking with no problems. I will be taking her to the vet tomorrow to get her checked out, but was interested to hear any comments you might have.

Thanks

Jane & Keya

Hi Jane

How often are you bathing her?  I would up the baths to twice daily and include some high water content food such as cucumber just to make sure she is fully hydrated after passing the gritty bits.  You mentioned bloody urine - if she has been eating dandelions, this can cause a redish discoluration of the urine as well :) so it may not have been blood.

best regards

Arlene

Hi Arlene

I always give Keya a warm bath every morning, but yes I will give her another one tonight too, thank-you.  From my  last posting Darren suggested cucumber which I have been including and everything has been fine she has been passing her wee's no problem it has just been since yesterday that the problem began again.  She has always had dandelions  in her diet, this was definately blood , as the gritty urates were blood discoloured too. My problem is why this has happened, she is in an outdoor enclosure with loads of space, correct heating etc it is very worrying. Have you heard of this before?

Thanks

Jane&Keya

You could try increasing the length of time you leave her in the bath too, changing the water half way through when it gets cold.

Hope the situation is improving.

Jo

Hi

I was so concerned about Keya that I took her to the vet. She was given an x-ray as I worried that she might have a stone forming. The X-ray results were good, there was not a stone and all her bone structure etc were good. They have sent some bloods away to the lab to make sure that her renal system is functioning ok, I am still waiting for them to come back, but the vet is not expecting anything  to be too wrong ( I hope they are right) so back to why her urates get gritty at times? she also passes normal urates almost every day, which from the TT site means too much protein in the diet but she doesn't have any. I stopped giving her clover straight away, which I had started about for 2-3 wks ago and  in moderation, so thank you for that advice. So has anyone got any ideas?

Thanks

Regards

Jane

 Hi Jane

I'm pleased to hear Keya is well - you are just like all of us - a worried mum .

Try using rain water for her drinking water and bathing water too.  I'm not sure why rain water might help but I do live in a hard water area and even though my torts are on a low protein diet and have regular soaks I find unless I use rain water they pass gritty urates.  All that is except my leopards that don't ever pass urates. 

Helen

Hi Jane,

I have a tortoise that never drinks in the bath (although she does often drink from her water bowl). She used to occasionally pass gritty urates, but I give her the weeds soaking wet (and his also helps the Nutrobal to stick to them), but about 2 or three times a week I also give her a slice of cucumber AFTER her meal (cucumber is mostly water with no real nutrients, so you don't want it to take the place of real food), and I give her sedum too (which I think has a lot of water in the succulent leaves), and she never has gritty urates now.

Nina

Hi Helen & Nina

Thank you so much for your advice, that makes so much sense, our water is very hard in Northampton.  I was beginning to despair, the vet asked me loads of questions on how I was rearing Keya, and when I told her, she said that I was doing everything right, so it was a bit puzzling. Anyway I feel pretty confident that now I know she has a clean bill of health, and assuming her bloods come back ok that giving her rain water will solve the problem. Is bottled water OK as well?

Regards

Jane

 Hi Helen

As an after thought, how do you keep a store of rain water?

Thanks

Jane

Hi Jane

I collect the rain water in a water butt.  I have a few tortoises and house them in either sheds or greenhouses and I have a gutter system attached and the water runs into a rain butt that has a tap at the bottom.  The rain butts were fairly cheap as it was a deal our local council were dong at the time to encourage us to save water.

HTH

Helen

Hi Helen,

I have the same arrangement, but I've always wondered, if the water sits in the butt for a while (a couple of days or week), is there a possibility that bacteria, etc. could grow in it, making it not as safe? As it comes from the roof and gutter, it must bring something with it as it runs down into my water butt.

Nina

Well yes Nina there is a possibility, but so far my water has always looked OK and the tortoises have never had any problems with it.  I suppose you could just collect it in a bucket or something each time it rains and then it wouldn't be stood around for too long.

In my case, I use the water from the butt up pretty quickly anyway, as I use it for watering everything outside which includes my garden (which is huge), the poultry, the cockateils, the horses, the dogs etc., etc. 

Helen

Hi Helen,
I use mine to water the garden too, and also for Doris's water bowl outside, and there has never been a problem, but I just always wondered about the safety of water that's been sitting there for a while.

Nina

Hi

I do keep water for watering the garden in a butt, but it doesn't matter if it has been sitting there for a few weeks or so as it is only used to water the plants, but giving it to keya as her daily supply of fresh water is the one that has me puzzled on how to keep available for her all time. Hope this makes sense what I am trying to say and not sounding too dim!!! teehee

Thanks

Jane

Hi Jane, to keep a fresh supply you just need to scoop some of the rain water from the butt into Keya's usual drinking bowl, and change it daily. Hope this helps

Vivienne

Hi Helen

I had never thought about hard water, but this makes perfect sense, I think I will use rain water for mine in future, unfortunalty, collecting it will not be a problem at the moment...!

Jane, I would avoid bottled water, I *think* the mineral content of bottled water is even higher than tap water, and also dont use water which has gone through a water softener.

Glad to hear the vet has given her a clean bill of health :)

Arlene

Hi Arlene

Oh dear just read your reply sorry. I have been giving her bottled water, never mind at least I know now and stop. I was also thinking of getting  a water softener, so I won't do that now either- thanks. Strange isn't it, it hasnt rained since we last spoke Helen. hmmm. Keya is fine, urates are milky white and she wee's everyday. I have taken to putting a little bit of cucumber in with her Dandelions, Plaintain & sedum every day, so I think that helps. Happy ending at the present time... 

 thank you everyone you have been a great help.

Tortoise7 (Jane)