HI,My tortoise the other day,was in the bath & done his normale poo,but this time out came aswell like a little clump of stringy white stuff??now he has had white milky stuff in his wee before but never with his poo,his poo looks normale apart from this,is it worms??i know all tortoises have a normale amount of worms etc,but are they meant to pass them so you can see a (quite a big) white clump??should i take him too the vet??he's insured.Many Thanks:-)

Hi
Always keep on eye on things, but I wouldn't be too concerned at the moment. The poo and the wee both come out via the cloaca so it is possible that both can come out. The best thing is to take a photo of it and post it on the site, where one of the TPG team will give their expert advice. I do know that the the first question they will ask you is, where did you get your torty from, Pet shop? also what species e.g. Hermans, Horfield etc and how old, have they been wormed The set up S/he is being kept in?
Hope this helps for now, in between times try to give 2 baths a day so you can see what is going on, and keeping them well hydrated.
Regards
Jane

Sorry forgot to say, that the white stuff is probably the urates which is what should be being passed. See on the left hand side of page the link for Tortoise and you will get lots of information and reassurance from there, until the team come on-line
Jane

Hi there

I see you've had loads of good advice already   

What you are seeing is probably urates but if they are clumping together instead of the milky urates you are used to then you need to increase the frequency of bathing your tortoise.  I should bathe him daily until they return to being creamy again.

I doubt very much if it is worms you are seeing, but if you are worried then it would be worth getting a faecal sample and letting your vet test it for worms and parasites.

HTH and just shout if you are still concerned.

Helen 

Hey,thanks so much both of you for the advise,too give you an idea of my tortoise,he is a horsfeild tort & about 3years old (hatched 2006),i bought him from a breeder in feb & i read up about them for a whole year before i got him,i keep him on his own ( i dont own any other toroises),and he lives in his tortoise open table & when sunny he is outside in his large open run,he has a bath about 3/4 times a week for 20mins,he has water in his table fresh ( changed every 5-hours) all the time,and he gets feed every other day (i only feed him the stuff i on the list i got off the tortoise trust website,) the only thing he has been having thats different from normal is dandelion's ,as there outside in his run,i clean him out every day,he lives on hemp bedding & his temp is always basking spot of 30-35c & the other end is around 20c duriing the day & lights off at night,i love my little man so much so if there is anything i,m not doing please tell me,i would never want to make him poorly.i,ll bath him every day for a week to see if it goes milky again.it looked stringy when it came out.....that sounds weird,but it looked weird.but it was almost attached too his poo,but cause it was in the bath it may come out with his wee???thank again:-)

Hi,

It sounds like you love your tortoise very much and that you are taking really good care of him. I do think these are urates and not worms, and that he probably had a wee at the same time as the poo in the bath, so it looked like they were part of the poo.

I wouldn't worry about the stringy urates, that's not too bad at all. The only thing you have to worry about is if the urates get sandy or gritty or really solid. Keep up the baths as you are doing, and if you want to get an extra bit of water into him, then give him a slice of cucumber after he has his food (cucumber doesn't have any much nourishment, but it does have a high water content and will help to re-hydrate him).

You're doing fine, so don't worry too much, and do keep asking questions if you have any.

Cheers,
Nina