Baskden a warm den for reptile folk

🩺 Your free vet-prep sheet

Your Leopard Tortoise Vet-Prep Sheet

Reptile vets are rare, and it is easy to freeze in a crisis. This is the one page to have ready — how to find a vet, what to bring, what to tell them, and the questions to ask. This helps you prepare for a visit — it is not a way to treat at home. Print it and keep it with your care notes.

Black & white saves ink and prints cleanly on any printer.

Not sure it’s a vet trip yet? Try the Is this normal? triage first — many worries turn out to be a husbandry fix.

Baskden a warm den for reptile folk · baskden.com
Leopard Tortoise — Vet-Prep Sheet

🔍 Find a reptile / exotics vet — before you need one

  • Search the ARAV Find-a-Vet directory (the Association of Reptilian & Amphibian Veterinarians), or in the UK the RCVS Find-a-Vet — or search "reptile / exotics vet near me".
  • Call ahead and ask the key question: "Do you see reptiles?" Not every practice does.
  • Ask the exam fee when you call. Knowing the cost up front removes the money-panic in a crisis.
  • Find and save one now, while things are calm — not in the middle of an emergency.

📇 Fill this in now — before the crisis

Two minutes now saves ten in a panic. Print it and keep it with your care notes.

My reptile vet
My leopard tortoise
What I'm seeing

🚨 Is this an emergency now?

See a reptile vet promptly if you notice any of these:

  • Not eating for an extended period, sunken eyes, or a lightweight 'hollow' feel when lifted (signs of dehydration/anorexia).
  • Runny or bubbly nose, mouth-breathing, wheezing, gaping, or lots of mucus (possible respiratory infection/pneumonia) - a common and serious problem in tortoises kept too cold or damp-cold.
  • Soft, misshapen, or rapidly pyramiding shell, soft jaw, or weak/wobbly legs (possible metabolic bone disease).
  • Straining, no urates/feces, or gritty white stones passed or stuck (possible bladder stones or impaction).
  • Swollen, weepy, or crusted eyes; swellings, abscesses, or a beak/nails badly overgrown.
  • Diarrhea, worms visible in feces, or a new tortoise before it has had a fecal check (parasites). See a reptile/exotics vet for any of these; this list is for triage, not diagnosis.

When in doubt, a vet call is never wrong — most issues are reversible if caught early.

🚗 On the way / while you wait

✅ Do

  • Keep it warm at a safe transport temperature — a cold reptile crashes fast (a warm car or a covered container with a warm, not hot, pack helps).
  • Keep it calm, dark and quiet in a secure, ventilated container — stress makes almost everything worse.
  • Bring it in its own container so the vet sees it as it lives.

⛔ Don't

  • Don’t offer food, or any OTC, aquarium-shop or online-forum remedy — many are useless or harmful and can mask the signs.
  • Don’t let it get cold on the way in.
  • Don’t handle it more than you must.

🎒 What to bring

  • A short video and a couple of clear photos of the behaviour or sign — it may not show it in the clinic.
  • A note of your setup (basking, cool-side and night temperatures, UVB, humidity, substrate) and exactly what — and how often — you feed.
  • Your reptile, transported safely in its own secure, ventilated container — kept warm (see below), not in a cold car.

🗣️ What to tell the vet

A general vet may not know this species. Come ready to explain its correct care:

Temperature
Basking spot about 95°F (35°C), with warm-side ambient around 82-85°F (28-29°C). Some vet sources cite a basking range up to ~95-104°F; aim for a clear hot spot near 95°F under the light with room to move away. Cool end around 72-75°F (22-24°C). The whole point is a gradient so the tortoise can choose its temperature across the enclosure. Nighttime can safely drop into the high 60s to low 70s°F (around 68-72°F / 20-22°C). If ambient falls below about 60°F, move the tortoise indoors or into a heated house kept around 60-70°F. Leopard tortoises are NOT a hibernating/brumating species.
UVB & lighting
High UVB need. Indoors, use a strong linear T5 HO tube such as an Arcadia T5 HO 12% or Zoo Med T5 HO Reptisun 10.0 running the length of the basking zone, mounted roughly 17-18 in above the shell to deliver a basking UV Index (UVI) of about 3.0-5.0 (verify with a Solarmeter). Run about 12-14 hours in summer and ~10 hours in winter. Natural unfiltered sunlight outdoors is even better (glass and most plastics block UVB).
Humidity
Adults do well in moderately dry conditions, about 40-50%. Hatchlings and juveniles need noticeably more, roughly 60-80%, plus a humid hide/microclimate; this is a major factor in preventing shell pyramiding. Provide humid retreats even for adults so they can self-regulate. Wild leopards shelter in burrows and dense grass where humidity is much higher than the open savanna air.
Enclosure
Bigger than most people expect. Adults are best kept in a large outdoor pen where climate allows: a pair fits in roughly a 10 ft x 10 ft pen, and about 60-80 sq ft is a reasonable floor for a single adult, with a solid, opaque wall at least 18 in tall (buried 12-24 in) to stop pacing and digging out. Indoors, use the largest tortoise table you can build (a small terrarium is not adequate for an adult); hatchlings can start in a smaller table for the first year or two.
Substrate
A deep, slightly-damp organic substrate: plain topsoil, or topsoil mixed with coco coir (some keepers use a ~60/40 topsoil-to-play-sand blend), at least 3 in deep so they can dig in and hold humidity at ground level. Outdoors, natural soil planted with grasses works best. Avoid pure sand and dry, dusty beddings; spot-clean often and refresh indoor substrate every few months.
Diet
A grazer. Feed roughly 90% grasses and weeds and about 10% leafy "salad" greens. Great staples: Bermuda grass, orchard grass, timothy/grass hay, dandelion (leaves, stems, flowers), plantain (Plantago), sow thistle, clover, hibiscus leaves and flowers, mallow, grape leaves, and cactus pads (Opuntia), plus greens like endive, escarole, romaine, collard/mustard/turnip greens. High-fibre, low-protein, low-sugar. Fruit is not part of the natural diet: skip it, or offer only tiny amounts (well under 5% of the diet, or none) as a rare treat. Never feed dog/cat food or other animal protein.
Supplements
Keep a cuttlebone in the enclosure at all times for free-choice calcium. Lightly dust food with a plain calcium (calcium carbonate) supplement a couple of times a week for adults and more often for growing juveniles and gravid females. With strong UVB or natural sunlight plus a varied grazing diet, added vitamin D3 is usually unnecessary; avoid over-supplementing.

⚕️ Reptiles are ectotherms kept at species-specific temperatures — a cold reptile can’t metabolise medicines properly, so tell the vet your exact temperatures and keep it warm for transport. Reptiles are prey animals and hide illness until it is advanced, so early changes matter. Mention your UVB/lighting and any supplements or remedies you’ve already used, and ask for reptile-safe products and doses.

Then note which of the warning signs (above) you are seeing, when they started, and whether they are getting worse.

❓ Questions to ask

  • Do you routinely see reptiles? If not, can you refer me to a vet who does?
  • What are the likely causes — and could my setup or diet be contributing?
  • What is the treatment plan, the likely cost, and what should I watch for at home?
  • How do I prevent this from happening again?