My pet tortoise has eye disease, is eye drop for human safe to use?
Plymouth
I wonder if its okay to use the eye drop for human to treat my tortoise eye? Its eye is runny and it seems swollen while it sleep.
Its a greek tortoise, it has been living with us for 11 years! This is the first time it had disease, never before..
It used to be a fully energetic tortoise, now I have to wake it up so that it would eat. And yes its eye seems puffy while it sleep.
No! No! Human eyes are completely different to reptile eyes! Soak a cotton bud in some boiling water, let it cool down and then dab it on his eye. Best thing you can do is ring a reptile specialist.
No, it will be too strong for it, definately go to the vets to get a safe one, it would be harsh to do that, you might just make it worse
Seek veternarian care. Don’t use anything human on them unless your vet says so.
no you can’t use human drops they are of a different make up to animal ones, the problem you have is it could be an abscess so your tortoise does need to see a herp vet, swollen eyes can be a sign of poor diet or it could be something simple as a scratch but left untreated it could spread and turn into something nasty putting your tortoises health at risk, check out the tortoise trust web site at to see if you have the set up correct for your tortoise, make sure any bedding does not have Sharpe bits in that can damage the eye, but most importantly get the tortoise seen by a vet for treatment, best of luck honey.
It is not recommended to self medicate your animal, especially if you do not know about dosages.
I’d take it to the vet, that way you can get the correct medication. There could be an underlying problem to his eye issue, and it may need other medications to treat it successfully.
A lot of the medicine used in animals and people are often the same, except the dosages are different. The reptile ones are made weaker, and even with this weak dosage, one drop will do the job. If you give just one drop of a human medicine, you could be giving 20 times the correct amount to the animal. It is dangerous, and should not be practiced unless you really know what you are doing.
I wouldn’t. They sell turtle eye drops at petco/petsmart, they are made by zoomed. I would still seek vet attention, swollen eyes are a bad sign.
1. Turtles and tortoises are very different in cares and treatments. The responders with aquatic turtles are not giving appropriate advice for tortoises.
2. Runny eyes are usually a sign of dehydration (sounds backwards, but it is true.) Knowing the species and cares would help diagnose this, but know that a lot of tortoises are kept in far too dry of a habitat. Most tortoises benefit from at least having a high-humidity hiding place to simulate the burrows they hide in.
3. Swollen eyes in tortoises can be a sign of bacterial or viral infection. If the nose is runny as well, then it is likely a respiratory infection. These are not treated by eye drops and require medication from a vet.
Bottom line- there is nothing eye drops will help with, and it is rarely safe to use human meds, even non-prescription, on reptiles unless you really know what you are doing.