Having acquired two female spur-thighed tortoises in the 1970's and a small male spur-thighed who joined them shortly afterwards, life went well until the end of the 1980's.  We fostered two adult males from the Tortoise Trust in case the females wanted to breed.

After the banning of tortoise imports in 1984 and the ban of tortoise sales, I became involved with people who were having trouble with pets which they no longer wanted but could not get rid of legally.  I acquired another female spur-thighed who had had the run of the house which included a small dog and a young boy.  It was fed on bits of chicken!  This female quickly settled with the other females and enjoyed a sunny garden and a proper diet.

Shortly afterwards, I rescued two small Hermann males who had lived for three years in front of a coal fire bounded by a fire guard.  They were fed a lettuce only diet.  Both were soft and very slow.  Gradually they adjusted to the open air, sun and a good diet.  They lived with others, but kept to themselves most of the time.

Suddenly one of the original females developed a runny nose.  She was immediately taken to Dr Jackson who gave us drops to put down her nostrils and it cleared up.  Subsequently the RNS appeared several times and was cleared up using the same drops.  However, the time came when it failed to clear up for one of the original females and I followed the thinking current at the time, that the best treatment was to put her in a dry environment at about 90F.  For this I constructed an enclosure about 5 feet square and 3 feet tall to house the tortoise, heating and lighting lamps, and a de-humidifier.  I spent hours in those conditions, trying to get the tortoise to eat and drink.  Although the condition cleared up, I was not sure that it had really been cured.

By this time, injections of antibiotics were the flavour of the month, but even then we found two different ideas on how to inject the rear legs.  One vet favoured sliding the needle up the thigh whilst another went in at right angles to the thigh.  Unfortunately many tortoises have very skinny baggy legs and we found it difficult to decide on a 'best buy' method.

By this time our herd had been divided into two groups to reduce the breeding programme.  Since the two Hermann's were doing so well, we fostered a large female Hermann to get them to breed.  There were then mixtures of species in both female and male groups.

RNS just proliferated and we were spending pounds on injections, and by then a third concept of injecting had been found, that is, at the shoulder immediately under the carapace.  None of the Hermann's ever suffered from RNS.

At this stage, we received a copy of the Tortoise Trust's video on RNS and it came as a blinding flash, that we had mixed the species and the resulting pathogens had caused the runny noses.  The Hermann's have been rehomed, and we hope to have an RNS free summer in 1997.

The moral of this sad story is : do not mix species however healthy the tortoises appear!