Have you ever had a tort/turtle die of old age?

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Yellow Turtle01

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Nothing else... just from being old (or contributing factors to being an old tortoise... whatever that would be??) I'd think that that's a rare experience, just wondering if anyone has an account. :D
 

Yellow Turtle01

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Oh no! Can a mod please edit the title to say tort/turtle? Thank you! :D
 

Tom

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No animal or person ever dies of "old age". Some organ or system has to fail.

When and if a tortoise dies, how would you know what the reason was for that organ or system to fail? Could have been disease or husbandry related.
 

leigti

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I have not. I have read a couple threads in the past six months or so of people who have though. they were tortoises that were passed down from their grandparents. I have no idea how old my critters are, but I know that they are definitely not considered "young" but I hope they outlive me anyway.
 

Turtlepete

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Nothing else... just from being old (or contributing factors to being an old tortoise... whatever that would be??) I'd think that that's a rare experience, just wondering if anyone has an account. :D

Yeah, Tom is right. Nothing ever dies simply of being old. As things age (or at least, more organisms. Some do not age and could theoretically live for….forever?), organs become weak, the body becomes weak….Aging is the contributing factor to some sort of organ failure that will cause death, but nothing dies simply from age. Heart failure, liver failure, kidney failure, anything like that. All are a result from the aging process, but it's a failure of the organ itself that causes death. That or a disease or virus, since you are of course more susceptible to these things with a weakened immune system.

I imagine in ideal care most tortoises and turtles will live for an absurdly long amount of time.
 

Turtlepete

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I don't understand what this "nothing dies of old age" statement has to do with the original question.

Well, the title "Have you ever had a tort/turtle die of old age?" I kind of thought was straightforward. "Nothing else…..just from being old"….Was the question not about things dying from old age? Is "nothing dies from old age" not an answer…?
 

Tom

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I don't understand what this "nothing dies of old age" statement has to do with the original question.

Seems pretty straight forward to me. Yellow Turtle wants to know if anyone ever had a tortoise die of old age. We explained that the answer is no, because no living thing can die of old age.

What don't you understand?
 

dmmj

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I had a res for 29 years, she was an adult when I got her, after 29 years, I went outside to check on them, she was just laying there.
I also had a long term captive russian, 15 years after I got him, went outside to find him lying there, can't say for sure what they did die of, but I guess old age is a good guess.
 

Turtlepete

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I had a res for 29 years, she was an adult when I got her, after 29 years, I went outside to check on them, she was just laying there.
I also had a long term captive russian, 15 years after I got him, went outside to find him lying there, can't say for sure what they did die of, but I guess old age is a good guess.

If you were curious and had a necropsy done on either animal, you would've found some sort of organ failure. I guess some people might mean this by "died of old age". Sure, old age was a contribution to weakened organs and immune system, which of course leaves them open for disease and infection and basically leaves them more fragile then a younger animal. But they don't simply die because they were old. Neither do humans.
 

AmRoKo

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No animal or person ever dies of "old age". Some organ or system has to fail.

When and if a tortoise dies, how would you know what the reason was for that organ or system to fail? Could have been disease or husbandry related.
Yeah, Tom is right. Nothing ever dies simply of being old. As things age (or at least, more organisms. Some do not age and could theoretically live for….forever?), organs become weak, the body becomes weak….Aging is the contributing factor to some sort of organ failure that will cause death, but nothing dies simply from age. Heart failure, liver failure, kidney failure, anything like that. All are a result from the aging process, but it's a failure of the organ itself that causes death. That or a disease or virus, since you are of course more susceptible to these things with a weakened immune system.

I imagine in ideal care most tortoises and turtles will live for an absurdly long amount of time.
Well, the title "Have you ever had a tort/turtle die of old age?" I kind of thought was straightforward. "Nothing else…..just from being old"….Was the question not about things dying from old age? Is "nothing dies from old age" not an answer…?
Seems pretty straight forward to me. Yellow Turtle wants to know if anyone ever had a tortoise die of old age. We explained that the answer is no, because no living thing can die of old age.

What don't you understand?
If you were curious and had a necropsy done on either animal, you would've found some sort of organ failure. I guess some people might mean this by "died of old age". Sure, old age was a contribution to weakened organs and immune system, which of course leaves them open for disease and infection and basically leaves them more fragile then a younger animal. But they don't simply die because they were old. Neither do humans.
cage-you-dont-say.jpg
 

leigti

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Well, the title "Have you ever had a tort/turtle die of old age?" I kind of thought was straightforward. "Nothing else…..just from being old"….Was the question not about things dying from old age? Is "nothing dies from old age" not an answer…?
But the OP also said " Or contributing factors of being an old tortoise" The contributing factors are what you mean by not dying of "old age" contributing factors is what everything dies of, not age. I understand that and I think the original poster does too.
 

leigti

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Seems pretty straight forward to me. Yellow Turtle wants to know if anyone ever had a tortoise die of old age. We explained that the answer is no, because no living thing can die of old age.

What don't you understand?
I understand what you're saying, I am not arguing with your logic, I even agree with that on a scientific level but this question is not a scientific question. But you're also talking in circles. you say that age is a contributing factor to organ failure and the tortoise dies of organ failure not old age. But the age affect of the organs in the first place.I understand that totally but I just think it is and overly technical response to a very simple question.
 
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