Hi all, recently my partner posted on here to seek a potential reason for our 1 year old horsfield tortoises death and you guys were very kind and helpful however we since have had some worrying signs when burying Pepè.
Long story short, our little guy was fine up until the middle of december after he decided to stop eating for 2 weeks however he then started to worry us by seeming lethargic and not drinking/looking almost dead by hanging his head out onto the floor in the most limp way so we took him back to the shop under their advice after a phone-call. They stated that he was fine and showed no signs of respiratory issues and appeared healthy. We then took him home but then had to return as he just wasn’t right so then we decided to leave him in their holiday club where they also look after sick tortoises. He was given daily baths in reptoboost and also apparently force-fed water as he wasn’t drinking. The next morning sadly we received the dreaded phone-call to say he had passed away 😢 they asked if we wanted them to dispose of him but of course we wanted to bury Pepè ourselves close to us. Anyway, they preserved Pepè in the freezer in the shop and then we picked him up the next day after we had mustered up the courage to accept he was gone and brought him home. We took him out and wanted to see him, he had tucked his back legs into his shell and his tail but his head was facing straight ahead but semi recessed into his shell and his front legs were recessed and facing left and right. Our worry is that his eyes were definitely shut and mouth ever so slightly open and he had been in the freezer for 24 hours, however when we froze him in our freezer for 2 days while I built his burial box and took him out to lay him in it ready for burial, we were shocked to see that his eyes were now fully open but his mouth was the same and his limbs were also the same. It got us worried that the shop/care team had wrongly pronounced him dead and in fact he had now died because he was frozen ? It seems unlikely and i assume it is simply a muscle/nerve spasm that made his eyes open but now i’m sat here after burying him today thinking he actually might have been alive after all as how could his eyes open or close if he was frozen ? 😢 i have attached a photo to show everyone our much loved and missed baby Pepè, RIP ❤️
Long story short, our little guy was fine up until the middle of december after he decided to stop eating for 2 weeks however he then started to worry us by seeming lethargic and not drinking/looking almost dead by hanging his head out onto the floor in the most limp way so we took him back to the shop under their advice after a phone-call. They stated that he was fine and showed no signs of respiratory issues and appeared healthy. We then took him home but then had to return as he just wasn’t right so then we decided to leave him in their holiday club where they also look after sick tortoises. He was given daily baths in reptoboost and also apparently force-fed water as he wasn’t drinking. The next morning sadly we received the dreaded phone-call to say he had passed away 😢 they asked if we wanted them to dispose of him but of course we wanted to bury Pepè ourselves close to us. Anyway, they preserved Pepè in the freezer in the shop and then we picked him up the next day after we had mustered up the courage to accept he was gone and brought him home. We took him out and wanted to see him, he had tucked his back legs into his shell and his tail but his head was facing straight ahead but semi recessed into his shell and his front legs were recessed and facing left and right. Our worry is that his eyes were definitely shut and mouth ever so slightly open and he had been in the freezer for 24 hours, however when we froze him in our freezer for 2 days while I built his burial box and took him out to lay him in it ready for burial, we were shocked to see that his eyes were now fully open but his mouth was the same and his limbs were also the same. It got us worried that the shop/care team had wrongly pronounced him dead and in fact he had now died because he was frozen ? It seems unlikely and i assume it is simply a muscle/nerve spasm that made his eyes open but now i’m sat here after burying him today thinking he actually might have been alive after all as how could his eyes open or close if he was frozen ? 😢 i have attached a photo to show everyone our much loved and missed baby Pepè, RIP ❤️
