Share your story of your rescue tortoises!

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DrewsLife727

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I love tortoises but there is just something special about a rescue. A tort who has had a second chance in life and is now thriving under your care. I want to hear how you rescued a tortoise and how they are doing now! Pics would be great as well:) share!

Here is my story on one of my redfoots. A friend of mine works in Pet Kingdom here in San Diego. On his first day I visited him and I noticed a 7 inch redfoot balled in a corner. I asked if I could see it and my friend brought it out. It had no toes on three of its legs and it had a major runny nose. I asked if I could talk to his manager to negotiate a price to help this guy. The manager said I could have it. A vet gave me shots for it and after awhile and a lot of care I can happily say he is running around with eyes wide open eating like a weed:) he's still not allowed to be with my others for a few more months till I know he's completely fine. Ill put pics of Peg Leg when I get a chance:)
 

Yvonne G

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Oh wow...it would take up way too much space! However, I love your success story. There's nothing more rewarding that bringing a poorly kept tortoise back to health. I'll share my desert tortoise story:

Many years ago...probably about 35 or so, my son was working for Vendo and his co-workers knew that he had a thing for turtles. He would go on his days off to different pet stores and "rescue" the poor box turtles that were being kept with water turtles, etc. He had quite a few of them. One day one of his co-workers brought him a desert tortoise that the guy's dad had run over with his tractor while he was discing between the rows of his grape vines. The old man had taken the tortoise into the house and packed the injury with Play-doh. As it turns out, this was a good thing to do, as Play-doh is pretty sterile, fresh out of the can.

After my son had this tortoise and his turtles for a few months, he decided to get himself a Rottweiler pup. The pup wouldn't leave the turtles alone, so he asked me if I would take them.

I still have Mi-Shell (the desert tortoise) after all these years. She is probably around 70 years old now. She is one of the ones I have to keep awake every winter due to an abscess on her nose that won't go away:

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Len B

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My story started last September when an old friend died, he used to come to the beach and visit with his wife who is wheelchair bound and we would talk tortoises and cactus, I knew he had some tortoise but had never seen them.His wife called me and ask me to take the tortoises per her husbands wishes. All were kept inside all year and in very dry conditions with what turned out to be a poor diet. The larger sulcata was in the worst condition of the bunch, My wife named her Sylvia, at first she was very shy and withdrawn but now she acts and eats like a sulcata should.(except her neck is to short) She has spent the winter outside in a small section of the yard with a heated house that she goes in and out of like she's been here for years. She will never look normal but I hope to make her as happy as I can. The first pic is when I first got her and the second was taken a couple days ago in the cold rain.
 

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lynnedit

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Oh, my! These stories.

I have a new Russian female. She was advertised as a pair (M/F) but 'not for a house with children as they are constantly mating and making noises'. Sounds funny, but she had a rough life for the past year fed on grapes, tortoise pellets, some spring mix and kale at least. No UV.
I talked the lady into selling her alone.
She has a flap of skin healed above one eye, long beak, scales missing from her front legs, visible worms in her poo. The worst was her tail and vent were/are deformed, actually infected, I believe, and crusted with urates. Shell is deformed for a Russian. She is too heavy from no exercise and too many pellets.
(Now beak trimmed, one worm treatment done, tail is healing up nicely with daily soaks, some Betadiene and now Silvadene ointment).

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(hard to make out the tail when retracted, but it almost looked like two tails, with a lot of discharge around it).
new tort 3.JPG
 
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stinax182

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one of my neighbors knocks on my door and asks if i could come to his house quickly. we proceed down the street, in the house and up the stairs. he goes to the closed closet door and pulls out a rubbermaid container (the ones you store Christmas decorations in) and inside are 2 fully grown (6" & 5") Russian tortoises. no substrate, no light OF ANY KIND, no additional heat, no water, one half log hide and some rotten iceberg lettuce.

my neighbor then says his wife (A VET) bought them TWO YEARS AGO together from petco and they had been living like that since. I'M APPALLED TO SAY THEY WERE IN BETTER CARE AT PETCO. the wife was not home for he said she would not give them up for free if she were. they didn't want to give them a better home, the husband exact words were "they move around a lot at night and the scraping noise is annoying"

so i graciously took them, not doing ANY research or having anywhere to put them. i still have one and the other i found a good home for they were both males being forced to live together. roshi is doing great today!


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lynnedit

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He looks sooo good now!


Drew, this is a great thread. I think we all need something a little heart warming right now!
 

DrewsLife727

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lynnedit said:
He looks sooo good now!


Drew, this is a great thread. I think we all need something a little heart warming right now!



Thank you! I love hearing these stories. Its sad in a way knowing how many tortoises are being neglected and abused but it's awesome knowing that there are people out there that love tortoises and desire proper care for them!
 

bigred

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Len said:
My story started last September when an old friend died, he used to come to the beach and visit with his wife who is wheelchair bound and we would talk tortoises and cactus, I knew he had some tortoise but had never seen them.His wife called me and ask me to take the tortoises per her husbands wishes. All were kept inside all year and in very dry conditions with what turned out to be a poor diet. The larger sulcata was in the worst condition of the bunch, My wife named her Sylvia, at first she was very shy and withdrawn but now she acts and eats like a sulcata should.(except her neck is to short) She has spent the winter outside in a small section of the yard with a heated house that she goes in and out of like she's been here for years. She will never look normal but I hope to make her as happy as I can. The first pic is when I first got her and the second was taken a couple days ago in the cold rain.

That is a great picture
 

Laura

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first sucalta was from a person who passed away. Severe pyrimiding, probably MBD, Second was one kept in a house, he ate a lot of cat food.. and pooped a lot of hair for a while.. the two big guys were a forclosed house.. the guy had no room, so he gave them up, russian was found wandering down the street,, and the Desert was in someones backyard, he put him in a kiddie pool with water because he thought it was a turtle..
 

AZtortMom

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Great stories! Thank you everyone for sharing :)
 

nate.mann

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the neighbor across the street from my mom called her and asked if they owned a tortoise, when she replied 'no'..he responded with 'you do now, theres one going up your driveway!' they put it in the backyard, and forgot about it for about a week. i came along, they showed it to me, knew they werent doing it any good, so i took it with me and joined this forum and began learning. here we are about two months later happy and healthy. ImageUploadedByTortForum1377753850.058301.jpg


Chive On!
 
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Jabuticaba

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nate.mann said:
the neighbor across the street from my mom called her and asked if they owned a tortoise, when she replied 'no'..he responded with 'you do now, theres one going up your driveway!' they put it in the backyard, and forgot about it for about a week. i came along, they showed it to me, knew they werent doing it any good, so i took it with me and joined this forum and began learning. here we are about two months later happy and healthy.


Chive On!

That's funny! I usually end up with extra dogs in my back yard. LOL I'm glad he found your parents.


May[CHERRY BLOSSOM], Hermann's [TURTLE][TURTLE] & Aussie [DOG FACE][DOG FACE][DOG FACE] (@YWG)
 

nate.mann

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Jabuticaba said:
nate.mann said:
the neighbor across the street from my mom called her and asked if they owned a tortoise, when she replied 'no'..he responded with 'you do now, theres one going up your driveway!' they put it in the backyard, and forgot about it for about a week. i came along, they showed it to me, knew they werent doing it any good, so i took it with me and joined this forum and began learning. here we are about two months later happy and healthy.


Chive On!

That's funny! I usually end up with extra dogs in my back yard. LOL I'm glad he found your parents.


May[CHERRY BLOSSOM], Hermann's [TURTLE][TURTLE] & Aussie [DOG FACE][DOG FACE][DOG FACE] (@YWG)

haha been there, my mom is a dog lady. i thought she was bad about it until i met my girlfriends mom, whom has had well over 50 dogs, not including cats.
 

jane1187

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This is a nice thread. I think I will post my recent rescue story. Mr. Tortoise (he hasn't got a permanent name yet) was offered to my colleague at work by the RSPCA, they're always offering us animals. He had been left for 3 weeks outside in summer in a cardboard box, though by the state of him he'd been neglected for some weeks or months before then. We have no space at work and this one was going to be put to sleep by the RSPCA vet. Well I ended up with him and took him to a local internationally renowned exotic vet who has helped me to bring him around, with a simple beak trim, water, feed, eye drops and antibiotics. It has been just three weeks but he's really turned around and I'm hoping for a clean bill of health from the vet next week. He still needs to strengthen the muscles in his back legs and put some weight on, but he's active and has even spent an hour outside munching on the weeds on my lawn.

I would love to hear other stories on this thread!

This is him on his first trip outdoors!
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turtlesteve

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My newest tortoise "Bill" came with an interesting story. For the purpose of the story I will call Bill a "he", even though I am not confident of sex at this time.

I am told that Bill escaped from a cancer center and was hit by a car 3 years ago, while crossing a 4-lane highway. He was rescued from the highway and returned home, only to be given to the rescuer as reward for saving his life. The rescuer then gave Bill to his friend, and the friend put Bill up for sale/adoption after his wife had a baby girl. Bill is about 6" long with a crack running 1/3 the length of his carapace and several other scars, all of which are fully healed. When I got him, he was moderately dehydrated and the previous owner described his diet as "strawberries and romaine lettuce". He pooped chunks of sand for nearly a week. I now have him eating grass, mazuri, hibiscus, and succulents with calcium supplementation. He eats like he has been starved half his life!

Bill 8-29-13.jpg
 
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BeeBee*BeeLeaves

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I am hoping to have a rescue story soon ... I have been wanting a CDT for like, lotta years ... for one reason or another, it never happens. Things like I wasn't available on a day, hour that someone wanted me there (work) or my applications could not be found or ... I won't bore you, let's just say that 9, yes 9 times, I almost got a CDT, got my hopes up, and boom, no go. Was giving up on ever having one. Had given up on ever having one. But life is what happens when you are making other plans, so hopefully in a few days, I will have one, finally. And a story to tell. To be continued ...
 

thatrebecca

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This thread is the BEST! Keep the stories comin', guys. And BeeBee, hope you get your DT rescue soon!
 

TortyTom

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Well, I got my Sulcata (Darwin) about 8 months ago. I was walking up my driveway and noticed one of my not so friendly neighbors holding something in his hands and walking towards the big ditch across from our neighborhood. Me being the nosy guy I am, I walked across the street to see what he had. It was a small sulcata tortoise. He was about to toss it into a ditch full of rough water. He said he got it for his son about a week before but the son grew tired of it and wanted to get a lizard instead. Can you believe this? I told him that this was a land tortoise and if he threw it in the water, it would most definitely die. He didn't seem to care and started going through the motion to toss the little guy in, so I got a little stern and said give me the darn (not that word) tortoise. He looked at me funny and said it's a boring pet that doesn't do anything as he handed it to me. I asked what he knew about it and he only told me the guy at the pet shop said it was 8 months old. I had never had anything other then Box turtles as a child (but always wanted a sulcata) Luckily I stumbled across this forum and Toms threads and all turned out well. Here is a pic from then and one now!
 

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