Vet Visit Stress

[evabug1]

Hi All,

I took my little guy to the vet a week ago for his second Pinworm treatment. They did a fecal and he still had them after the first dose. My baby was giving him some trouble with getting his head out so he took him in the back to get a tech's help.

When the Vet came back he had forceps in one hand and my little guy was completely sucked into his shell with his forelegs in as a barrier. He stayed that way for a few minutes. I'd never seen him do that before. I was horrified by the use of forceps.

Now whenever my finger or hand gets close to his head - zoom he's sucking it in fast. I didn't think he could move that fast!

My question is do you think this behavior is permanent? Will he forget as time passes and learn to trust me again? I'm worried. Has anyone experienced something similar?

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[terracolson]

He will forget, maybe you should take it easy around him for now..give him some space..let him forget

 

[Weloveourtortoise]

with charlie and his first vet visit, I was stunned to see how quick the vet was on getting her fingers around his head before he could zoom in, when freed he did the same thing, zoom right in. I tickled his back feet to get him to stick his head back out. Charlie soon forgot after a couple of days.-- and I kept tickling his back feet to get him to stick his head out...

 

[savanna]

my 4 years old tortoise does the same thing it doesn't last long. The vet don't push it when he goes into his shell so it doesn't stress the tortoise to much. After awhile your tortoise will follow you around lke a dog because you feed him.

 

[evabug1]

Thanks for the input everyone! That is very reassuring to hear.

 

[Meg90]

Sounds like you need a new vet. He could have suffered some major damage from that! Forceps??? That vet doesn't know what they are doing. I would not let them touch your tortoise again. If someone tried that with one of my babies, let alone my full grown animals, you can bet I would do a back flip right off the deep end.

To help get him over the trauma, try hand feeding some treats of his (a favorite green, piece of mazuri or squash) that way he will know that when you put your hands by his head something good comes out of it (a treat).

Poor baby. Which vet office did you use btw?

 

[Maggie Cummings]

After your baby recovers from that treatment, I would start rubbing his head and touching it so that he gets used to his head being touched so it is a little easier for the Vet to treat. I touch and rub all my animals heads for just that very reason. But of course when we took Bob to get microchipped he sucked in like that and didn't cooperate at all...

 

[evabug1]

Meg - Yeah, I can tell you I am not excited about taking him to the vet again. He's one from the TFO list. To be fair he did seem more knowledgeable than the 1st one I went to although we had a disagreement about whether humidity was needed. I just wish I had been given the option of coming back another day instead of him just going ahead and using them without asking me. Thanks for the treat advice.

Maggie - Thanks for mentioning that. It's a great idea that I hadn't thought of.

I will definitely start offering him the occasional treat by hand and getting him used to me touching his head.