A week or so ago SO, the larger of my two Aldabran tortoises, tried to climb a short fence into the box turtle area. When his heavy weight was placed onto the top, horizontal board (the board placed to inhibit climbing), the board broke and he fell backwards, landing on his side up against the front fence. He was what we call cast up against the fence. He tried to flip over, digging his one front leg and one back leg into the dirt, however, he was cast up against the fence and wasn't able to turn back over. By the time I found him he had been struggling for a while.
It was fairly easy for me to gently pull him towards me and set him right side up. But when he tried to walk, his right front leg doesn't support his weight.
He has spent this whole past week inside his shed. Every time he tries to come out, he realizes his front leg hurts to put weight on it, so he goes back inside.
The larger species of tortoise need to move. If they stay stationary for any length of time, their inner plumbing shuts down. I was hesitant to encourage him to move because I didn't know if there was a broken bone or just exactly what was going on.
Because SO is such a big animal, I am not able to toss him into the back of the truck and take him to a vet to be x-ray'd. I called my vet, Dr. Lynch, who used to be the vet at our zoo, and who makes house calls, and together we decided to try to get a horse vet to come out to the house. Horse vets have portable x-ray equipment. The horse vet was all booked up for about a week and a half, but he was trying to fit me in. He was able to find time to come this a.m.
The vet came out today and took several x-rays. It doesn't look like the joint is out of the socket, and there are no broken bones. So she's prescribed pain killers and we're trying to think of something temporary to support that side of his weight so he doesn't keep re-straining or re-injuring whatever is going on. We need something smooth that will slide easily over the bumpy grassy yard, and yet strong enough to support 250 or 300lbs of tortoise. A half of a billiard ball isn't big enough.
Later today I'm going to go to Lowe's and just walk up and down the aisles to see if inspiration strikes me.
(Sorry I didn't get any pictures. I thought about it last night, but then forgot all about it when the vet got here.)
It was fairly easy for me to gently pull him towards me and set him right side up. But when he tried to walk, his right front leg doesn't support his weight.
He has spent this whole past week inside his shed. Every time he tries to come out, he realizes his front leg hurts to put weight on it, so he goes back inside.
The larger species of tortoise need to move. If they stay stationary for any length of time, their inner plumbing shuts down. I was hesitant to encourage him to move because I didn't know if there was a broken bone or just exactly what was going on.
Because SO is such a big animal, I am not able to toss him into the back of the truck and take him to a vet to be x-ray'd. I called my vet, Dr. Lynch, who used to be the vet at our zoo, and who makes house calls, and together we decided to try to get a horse vet to come out to the house. Horse vets have portable x-ray equipment. The horse vet was all booked up for about a week and a half, but he was trying to fit me in. He was able to find time to come this a.m.
The vet came out today and took several x-rays. It doesn't look like the joint is out of the socket, and there are no broken bones. So she's prescribed pain killers and we're trying to think of something temporary to support that side of his weight so he doesn't keep re-straining or re-injuring whatever is going on. We need something smooth that will slide easily over the bumpy grassy yard, and yet strong enough to support 250 or 300lbs of tortoise. A half of a billiard ball isn't big enough.
Later today I'm going to go to Lowe's and just walk up and down the aisles to see if inspiration strikes me.
(Sorry I didn't get any pictures. I thought about it last night, but then forgot all about it when the vet got here.)
