LostRock
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2016
- Messages
- 4
My three-toed boxie has had severe muscle atrophy for most of this year - the cause has remained unknown. Long story short, he was living in my parent's backyard most of his life. One day I discovered him and he was completely unable to walk. I've taken him to THREE different vets. The reptile specialists he's seen thought he was originally stung by a scorpion or poisoned somehow. After one steroid treatment with no improvement, a different vet thinks something else pathologically is going on with him. Today I discovered a tumor or an abscess close to his body, hanging out of his shell by his back leg. It's kind of hard and swollen. After further investigation, I pulled some of the skin away from his shell and it's black and blistery-looking. I'm wondering if he's had cancer all this time? Or since he's been weakened, he developed an infection. I do not have the financial resources to treat him. The last time I took him to the vet (a few weeks ago), they wanted to do blood work on him and I could not afford it. With an atrophied turtle that also now has something else wrong on top of that, what is one to do? I could maybe try to figure out blood work for him somehow, but I'm sure more and more treatments would come after that. It's all just a lot of though decisions. He does drink and eat all of his food, but he doesn't walk around too much, as he can't support his weight. I made a vet appointment for him tomorrow morning to see what this tumor/abscess is about. I'm just kind of at a loss...
