Bladder Stone Pics

[sushisurf13]

here are the pics I took today. In case you were wondering, it smells like an old gym bag.....ew.
The tortoise is doing just fine, after a $3,000 vet visit. The vet had to break in half to get it out, I've attatched a pic of it broken up too.

---

Like I wrote before, its the size of a baseball, maybe a bit bigger and weighs about 1 1/2 pounds. WOW.

 

[Yvonne G]

Oh my GAWD, Eric!!! that poor tortoise. I thought you said it was from a desert tortoise. You don't show a desert tortoise in your signature??

Yvonne

 

[sushisurf13]

Like I wrote before, the tortoise belongs to a co-worker of mine. He brought the stone in to show me. However, I'll be adopting a female DT (Vanolla) from Robyn this weekend. I'm so excited!!!

Oh my GAWD, Eric!!! that poor tortoise. I thought you said it was from a desert tortoise. You don't show a desert tortoise in your signature??

Yvonne

 

[chelonologist]

no wonder your friend's tortoise drank so much - it was trying to flush that giant ball of crud out! looks like uric acid...

 

[sushisurf13]

I just talked to Robyn and she mentioned that too. I seem to agree. It makes sense to me, from what my friend told me, I think the tortoise was drinking way more than normal. An Aquaholic. This is definately a learning experience for me, a little more information for my brain.
All that matters is that the tortoise is doing GREAT! He's adjusting to the fiberglass and recovering just fine.

no wonder your friend's tortoise drank so much - it was trying to flush that giant ball of crud out! looks like uric acid...

 

[Shelly]

$3000?!?! Holy smokes! That seems WAY too high.

 

[Macheteslaststep]

$3000?!?! Holy smokes! That seems WAY too high.

That's actually a good price. I'm in NJ and the nearest hospital that does turtle surgeries is Redbank. Just for a shell fracture repair the estimate is $3000.

Sara

 

[Shelly]

it might be the best price available, but it's still a rip off. How long does it take to repair a shell/ An hour, maybe 2 hours? cost for materials, maybe $20? How can they justify $3000?

 

[sushisurf13]

I know, its alot of $$. When my friend told, I was shocked. But, what do you do? Have you ever gone to the hospital emergency room with no insurance? I did after I had a small recation from low potassium. I was there for 2 hours and got an IV and a potassium pill. Total bill, $8,000.
You cant fix it yourself and good luck finding another vet that is willing to do it.
Its the price he paid to help the animal that he loves.

it might be the best price available, but it's still a rip off. How long does it take to repair a shell/ An hour, maybe 2 hours? cost for materials, maybe $20? How can they justify $3000?

---

I just picked up Vanolla from Robyn. She's amazing!!

Oh my GAWD, Eric!!! that poor tortoise. I thought you said it was from a desert tortoise. You don't show a desert tortoise in your signature??

Yvonne

 

[Yvonne G]

If he went to the 24 hour emergency vet, that's the reason for the high price tag! They tack on all kinds of extra charges because of the "emergency" in their name. $3000 seems a high price to pay, but I can see it adding up to that amount. I've noticed that some insurance companies are now starting to offer animal insurance. After a $3000 price tag, paying a monthly fee for insurance doesn't look half bad!

Yvonne

 

[Crazy1]

Eric, you said it was big and WOW you weren’t kidding. That thing is gigantic. I can't imagine the pain and distress that DT must have been in and how long he must have been suffering.

Can any one of us imagine how much we would pay to get that taken out of us?

Unfortunately Vets charge a fortune. And any vet that specializes charges even more. They have us over a barrel. If we don’t pay our pets suffer. I know equipment costs a lot and assistants and the vets time and expertise and anesthesia all add up. $3000 is a lot of money. Would I pay the money for my beloved pet to get the needed care and end the (what must have been extreme) pain it’s in. Or do I simply pay a small fee to euthanize it. People face those decisions every day. And I know they are not easy decisions. And yes sometimes money does dictate how we take care of a pet. A friend of mine just paid $5000 to have one hip fixed in her dog that has hip dysplasia, and she still has another hip to go. Another friend calls her 4 year old Golden Retriever her Million dollar dog as it underwent surgery, chemo and radiation treatments at a specialists. With no guarantees but It’s has been 2 years now and her cancer is gone.
They even got a write-up and pics in the paper. She never would tell us how much it cost her but she is an Emergency Room MD and she worked a minimum of 4 overtimes a week for almost a year to pay the vet bill.

My two dogs are covered by well pet insurance, but as of now there is no insurance companies that will cover tortoises. None that I have found that will cover any exotic pet (well or emergency Insurance). I know I have looked into it. My renters insurance won’t even cover my torts.

I hope that every one of us never has to be placed in a position of having to make a decision of helping or euthanizing our pets. And I am thankful that that DT caregiver was in the position to help a shelled friend