Finally

WendyJae

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So about two weeks ago Kooper swallowed a sewing needle. Yep. A whole sewing needle. I freaked out and started sobbing immediately, I thought he was gonna die right then and there. I tried to grab the needle before he swallowed it but he went right in his shell and covered himself with his arms. I ran him right to my mom and told her what happened and she said we needed to cushion the needle before it hurt him. So we fed him two whole pieces of bread(which he loved) My mom is an X-ray technician so we took him to her work and got him some X-rays. It was definitely a needle:( I looked up a couple pictures of sulcata anatomy and it looked like the needle was already passed his stomach. So we took that as a good thing sense he was acting completely normal. He even ran all over the doctors office and made a bunch of friends. We made him a vet appointment and when we went, the doctor was absalutley horrible. He was tossing Kooper around like he was a football, hanging him upside down, flipping him all over. He pulled Koopers head all the wait out of his shell and pried his mouth open :( it looked like he was choking him. My mom made him stop and put him down multiple times and asking him to be gentler, seeing as there was a sharp metal needle inside of him. Then the doctor told us the only way the needle would come out was by sawing a square into his shell and doing an "exploratory surgery" on him. And then screw the shell peice back on. And then he proceeded to tell us hes never done a surgery before. Then we asked for him to do an X-ray and he told us it was unnessisary to know where the needle was.
Ok.
So we decided to wait for him to pass it on his own. He was acting completely normal, hyper even. For almost a week we dug through poop after poop, looking for the needle with no luck. We took him back to my moms office and did some more xrays and found that he had also eaten two rocks. :confused: why Kooper? I feed him so much why does he need to do this?
So, we waited some more and dug through more poop.
So finally after almost two weeks, we found them! The needle and the rocks in the same poop :D I put them in a baggy and put them in my little scrap book. Its weird, but I was worried my baby wasn't going to make it :( so I get to keep them.
So please don't get you're tortoise sawed open if they eat something, that sounds horrible. Kooper's very happy and I'm pretty sure he had no idea what he'd done. He's only five and hes already such a handful. And I also have another hatchling. what am I going to do when they're full grown??? :confused:

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Yvonne G

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I think the lesson here might be - do not allow your tortoise to roam around on the floor of the house. Tortoises need their own space.

I'm so glad this turned out ok. I had terrible visions of the needle penetrating the walls of the intestine or whatever. You certainly did a good and proactive job with the bread to get everything started moving properly. Wow!!!
 

WendyJae

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I think the lesson here might be - do not allow your tortoise to roam around on the floor of the house. Tortoises need their own space.

I'm so glad this turned out ok. I had terrible visions of the needle penetrating the walls of the intestine or whatever. You certainly did a good and proactive job with the bread to get everything started moving properly. Wow!!!
Yep he is definitely being watched way closer when he's in the house. He's only in there about an hour when I bring him in from his outdoor pen , and I had just set him down and turned my back for literally a minute. I don't even know where the needle came from :/ no more walking around the house for him hes segregated to the living room.
 

Tom

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You are lucky you didn't kill your tortoise. You are lucky that vet didn't kill your tortoise too.

You escape a brush with death by pure dumb luck and your solution is to watch him "way closer".

Here is an idea: Don't let him run loose in the house where he can eat things that could kill him.

No one can watch their tortoise close enough to prevent disasters like this. Many people are not as lucky as you and end up with a dead pet. Learn from your mistake. Please.


Thank you for sharing this so that others might learn too. I am sure I will refer to this thread often when people argue about how its okay to let their tortoise run loose in the house because they think nothing bad will happen.
 

johnsonnboswell

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That's not a needle, that's a straight pin. Does it matter? A needle could have done more damage. The bread and rocks he ate probably saved him from internal damage. The yellow head of the pin was probably attractive, but that doesn't mean all-metal pins are safe.

Thank you for sharing your story with us. The floor is not a safe place.
 

WendyJae

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I'm going to continue to let him walk around in a closed off clean area just for him. Because he likes it. Before he was going all over. But thank you for your suggestion.
 

robandcole

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Some people on this who think they know it all can be ****** harsh on people I won't say any names but you all know who you are just because you do something that works for you don't mean its the right or best way to do things everyone is different and everyone started or starts out as a newbe even you guys so maybe when you are someone not doing the right things lighten up some is it just me or do some people on here think they can do it all and thier **** don't stink well I'll be the first to tell you it does and it is ripe
 

keepergale

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Some people on this who think they know it all can be ****** harsh on people I won't say any names but you all know who you are just because you do something that works for you don't mean its the right or best way to do things everyone is different and everyone started or starts out as a newbe even you guys so maybe when you are someone not doing the right things lighten up some is it just me or do some people on here think they can do it all and thier **** don't stink well I'll be the first to tell you it does and it is ripe
What amazes me is that the people you are referring to continue to offer advise here at all. Day after day they offer GOOD advice to strangers. If the critics had been here seeing the hundreds or even thousand of my tortoise is dead,sick,dying, injured, posts maybe they would cut some slack to these "harsh people".
 

Tom

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Some people on this who think they know it all can be ****** harsh on people I won't say any names but you all know who you are just because you do something that works for you don't mean its the right or best way to do things everyone is different and everyone started or starts out as a newbe even you guys so maybe when you are someone not doing the right things lighten up some is it just me or do some people on here think they can do it all and thier **** don't stink well I'll be the first to tell you it does and it is ripe

This is not a matter of "doing something that works for you...". This is a matter of a dangerous practice that kills a lot of tortoises all over the world every day.

If being harsh is what is necessary to get the point across and discourage this practice, then harsh is what I will offer.

"Lighten up.." will not help save tortoise lives.

We have all seen different things and had different experiences. How many times have you stood in a vets office with a crying family and their dead tortoise? How many times have you seen x-rays and surgery pics of tortoises that had broken legs, or had ingested items like the one in this thread? Have you ever witnessed a veterinary surgeon sawing into a tortoise plastron to get at the lodged foreign body inside? I have. Let me tell you in no uncertain terms, its not cool. Its not fun. NO tortoise should have to go through that. No child should have to cry over the loss of a pet because of a stupid, easily preventable tragedy. If you were able to walk a mile in my shoes, you might view this matter differently.

So you go ahead and offer advice in whatever way you see fit. I won't make a whole post criticizing your methods or delivery. I don't think its too much to ask the same in return.
 

johnsonnboswell

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Even when there are no hazards on the floor, the floor is still not a good environment for a tortoise. No humidity. No place to burrow. Stress on legs and feet. Bad temps & lack of uvb. I posted about this previously in Exercise.

"They like it" is only a good guideline when what they like does no harm. They like fruit, too, and some species cannot digest it. My kids liked skipping school. One of my friends liked alcohol and drank himself to death. You get my point.

If you have a safe room to devote to a tortoise, make it into a good environment with water, UVB light hanging low, and large flats of substrate they can get in and out if at will. Make sure the floor is warm enough.

Some of us remember when there was no Internet, no specialized equipment, only a few books in print and none of them adequate, no groups to pool their knowledge, only anecdotal stories from people who used to have turtles but they died shortly after... It's a different world now. We can benefit from each other's experience and knowledge.
 

Jacqui

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Wow, what a horrible start to this story. Just so glad it turned out all. Hope too the everybody (including us reading this thread) learn something or have the thought reinforced. Love his pool by the way.
 

robandcole

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All I'm saying is people make mistakes torts are going to die because of it yea... but its life we all make mastakes... So I just don't think its cool when some one tells thier story on here for people to criticize them for thier wrong doing instead maybe explain why what they did is wrong ... I mean thier not killing your torts I know that sounds bad but come on you can't save them all and tearing someone a new one for doing something different than you is not right in my eyes... No one man nor tort is perfict... Have a good one peeps
 

Tom

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All I'm saying is people make mistakes torts are going to die because of it yea... but its life we all make mastakes... So I just don't think its cool when some one tells thier story on here for people to criticize them for thier wrong doing instead maybe explain why what they did is wrong ... I mean thier not killing your torts I know that sounds bad but come on you can't save them all and tearing someone a new one for doing something different than you is not right in my eyes... No one man nor tort is perfict... Have a good one peeps

Lead by example for us here:
A person engages in a dangerous practice with their animal. A practice that regularly results in death, injury or surgery for these animals. A practice that we regularly warn against all over this forum. This practice results in this forum members tortoise ingesting a potentially fatal item. Somehow, we get lucky and this tortoise escapes the situation without harm. Then the tortoise owner's reaction is to continue engaging in the same dangerous practice that could have killed her pet, but now informs us that "...he will be watched way closer when he's in the house...". Basically saying that, "Yes, I almost killed my tortoise, but we got lucky and he didn't die or need surgery, so I'm going to keep on doing the thing that nearly killed him..." Paraphrasing here of, course.

Okay, GO! What do you say to this person?
 

Jacqui

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Okay, guys can we stop the debate now or can you two take it to the debate section, please.
 

Tidgy's Dad

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Thank you very much for posting your story here WendyJae, it's interesting, exciting and contains some excellent photographs.
And best of all, by some miracle, it has a happy ending, though i must admit I was fearing the worst.
You can also be happy that other people reading this thread may take appropriate action to keep their tortoises safe and you may have just helped save other tortoises lives.
But please ensure your beautiful sulcata has a nice secure, safe home of his own, that is risk free, so you and we don't have to go through all of that again.
Thank you.
 

WendyJae

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Wow. This really got away from me idk. I'm not even going to read your arguing. You guys are too much. He has a huge outdoor pen he is in from 10am when he wakes up to around 7 or 8 p.m. He also has a big horse water bucket in the house that he sleeps in with his heat light and bedding. And now he has a new blocked off square area in the living room that nobody even steps in, it is completely empty, and he can't get out of it. so when he can't be outside anymore, because we have foxes on my ranch that come out when it gets dark and I don't want them near him, and he doesn't want to go to sleep yet, I put him in the new square area in my living room now oppose to letting him walk around the house. And then when he's tired I put him in the horse bucket. He has his own spaces He is not loose in the house anymore. Just because I didn't explain completely what exactly I'm doing differently and decided to just say I will "watch him way closer" instead of getting elbow deep into an explaination on an already long forum. So sorry for the confusion. My animal is safe and no longer has access to needles, rocks, or any other awful things. I thought this was a forum of polite people.
 

WendyJae

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I will work on building him a bigger indoor pen so he won't have the floor to walk on, but we just don't have the money to buy all the things we would need. Thank you all for your concern I know you weren't trying to be rude, just trying to help and watch out for my Kooper. But he is my tortoise, I'm doing what I can. I don't need to get "told" by strangers that think I'm being an awful owner.
 

jobothehobo

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The tortoise looks healthy and happy, so whatever she's doing..she's obviously doing SOMETHING right.
Must of been pretty terrifying but you handled it very well.
Kudos to you!!!
 

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