Help Needed :( (ate a piece of tile)

[lisdndo]

Update: I took her outside and placed her in a warm bath and she drank a ton of water! I heard her fart but nothing came out. She didn't want to stay in for long but she ate a small cactus pads and I made her romaine lettuce tacos with aloe vera gel inside (sneaked it in because she wouldn't eat the aloe vera) and it worked! We planted dandelions weeks back so we gave her some of that for antioxidants and she proceeded with eating grass. At the moment she's continuing to eat romaine lettuce. She has a strong appetite so I'm hoping that this feast will stimulate a good bowel movement to poop the piece out 🤞 I'll keep y'all posted 🐢

 

[lisdndo]

Here she is drinking water. She did this for about 10 minutes until she made it clear she was ready to get out. She has a bigger container to soak but I grabbed this one for now because it was easier to hold and move around without water spilling.

 

[lisdndo]

Eating the cactus pad

 

[lisdndo]

Eating grass (don't worry, it is clean, we don't spray the backyard)

 

[lisdndo]

Eating romaine lettuce 🤞 The water bowl was empty when I took the photo but it dried up quick because it's actually really warm at the moment here in Los Angeles. I just added clean water (I promise that water bowl is never empty and always has clean water) 🐢

 

[Tom]

Update: I took her outside and placed her in a warm bath and she drank a ton of water! I heard her fart but nothing came out. She didn't want to stay in for long but she ate a small cactus pads and I made her romaine lettuce tacos with aloe vera gel inside (sneaked it in because she wouldn't eat the aloe vera) and it worked! We planted dandelions weeks back so we gave her some of that for antioxidants and she proceeded with eating grass. At the moment she's continuing to eat romaine lettuce. She has a strong appetite so I'm hoping that this feast will stimulate a good bowel movement to poop the piece out 🤞 I'll keep y'all posted 🐢

Normal soaks should be 30-40 minutes. In this case I'd go at least one hour. Don't worry about her wanting to get out. Leave her in there. We call that the tortoise treadmill, and NOTHING could be better for your tortoise right now than an hour of scrambling to get out of the warm soaking water. Like horses, tortoises rely on locomotion to keep the GI tract moving. When they don't feel good and sit still, so does what ever is in their gut.

Never cut up cactus pads or other "hard" foods into chunks. They can choke and die on that. No joke. It happens regularly, and it happened fairly recently to a very experienced and knowledgable tortoise keeper here on the forum. Either let them bite off their own "bite size" pieces from a large chunk or whole pad, or grate it up. This goes for pumpkin, squash, opuntia pads, cucumber or zucchini, etc...

The appetite is a great sign!

 

[TechnoCheese]

Happy birthday! It’s great to hear she’s eating, wishing both of you the best

 

[lisdndo]

Happy birthday! It’s great to hear she’s eating, wishing both of you the best

Thank you for the birthday wishes and yes! It's definitely giving me hope to see her eat. Now we wait to see if it's enough for her to poop it out 🤞

 

[lisdndo]

Normal soaks should be 30-40 minutes. In this case I'd go at least one hour. Don't worry about her wanting to get out. Leave her in there. We call that the tortoise treadmill, and NOTHING could be better for your tortoise right now than an hour of scrambling to get out of the warm soaking water. Like horses, tortoises rely on locomotion to keep the GI tract moving. When they don't feel good and sit still, so does what ever is in their gut.

Never cut up cactus pads or other "hard" foods into chunks. They can choke and die on that. No joke. It happens regularly, and it happened fairly recently to a very experienced and knowledgable tortoise keeper here on the forum. Either let them bite off their own "bite size" pieces from a large chunk or whole pad, or grate it up. This goes for pumpkin, squash, opuntia pads, cucumber or zucchini, etc...

The appetite is a great sign!

Yes she usually goes for a while in soaks like you described. Okay she just finished eating, should I give her another soak? Oh gosh I had no idea about the cactus pads, shoot, I had one job and I screwed it up 😞 How would I know if she is choking? I realized that for one piece she was having a difficult time so I quickly removed it and let her pick at the strip at her own pace which she did 🙏 Thank you for sharing this information, I had no idea ☹️ She ate non-stop for an hour (until just now). She walked to her little hideout to nap minutes ago, should I let her be or soak her?

 

[lisdndo]

Update: Hey everyone, two things happened today to my tortoise: she pooped 🥳 and she had a follow-up x-ray. I checked her poop and collected a solid piece of something that might be a rock? The x-ray showed that the piece she has is now smaller than it was days ago. The vet suspects that it either broke off or dissolved somehow because it's no longer a life threatening issue 🙏 Of course it still needs to come out so I was asked to monitor her behavior/appetite and see if it comes out. She has to go back in a week for another x-ray just to see if she's cleared. I'll be continuing to feed her what y'all recommended and I hope it all gets flushed out. Thank you so much to each one of you that took the time to respond and offer encouragement, I appreciate you from the bottom of my heart. I'll follow up either when she poops that piece out or at the next x-ray 🤞 Here are photos of the piece that she pooped out and the x-ray that shows the tiny piece at the bottom 🩻🐢

 

[Megatron's Mom]

I'm so happy that it is no longer life threatening.

 

[lisdndo]

I'm so happy that it is no longer life threatening.

I am too 🙌 The vet said he saw some gas but nothing concerning and that everything else looked great 🙏

 

[ALICE_in_Wonderland]

Yay! I am so happy your tortoise is on the mend! It was pretty stressful reading this and can imagine the anxiety you were experiencing.

I have a question in general for anyone; is it possible getting multiple X-rays in a short period of time be harmful ? Is there something in a tortoise’s body that combats radiation so it is not harmful (like high vitamin C)?

 

[Orcsloot]

Share a pic of the tortoise so we know the size of her
I would feed her romaine or head lettuce only until the tile passes It should give her diarrhea or mushy poops and it might help it pass. I would also keep soaking daily in a large container she can move around in and make the water a little deeper than normal. About half way up the shell. Keep water and her warm and do not let her temps in her enclosure day and night go below 85 for now. She should be in a closed chamber with 80% humidity.

@Yvonne G may have other ideas.

This is great advice like humans sometimes if you’re backed up, have a blockage etc if you eat something like sausage and sauerkraut for example your gonna be cleaned out, something similar that would translate as a equivalent for a tort might be foods that would stimulate the bowels thus leading to diarrhea that might be what she needs to live it enough to push it out. She’ll be in my prayers 🙏

 

[Alex and the Redfoot]

Yay! I am so happy your tortoise is on the mend! It was pretty stressful reading this and can imagine the anxiety you were experiencing.

I have a question in general for anyone; is it possible getting multiple X-rays in a short period of time be harmful ? Is there something in a tortoise’s body that combats radiation so it is not harmful (like high vitamin C)?

It can be (in theory), due to the nature of ionizing radiation. However, X-Rays are rather low-dosed (comparing to CT, for example) and I would not worry about over-exposure.

I'm not aware of scientifically-proven methods to mitigiate risks of short-term low-dosage radiation exposure. Especially, in chelonians.

 

[Ray--Opo]

I found your post. You have been given some great advice by other members.
Sounds like everything is going good.
What is the name of your sully?

 

[zovick]

Yay! I am so happy your tortoise is on the mend! It was pretty stressful reading this and can imagine the anxiety you were experiencing.

I have a question in general for anyone; is it possible getting multiple X-rays in a short period of time be harmful ? Is there something in a tortoise’s body that combats radiation so it is not harmful (like high vitamin C)?

With today's X-ray machines, the risk of overexposure is almost nil. The tortoise is only getting one film done at a time which makes it even less likely to be harmful.

For comparison, if a human has a full mouth series of X-rays done by a dentist, there are 16-18 films taken at the visit and that is not considered harmful in any way. In fact, both the CDC and the American Dental Association have just issued guidance stating that having patients wear lead aprons and thyroid collars is no longer necessary.

Believe the above or not, there should be no ill effects to the tortoise from having 2-4 radiographs taken in the course of a month or two.

 

[Orcsloot]

Update: Hey everyone, two things happened today to my tortoise: she pooped 🥳 and she had a follow-up x-ray. I checked her poop and collected a solid piece of something that might be a rock? The x-ray showed that the piece she has is now smaller than it was days ago. The vet suspects that it either broke off or dissolved somehow because it's no longer a life threatening issue 🙏 Of course it still needs to come out so I was asked to monitor her behavior/appetite and see if it comes out. She has to go back in a week for another x-ray just to see if she's cleared. I'll be continuing to feed her what y'all recommended and I hope it all gets flushed out. Thank you so much to each one of you that took the time to respond and offer encouragement, I appreciate you from the bottom of my heart. I'll follow up either when she poops that piece out or at the next x-ray 🤞 Here are photos of the piece that she pooped out and the x-ray that shows the tiny piece at the bottom 🩻🐢

yay!

 

[lisdndo]

I found your post. You have been given some great advice by other members.
Sounds like everything is going good.
What is the name of your sully?

Hello 👋 Thank you for finding my post and yes, I'm very thankful to all of the members that replied and helped with their tips and information 🙏 They truly helped me find an alternative to the ones the vet gave to me 😟

My tortoise's name is Cauliflower 🐢

 

[lisdndo]

yay!

🙏🐢 and she pooped again today!

Yay! I am so happy your tortoise is on the mend! It was pretty stressful reading this and can imagine the anxiety you were experiencing.

I have a question in general for anyone; is it possible getting multiple X-rays in a short period of time be harmful ? Is there something in a tortoise’s body that combats radiation so it is not harmful (like high vitamin C)?

Thanks so much, I am happy she's on the mend as well. The anxiety was real as were the tears from stressing and wondering what would happen next. The vet gave us options that were not favorable but I can see they were options that were available at the time or perhaps that's the only thing they can suggest as vets? I'm just really glad for this forum, the alternatives suggested worked 🙏 That's a great question, I don't know but I hope there isn't a harm in doing x-rays on tortoises.