New to this site and Need Russian Help

TammyJ

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Wow. Does not even look like it's alive at all in those pictures! All the very best and let us know how the vet visit goes.
 
Joined
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Location (City and/or State)
Yuma AZ
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Let us know how you get on, I’ve got a soft spot for this tortoise.

Our girl is going pretty well. They basically skinned her, Thankfully she did still have eyes! She is healing nicely. We are giving her shots, soaking her in iodine and putting a special cream on her daily. They have us a special food mix and pain meds but she is having challenges opening her mouth now. We thought she hadn’t eaten because she couldn’t see but I now feel it’s something with her mouth. They didn’t get all the black skin off her mouth or nose and i think that’s an issue. We tried a Toothpick last-night and slowly got it open enough to syringe the liquid food in there a couple times. We also got her saline drops because the eye skin keeps coming back.
Other wise she is crawling all over the place and active!!
 

Ben02

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Brighton, Southcoast, UK
I
View attachment 277723

Our girl is going pretty well. They basically skinned her, Thankfully she did still have eyes! She is healing nicely. We are giving her shots, soaking her in iodine and putting a special cream on her daily. They have us a special food mix and pain meds but she is having challenges opening her mouth now. We thought she hadn’t eaten because she couldn’t see but I now feel it’s something with her mouth. They didn’t get all the black skin off her mouth or nose and i think that’s an issue. We tried a Toothpick last-night and slowly got it open enough to syringe the liquid food in there a couple times. We also got her saline drops because the eye skin keeps coming back.
Other wise she is crawling all over the place and active!!
I’m so pleased! She looks a lot better aswell. Keep us updated:)
 

Rufina

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Feb 18, 2018
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Medford Oregon
View attachment 277723

Our girl is going pretty well. They basically skinned her, Thankfully she did still have eyes! She is healing nicely. We are giving her shots, soaking her in iodine and putting a special cream on her daily. They have us a special food mix and pain meds but she is having challenges opening her mouth now. We thought she hadn’t eaten because she couldn’t see but I now feel it’s something with her mouth. They didn’t get all the black skin off her mouth or nose and i think that’s an issue. We tried a Toothpick last-night and slowly got it open enough to syringe the liquid food in there a couple times. We also got her saline drops because the eye skin keeps coming back.
Other wise she is crawling all over the place and active!!

She sure looks better. I have been very concerned about her and you as I know how hard it is to love something you don’t know how to help. Please keep us informed of how she is doing.
 
Joined
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Messages
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Location (City and/or State)
Yuma AZ
She sure looks better. I have been very concerned about her and you as I know how hard it is to love something you don’t know how to help. Please keep us informed of how she is doing.

Thank you so much! This has been pretty traumatic obviously for her but for my husband and I as we thought we were giving her a bigger better space.
I will keep you all posted as she recovers. We just want her to get eating and feel confident she will make a full recovery.
 

Ray--Opo

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Palm Bay Fl
View attachment 277723

Our girl is going pretty well. They basically skinned her, Thankfully she did still have eyes! She is healing nicely. We are giving her shots, soaking her in iodine and putting a special cream on her daily. They have us a special food mix and pain meds but she is having challenges opening her mouth now. We thought she hadn’t eaten because she couldn’t see but I now feel it’s something with her mouth. They didn’t get all the black skin off her mouth or nose and i think that’s an issue. We tried a Toothpick last-night and slowly got it open enough to syringe the liquid food in there a couple times. We also got her saline drops because the eye skin keeps coming back.
Other wise she is crawling all over the place and active!!
That's great! I was beginning to think that someone was playing a cruel joke on us and the first pics were of a dead tort.
Thank you for not giving up.
 
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Ray--Opo

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She sure looks better. I have been very concerned about her and you as I know how hard it is to love something you don’t know how to help. Please keep us informed of how she is doing.
Did the vet have any idea what caused it?
Was there something caustic in the ground?
 
Joined
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Location (City and/or State)
Yuma AZ
That's great! I was beginning to think that someone was playing a cruel joke on us and the first pics were of a dead tort.
Thank you for not giving up.

That would be a very cruel joke, unfortunately she was in that bad of shape ☹️ We saved her when we found her the first time and weren’t about to not do it again!
 
Joined
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Yuma AZ
Did the vet have any idea what caused it?
Was there something caustic in the ground?

She didn’t. She thought maybe our thinking of something chemical in the dirt was accurate. She at first didn’t understand and said well if you leave a tortoise in direct sunlight with no shade and it’s hot they can get burned. We quickly said no she had shade over her enclosure and a burrow underground which we dig out. She just burrowed much further down on her own.
 

Yvonne G

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What a difference. She now looks like she's going to recover, as opposed to that first picture where she looked at death's door. This is a pretty hard thing to know. You can't put her back outside in that same dirt or it will happen again. Can you find a lab that will test the dirt for you? If so, I'd take a sample from deep down where the tortoise was and have it tested. To cause such a burn on tortoise skin, I'd be worried if it was safe for you and your family to go out there and spend any time in that same dirt. Maybe talk to someone in the environmental protection agency. You may have recourse to go back to the previous owners to have them take care of digging out the area and adding clean soil. As it is, I would be afraid to be digging and planting.

On another note, this looks like one heck of a big Russian tortoise! Measuring in a straight line from front to back, what is her shell length?
 

Yvonne G

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I wonder if you could take a soil sample to the County Extension office and ask them to test it. I know they do that in Texas, not sure about other states.
Yes, definitely have it tested. If it caused burns that bad on your tortoise, it might be bad for you and your family to even inhale the air around it.
 

Pastel Tortie

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I wonder if you could take a soil sample to the County Extension office and ask them to test it. I know they do that in Texas, not sure about other states.
The County Extension offices do that in Florida, too. I think they pretty much do soil testing throughout the country.
 

Pastel Tortie

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Definitely do the soil tests. Ask specifically what they test for -- what WILL and WILL NOT show up. If the soil testing doesn't give you some clear answers, you may have to get more creative to find out if there's a potential contaminant or hazardous materials issue. (Yes, I have some thoughts, but I don't want to go there just yet.) Hopefully the soil testing will provide good answers.
 

Pastel Tortie

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Okay, I went looking anyway. If the soil tests don't give you the answers you're looking for, one of the next places I'd suggest is here:
https://www.yumacountyaz.gov/government/emergency-management/forms-docs
In which case, you would download the Multi-Jurisdictional Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan [15MB PDF]. It's a huge file, probably because it contains a comprehensive risk assessment (hazard identification / vulnerability analysis) for the county. That document will mention any significant hazards historically known to have occurred there. It will also indicate all the various hazards that local emergency management needs to be prepared for (and what has been done or will be done to address those hazards). That document would likely help you formulate some creative questions...and give you some ideas about where to ask them.
 
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Thank you for the soil testing ideas. I will research it. We live in the desert of Arizona and we have fruit groves and agriculture all around us. Anything could be in that dirt. We have also learned that the previous owner had his mulch pile where she was at. We have one as well it’s just on the other side of the yard. I am sure she got a chemical burn either from something he put on the grass or the weeds. Down here if we want beautiful green grass we fertilize when we irrigate. We irrigate with the Colorado River water from canals to each property again because we are in the agricultural areas in the country. And just fyi Where she was next to our chickens the ground is built up so the waters never reaches there. It must be in the dirt down there because she was fine until she buried herself.
I am taking her to the vet Monday for a follow up. She is doing well but it’s slow very slow progress. Her eyes keep getting a shallow skin over them. She usually breaks it off when we soak her but it comes back. I mixed some organic greens with water and we have finally been able to get some syringed in her mouth. She had 5 hard as a rock poops come out. Her nose is still covered so she opens her mouth slightly to breath and sometimes makes noise.
I feel so bad I wish she was happier and feeling better. We give her a shot every 3 days and I’m sure her poor front legs (even though we switch back and forth and use different areas) are sore. I just want to wake up and see her well and happy again.
We will NOT be putting her back outside, she will remain inside in a new enclosure indoors. When it cools in the fall, we will take her out for supervised periods of time.
I’m hopeful the Vet can get her eyes under control and remove the last of the dead skin on her nose.
Thank you all for caring so much, I am thankful for this site.
 

Ray--Opo

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Keep up the fight. She is lucky to have you caring for her. I don't know but was it mentioned to use eye drops?
 

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