Hello Tortoise Forum,
I have a sad story to share, it started happy though.
My wife and I look into many different animals before deciding that a Russian Tortoise was the right pet for our family. We researched habitats, feeding, and how to choose a good one (I now wish I had spent much more time on the latter.)
We found that we could make a habitat out of a storage tub. So we got the biggest one we could find (Why do they all stop at 50 gal? What’s wrong with 75 gal, or more?) We put in a 50/50 mix of a substrate made from some kind of pet wood chips (I’ll have to look up what it actually was) and a ground up coconut dirt like stuff that felt pretty moist. I then built a little deck, and a set of stairs.
Then we went to a local pet shop. (Did I just hear you cringe?) There were 4 tortoises in the one tank which I thought was a bit crowded. It did have a hide for them to crawl under (one at a time, hey no shoving!) and a plate of food with carrots and some type of lettuce. We also picked up a ceramic lamp, and a Zoo Med Power sun bulb.
We picked a female russian tortoise. She was very active, and had clear eyes. Both things that I had read you should look for. My wife tells me that she did have some bits of her shell flaking off, but I don’t remember seeing them. (I’m sure she’s right… she always is.
We named her Shelby. She climbed the stairs almost immediately, which was so fun for the kids and us to watch. We fed her nightly with food from http://www.russiantortoise.net ‘s edible plants and avoiding the ones from their toxic list. (She didn’t like dandelions, until we tricked her into eating some with another leaf. After that she always ate the dandelions first. They became her favorite)
Shelby was like having another kid, she was part of us, and our family didn’t feel complete without her. (We went camping once, making sure she would be well cared for, and we all missed her terribly. The kids kept asking why we left her behind. My wife even wanted her to come with us the next time, which wouldn’t work for temperature and many other concerns.) We were all very happy, and loved the fact that she was expected to live more than 40 years, how wonderful!
For months she seemed like she was doing great. She was very responsive, and active and ate plenty of dinner each night. (Who keeps feeding Shelby some extra dandelions before dinner? Oh right that was me.) Her temperatures (by my laser thermometer, bzzzuu bzzzu bzzzzuuu (those are my laser sounds)) were in the mid 90s by day and down to the mid 60s by night. She loved her baths which we gave her 2-3- times per week, letting her soak for about 20-30 minutes. She would drink some water then poop. (Good pooping tortoise! She also pooped all over her deck, and the stairs. It’s good for kids to learn to clean up poop, after all I cleaned up their poop. What poops around, poops around. Okay that didn’t come out right.
The one thing I did notice was that she ate a little bit less than she used to. She didn’t stop eating all together, just slowed. Then she ate a little less, and a little less. A month later she was eating less than half the dinner she used to, she didn’t move as much either, she just rested under her heat lamp all the time. We had to really rub her shell to get her to wake up for her baths. Then it progressed to where she wouldn’t eat any more. She almost drank nothing in her baths. She didn’t poop any more. She almost never opened her eyes (My wife looked this one up and found out that an infection can make their eyes swell up in a way that makes it hard for them to open). We got very scared for her.
I found a vet nearby that works with exotics. They seemed very knowledgeable, both the girl at the desk, and the doc told me about their own tortoises. Doc said that she had shell rot. He was able to remove small parts of her shell with very little effort, they just flaked off. Shelby had very little energy. He put her on an antibiotic for 7 days, and had his nurse give the first shot and teach me how to do the rest. One shot per day in one of her front legs, alternating which leg each day. He also gave me something to put in her bath. (I’ll have to look it up, it started with a B). He told me the idea was to combat the problem from both inside and outside.
We were so careful about doing exactly what was prescribed. We gave her the shots, we gave her the baths, (We used a ladle too scoop the brown bath medicine onto her shell, it felt like we were basting her, and we joked about how we were stirring turtle soup.) She didn’t eat, and only drank a tiny bit. We started forcing her mouth open and giving her small bites of leaves (her favorite dandelions).
The day after the last shots Shelby opened her eyes!!! (Yay she’s going to get better!!). She had energy, she walked around her habitat, she played in her bath (a little) and she actually looked at us, for almost the whole day. Only she still wouldn’t eat. So we force fed her a few leaf bites again. We felt like we were doing so much better, now all we had to do was get Shelby to eat.
The next day she wouldn’t open her eyes. (NO!!!!!!) My wife made a leaf blend that she put in a syringe. She would pry open Shelby’s mouth, and I would squirt a little bit of leafy mix into her mouth, then we would wait for her to swallow, then repeat. It took a long time, but we got her to eat about 1 tsp.
The next day we took her back to the vet. Shelby had lost weight, and was even weaker than before. One thing I was shocked about was the Vet questioning himself on why he would only give her 7 days of antibiotics, when he should have given her 10. I wish he had given her 10, it might have helped. He said it was best if we put a tube in her neck to feed her. He spent some time telling us how the feeding would work. About 1.5 – 2 cc of baby food each day, or a bit more if we spaced it out to multiple feedings per day. We left Shelby with him to perform the surgery, which he said would take about an hour before he could start due to some other patients who had been waiting.
We went back about an hour and half later, having picked up some baby food for Shelby. (I don’t think he started the surgery until we got back we had to wait a long time, but it could have been because of something the vet said happened…) When he finally brought Shelby to us, she had an orange tube sticking out of her neck. It was putting enough pressure on her that her head was pushed all the way to her right. She seemed like she was in much worse condition than when we had left her. (which I suppose is probably normal for a surgery, but still my heart sank, and I could sense the same from my wife). Shelby seemed like she was too week to do anything now. He showed us that the tube should not go deeper than a mark he had made on the tube, or be pulled because it could come out. (Then he dropped the bomb) He told us that it had been pulled out (What?!) by one of the nurses trying to cut the tube to a more manageable length. (So he had to do the surgery twice!!!) He told us more about the feeding process, and gave us 10 more antibiotic shots, and more bath med. We were now supposed to sponge bath so that her open wound (where the tube goes in) wouldn’t soak in it or worse drown her. Then she coughed up blood (!!!), then did so again.
We took a barely alive member of our family home, and checked on her so many times. We fed her that night with the tube, and chased it with some water to keep the tube from causing another infection.
The next day, all day my wife and kids checked on her over and over, and I did too when I got home from work.
A half hour before it was time to feed her I heard some clicking or grunting coming from her. I went and looked at her, she didn’t seem to be struggling with her tube or anything so I let her be. (Why, oh why didn’t I touch her and check closer?)
When it was time to feed her, my wife picked her up, only to find that her little body had no life in it. Shelby had left us.
Kids cried. Wife cried. I cried, as we held a small funeral for our dear Shelby.
My Wife and I through tears have talked about it, and we decided that we would still like to have a pet in our lives. We plan to invite a new russian tortoise into our lives. Not to replace Shelby because nothing ever could, but to give our love to another as we did with Shelby. I’m hoping that through my story you, the members of this forum, may see where I went wrong, and what I need to do better in the habitat, or in our care, or whatever else, so that we can offer the best possible home when we adopt again.
Thank you.
I have a sad story to share, it started happy though.
My wife and I look into many different animals before deciding that a Russian Tortoise was the right pet for our family. We researched habitats, feeding, and how to choose a good one (I now wish I had spent much more time on the latter.)
We found that we could make a habitat out of a storage tub. So we got the biggest one we could find (Why do they all stop at 50 gal? What’s wrong with 75 gal, or more?) We put in a 50/50 mix of a substrate made from some kind of pet wood chips (I’ll have to look up what it actually was) and a ground up coconut dirt like stuff that felt pretty moist. I then built a little deck, and a set of stairs.
Then we went to a local pet shop. (Did I just hear you cringe?) There were 4 tortoises in the one tank which I thought was a bit crowded. It did have a hide for them to crawl under (one at a time, hey no shoving!) and a plate of food with carrots and some type of lettuce. We also picked up a ceramic lamp, and a Zoo Med Power sun bulb.
We picked a female russian tortoise. She was very active, and had clear eyes. Both things that I had read you should look for. My wife tells me that she did have some bits of her shell flaking off, but I don’t remember seeing them. (I’m sure she’s right… she always is.
We named her Shelby. She climbed the stairs almost immediately, which was so fun for the kids and us to watch. We fed her nightly with food from http://www.russiantortoise.net ‘s edible plants and avoiding the ones from their toxic list. (She didn’t like dandelions, until we tricked her into eating some with another leaf. After that she always ate the dandelions first. They became her favorite)
Shelby was like having another kid, she was part of us, and our family didn’t feel complete without her. (We went camping once, making sure she would be well cared for, and we all missed her terribly. The kids kept asking why we left her behind. My wife even wanted her to come with us the next time, which wouldn’t work for temperature and many other concerns.) We were all very happy, and loved the fact that she was expected to live more than 40 years, how wonderful!
For months she seemed like she was doing great. She was very responsive, and active and ate plenty of dinner each night. (Who keeps feeding Shelby some extra dandelions before dinner? Oh right that was me.) Her temperatures (by my laser thermometer, bzzzuu bzzzu bzzzzuuu (those are my laser sounds)) were in the mid 90s by day and down to the mid 60s by night. She loved her baths which we gave her 2-3- times per week, letting her soak for about 20-30 minutes. She would drink some water then poop. (Good pooping tortoise! She also pooped all over her deck, and the stairs. It’s good for kids to learn to clean up poop, after all I cleaned up their poop. What poops around, poops around. Okay that didn’t come out right.
The one thing I did notice was that she ate a little bit less than she used to. She didn’t stop eating all together, just slowed. Then she ate a little less, and a little less. A month later she was eating less than half the dinner she used to, she didn’t move as much either, she just rested under her heat lamp all the time. We had to really rub her shell to get her to wake up for her baths. Then it progressed to where she wouldn’t eat any more. She almost drank nothing in her baths. She didn’t poop any more. She almost never opened her eyes (My wife looked this one up and found out that an infection can make their eyes swell up in a way that makes it hard for them to open). We got very scared for her.
I found a vet nearby that works with exotics. They seemed very knowledgeable, both the girl at the desk, and the doc told me about their own tortoises. Doc said that she had shell rot. He was able to remove small parts of her shell with very little effort, they just flaked off. Shelby had very little energy. He put her on an antibiotic for 7 days, and had his nurse give the first shot and teach me how to do the rest. One shot per day in one of her front legs, alternating which leg each day. He also gave me something to put in her bath. (I’ll have to look it up, it started with a B). He told me the idea was to combat the problem from both inside and outside.
We were so careful about doing exactly what was prescribed. We gave her the shots, we gave her the baths, (We used a ladle too scoop the brown bath medicine onto her shell, it felt like we were basting her, and we joked about how we were stirring turtle soup.) She didn’t eat, and only drank a tiny bit. We started forcing her mouth open and giving her small bites of leaves (her favorite dandelions).
The day after the last shots Shelby opened her eyes!!! (Yay she’s going to get better!!). She had energy, she walked around her habitat, she played in her bath (a little) and she actually looked at us, for almost the whole day. Only she still wouldn’t eat. So we force fed her a few leaf bites again. We felt like we were doing so much better, now all we had to do was get Shelby to eat.
The next day she wouldn’t open her eyes. (NO!!!!!!) My wife made a leaf blend that she put in a syringe. She would pry open Shelby’s mouth, and I would squirt a little bit of leafy mix into her mouth, then we would wait for her to swallow, then repeat. It took a long time, but we got her to eat about 1 tsp.
The next day we took her back to the vet. Shelby had lost weight, and was even weaker than before. One thing I was shocked about was the Vet questioning himself on why he would only give her 7 days of antibiotics, when he should have given her 10. I wish he had given her 10, it might have helped. He said it was best if we put a tube in her neck to feed her. He spent some time telling us how the feeding would work. About 1.5 – 2 cc of baby food each day, or a bit more if we spaced it out to multiple feedings per day. We left Shelby with him to perform the surgery, which he said would take about an hour before he could start due to some other patients who had been waiting.
We went back about an hour and half later, having picked up some baby food for Shelby. (I don’t think he started the surgery until we got back we had to wait a long time, but it could have been because of something the vet said happened…) When he finally brought Shelby to us, she had an orange tube sticking out of her neck. It was putting enough pressure on her that her head was pushed all the way to her right. She seemed like she was in much worse condition than when we had left her. (which I suppose is probably normal for a surgery, but still my heart sank, and I could sense the same from my wife). Shelby seemed like she was too week to do anything now. He showed us that the tube should not go deeper than a mark he had made on the tube, or be pulled because it could come out. (Then he dropped the bomb) He told us that it had been pulled out (What?!) by one of the nurses trying to cut the tube to a more manageable length. (So he had to do the surgery twice!!!) He told us more about the feeding process, and gave us 10 more antibiotic shots, and more bath med. We were now supposed to sponge bath so that her open wound (where the tube goes in) wouldn’t soak in it or worse drown her. Then she coughed up blood (!!!), then did so again.
We took a barely alive member of our family home, and checked on her so many times. We fed her that night with the tube, and chased it with some water to keep the tube from causing another infection.
The next day, all day my wife and kids checked on her over and over, and I did too when I got home from work.
A half hour before it was time to feed her I heard some clicking or grunting coming from her. I went and looked at her, she didn’t seem to be struggling with her tube or anything so I let her be. (Why, oh why didn’t I touch her and check closer?)
When it was time to feed her, my wife picked her up, only to find that her little body had no life in it. Shelby had left us.
Kids cried. Wife cried. I cried, as we held a small funeral for our dear Shelby.
My Wife and I through tears have talked about it, and we decided that we would still like to have a pet in our lives. We plan to invite a new russian tortoise into our lives. Not to replace Shelby because nothing ever could, but to give our love to another as we did with Shelby. I’m hoping that through my story you, the members of this forum, may see where I went wrong, and what I need to do better in the habitat, or in our care, or whatever else, so that we can offer the best possible home when we adopt again.
Thank you.