Sulcata rescue #3

[Yvonne G]

I'd actually love to have anyone's input on this one. The people had this sulcata since it was about the size of a hand, so I figure maybe 2 years old. They got him in '06, making him about 8 years old. He has always lived in the backyard along with 4 dogs. Two weeks ago one of the dogs, a Pomeranian, died of some sort of blood disease. The dog was about 8 years old. The blood wouldn't clot. Then yesterday another one of the dogs was taken to the emergency vet because the gums were bleeding. They did labs and came up with pretty much the same thing that was wrong with the pom. The vet thought maybe, because the dogs eat the tortoise poop, they contracted something from the tortoise.

I've been messing with turtles and tortoises for about 35 years and I've heard of tortoises dying from dogs, but never dogs dying from tortoises. Anybody?

Everyone, meet Big Boy!

 

[Katherine]

Handsome new tortoise! Lucky for him that his owners found you. I'm racking my brain for contagious canine diseases which would cause a coagulation deficit but coming up short. If the dogs were related it may make more sense... It is possible they both ingested a poison from a common area; rat poison can cause clotting problems to the point of fatality....as can some snake venoms. I am not sure offhand of anything contagious even from one dog to another that would cause clotting problems, nevermind from the tortoise. Aside from some parasites I am not aware of any disease transmissible to dogs from a tortoise. For whatever it's worth I have three healthy dogs who have all at points in their life made a meal of tortoise droppings...gross yes but not deadly in my experience. Sounds to me like they needed a scapegoat and your pretty new tort was the easiest to blame...

 

[bubbles01]

Yvonne - I have no idea of anything they could be referring to - but Big Boy is a stunner!!!

 

[Jacqui]

Handsome new tortoise! Lucky for him that his owners found you. I'm racking my brain for contagious canine diseases which would cause a coagulation deficit but coming up short. If the dogs were related it may make more sense... It is possible they both ingested a poison from a common area; rat poison can cause clotting problems to the point of fatality....as can some snake venoms. I am not sure offhand of anything contagious even from one dog to another that would cause clotting problems, nevermind from the tortoise. Aside from some parasites I am not aware of any disease transmissible to dogs from a tortoise. For whatever it's worth I have three healthy dogs who have all at points in their life made a meal of tortoise droppings...gross yes but not deadly in my experience. Sounds to me like they needed a scapegoat and your pretty new tort was the easiest to blame...

I am going to quit writing and just let Katherine do it all for me. My thoughts were the same, somebody has poisoned the dogs either on purpose or accidental.

I, would think nothing of bringing this tortoise into my home if my dogs and tortoises ever crossed paths, because I think he is getting a bad rap here.

 

[wellington]

There is a desease called ITP, humans get it, I have it. The spleen destroys the platelets that clots the blood from bleeding out. Even with spleen removed, the desease can still come back. Not much is know about it. Dogs can get it too. Now with humans, the few things that can cause it, alcohol, drugs, chemicals, or anyone's guess. With me, anyone's guess. How dogs get it, well anyone's guess. It is not contagious, so that's out. Chemicals? with the dogs, could be. Did the vets say what the dog had? Without that, it would be hard to say if it could have anything to do with the torts or even the other dog dying. It's to bad though anyway

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

Nice looking tortoise!

 

[l0velesly]

Big Boy looks great! How could they blame it on him

 

[Tom]

Like Katherine said, rat poison. Have them do a toxicology report specifically looking for warfarin. It's is possible that a rat on a neighbors property ingested the poison, came over to the dog's property while dying, and was eaten by the dogs. They should ask neighbors if anyone has been dealing with a rat problem lately.

For several years my dogs would go into the tortoise pen and clean up all the poop for me. "Extra roughage." I literally did not pick up any poop from three sulcatas from 2002 to 2008. One of my 90 pound dogs would crawl on his belly into the tortoise night house through the door flaps when the tortoises were out in the yard and he'd keep the tortoise house clean. I too cannot think of any tortoise disease from a captive bred tortoise that would infect a dog and cause them that problem. I'd love to learn something new, if that were the case.

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He's a gorgeous tortoise Yvonne. One day I will be able to take in unwanted ones like him...

 

[Laura]

rat poison or weird auto immume.. bad dog diets.. crappy treats made in China.. cause issues with dogs.. ( that whole recent recall of dog food)
rat poison can be placed out of the dogs way.. and carried and drop by the rats .
Sorry for the loss of thier dogs.. but i dont think it was the torts doing..

 

[dmarcus]

Not sure about the sulcata causing health problems with the dogs but that is a good looking tortoise....

 

[jojodesca]

I'm no expert but... why would you let your dogs eat tortoise poop?...that makes no sense to me... shouldn't the owners be out picking up poop, especially in a communal back yard?..anyway glad you got the tort, and sad about their dogs.....

 

[Tom]

They just did it. Doesn't hurt them. Doesn't hurt the torts. I actually think the extra fiber was good for them, or at least not harmful. Sure saved me a lot of work...

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By the way, the tortoises did not have access to the dog poo. The wall was just low enough for the dogs to jump into the tortoise pen. I have Malinois and a Dutch Shepard. They can easily hop 8' fences.

And as a disclaimer, I'm a career professional animal/dog trainer and the dogs were ALLOWED supervised access to the tortoise pen. They were not just running around loose together all the time.

 

[Livingstone]

Congrats, and either way the vet did you a favor.

 

[Yvonne G]

Congrats, and either way the vet did you a favor.

Not really...I had to do some quick rearranging to be able to fit him in. I now have 3 male sulcatas on the property. That's quite a few too many heated pens to have to come up with for a small rescue operation.

 

[cemmons12]

Good looking sully!