Sulcata Bladder Stone Surgery

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DozerCooley

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Update on Dozer: She was dropped off for surgery at Cornell University Animal Hospital at 8:00am. She will be having her bladder stone removed and her back scute cut down. The vet did tell us today that her blood cultures came back from her blood draw last week indicating that she was indeed slightly septic. So the red lines they noticed did indicate sepsis. Please keep her in your thoughts today as she can use all the positive energy she can get. Thanks!!
 

Miscally

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Update on Dozer: She was dropped off for surgery at Cornell University Animal Hospital at 8:00am. She will be having her bladder stone removed and her back scute cut down. The vet did tell us today that her blood cultures came back from her blood draw last week indicating that she was indeed slightly septic. So the red lines they noticed did indicate sepsis. Please keep her in your thoughts today as she can use all the positive energy she can get. Thanks!!
Thoughts and prayers with you both.
 

Kapidolo Farms

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Oxalates are said to cause stones in humans. If they don't cause stones in tortoises, are there any other problems with feeding tortoises oxalates?

So - nobody feeds 'oxalates' as a stand alone compound.

Oxalates are a secondary compound (sometimes called an 'anti-nutrient') that the plant produces with the effect of reducing palatablity or being eaten.

1) calcium levels in some foods are overstated in terms of "available" calcium, as the calcium may already be bound to oxalates, and less or not at all available for absorption by the animal. The 'anti-nutrient' quality of it. In other words they, eat it and poop it out, no or little chance for the animal to absorb the calcium.

2) oxalates do perform some nutrient values in humans as well as having the potential to cause stones. Balance and amount are not sorted out as best as I have found in any literature. In tortoises they would seem to simply reduce the availability of calcium from absorption.

3) as best as I can tell from my limited reading a vast majority of oxalates in plants is already bound to calcium, it's not 'free' in the plant tissue.

Some interesting anecdotes, people who work in commercial cactus pad production, aside from getting prickles in their hands, also get 'rashes' from all the oxalate crystals wearing down their skin. Its is called a raphide rash.

Asian forest tortoises, Manouria species, consume many plants high in raphids with no apparent ill effects. I don't keep sulcata and have not read that much of their natural history, so I don't know what their encounter rate might be for plants they eat and what the oxalate level is. However arid community plants tend to have a higher concentration than most, to make them unpalatable for herbivores.
 

DozerCooley

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Just got the update call: Everything went as smoothly as possible and the stone is finally removed! They ended up having to cut an entire piece of her shell out to remove the stone due to its size. She is now "pieced back together with plates" and it sounds like she's going to be one bad-*** looking bionic tortoise. She still has a long way to go to fully recover from this and the next step is waiting to see how she comes out of anesthesia. Thanks for all the support and please keep her in your thoughts! IMG_1854.JPG thumbnail_IMG_1855.jpg
 

TriciaStringer

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Just got the update call: Everything went as smoothly as possible and the stone is finally removed! They ended up having to cut an entire piece of her shell out to remove the stone due to its size. She is now "pieced back together with plates" and it sounds like she's going to be one bad-*** looking bionic tortoise. She still has a long way to go to fully recover from this and the next step is waiting to see how she comes out of anesthesia. Thanks for all the support and please keep her in your thoughts! View attachment 261909 View attachment 261910
I’ve been thinking about her all day. Glad to hear it went well. Let us know often how she is doing.
 

Yvonne G

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Just got the update call: Everything went as smoothly as possible and the stone is finally removed! They ended up having to cut an entire piece of her shell out to remove the stone due to its size. She is now "pieced back together with plates" and it sounds like she's going to be one bad-*** looking bionic tortoise. She still has a long way to go to fully recover from this and the next step is waiting to see how she comes out of anesthesia. Thanks for all the support and please keep her in your thoughts! View attachment 261909 View attachment 261910
OMG!!! That stone was HUGE compared to the size of the tortoise. Poor baby! Let us know after testing what the composition was.
 

Big Charlie

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Just got the update call: Everything went as smoothly as possible and the stone is finally removed! They ended up having to cut an entire piece of her shell out to remove the stone due to its size. She is now "pieced back together with plates" and it sounds like she's going to be one bad-*** looking bionic tortoise. She still has a long way to go to fully recover from this and the next step is waiting to see how she comes out of anesthesia. Thanks for all the support and please keep her in your thoughts! View attachment 261909 View attachment 261910
I'm so happy at the good news!
 

Ray--Opo

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Wow that's an unbelievably huge stone. That would make a human uncomfortable.
Well my hats off to you for giving Dozer such great care.
I will keep on praying for you all.
 

DozerCooley

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Update from our vet this morning: She is doing well, still pretty groggy from the anesthesia and had a little leakage from her incision so they changed her bandages. They still think she is on track to come home later tonight but we will know more as the day goes on. I'm very anxious about bringing her home too early before all of the anesthesia has had time to wear off. Thanks for keeping her in your thoughts everyone! It means so much to us!
 
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