20 year old not passing his food

[Mortise]

Hello,
I have had my buddy mortise, a California Desert Tortoise who was adopted by my family from a local advocacy group, for 20+ years since he was a baby. 2 years ago, his shell was chewed a bit by our new puppy, very devastating, but after a year of being in a cast he had recovered fine.

The day we went to the vet to have the cast removed, the vet negligently sliced his shell with the cast remover, drawing blood. Mortise hasn't been able to walk properly and hasn't passed any stool or urine since he had the cast on. At first, I thought a nerve may have been cut preventing him from walking, but he has feeling and good movement/resistance in his legs.

It appears that he is ULTRA constipated from all of this trauma. How can I get him to pass stool/urine normally and hopefully get to walking regularly again? I have tried vet prescribed laxatives and warm baths, to no avail.

PLEASE HELP! Thanks!

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi mortise and welcome to the Forum!

What I would do is to clean out the bath tub real good and be sure to rinse out any soap residue. Then add enough warm water so it comes up to the middle of the tortoise's sides. Walking around in the warm water in the tub, trying to escape, will cause the tortoise to move its bowels.

I don't know what happened at the vet, or how the tortoise was wrapped up, but my gut instinct is that the tortoise should not have been wrapped up in the first place. Can we see a picture of the tortoise and the injury?

Feeding her fruit or canned pumpkin, or parts off an aloe plant will also cause the stool to loosen up.

 

[ascott]

How was he eliminating waste while wearing the shell cast? I bet he feels super weird without the cast, especially if he has been lugging it around for a year now????