4.5 year old leopard tortoise took a fall and is struggling to use back legs.

[Gertrude24]

My 4.5 year old leopard tortoise took a fall and is struggling to use its back legs. I have taken it to an emergency vet who did X-rays and thinks she got hurt but should recover. Obviously we are going to get her into an exotics vet as soon as possible but this isn’t going to happen for a few days. I’m including x-rays if anyone has any input/advise that would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Gertrude24]

Just wanted to add still eating normally and still is active with front legs and head. They said it has a couple deposits inside probably the colon but they didn’t think that was causing any trouble.

 

[wellington]

I would give her a few days to rest and do her own thing. Then I would do hydrotherapy on her. Fill tub with water deep enough she has to swim and warm. Do this daily, but for short times at first. Do not leave her unattended and help her stay afloat if needed. Let her swim back and forth a couple times and let her rest a minute and then have her swim again back and forth and so in. Like three laps back and forth to begin with.
As she seems to improve, you can do it a little longer each day.
Good luck with her and be sure to fix whatever made her fall. If it was carrying her, use a reusable shopping back from now on.
If she was roaming the floors of your house, build her an appropriate enclosure, they should not be allowed to roam your floors.

 

[Gertrude24]

I would give her a few days to rest and do her own thing. Then I would do hydrotherapy on her. Fill tub with water deep enough she has to swim and warm. Do this daily, but for short times at first. Do not leave her unattended and help her stay afloat if needed. Let her swim back and forth a couple times and let her rest a minute and then have her swim again back and forth and so in. Like three laps back and forth to begin with.
As she seems to improve, you can do it a little longer each day.
Good luck with her and be sure to fix whatever made her fall. If it was carrying her, use a reusable shopping back from now on.
If she was roaming the floors of your house, build her an appropriate enclosure, they should not be allowed to roam your floors.

Thanks for the reply, yes we have been doing warm soaks everyday and things have seemed to be getting marginally better everyday. The emergency vet gave him some pain meds yesterday and sent us home with a weeks worth of meloxicam. the fall was caused by climbing up over an area of the enclosure we thought to be way out of reach and sneaking out a small gap to get to the floor. We have since reinforced the entire enclosure to ensure nothing like this ever happen again.

 

[wellington]

Thanks for the reply, yes we have been doing warm soaks everyday and things have seemed to be getting marginally better everyday. The emergency vet gave him some pain meds yesterday and sent us home with a weeks worth of meloxicam. the fall was caused by climbing up over an area of the enclosure we thought to be way out of reach and sneaking out a small gap to get to the floor. We have since reinforced the entire enclosure to ensure nothing like this ever happen again.

Don't just give him soaks. He needs to swim.

 

[Gertrude24]

Also don’t know if it matters for anything but it’s actually a male, we gave him a female name and thought it was maybe a female when it was very young but now that’s it’s older it’s obviously a male but I had been so used to calling it a female for a while I still slip up sometimes.