Another rescue with a shell wound

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lvstorts

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gieseygirly said:
Oh my, I've never seen a shell that bad. It's horrible someone could leave him to get that bad.

It's great that he seems to recovering; especially being alert and responsive this morning! Best of luck in recovery "Sargeant Slaughter" ;)

I'm not sure I can call him Sargeant Slaughter! It sounds brutal! I've been thinking about Plumley. Basil Plumley was a bad a$$ command seargent major. Featured in a book called We Were Solderies Once and Young - fantastic -
 

kanalomele

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lvstorts said:
kanalomele said:
So sorry this guy has had such a rough go of it.
Sandy where are you? Do you work in a vets office? I am always interested in rescue/rehabilitation techniques. I am currently trying a few things that are new to me. Using sugar bandages on wounds and banana peel extract to promote healing and soothe. Its always challenging when I get in a new rescue.

lvstorts here: I find this book to be a God-send - Health Care and Rehabilitation of Turtles and Tortoises by Amanda Ebenhack. Highly recommend it.

Oh yes I have this book as well. It is an excellent resource for anyone who does rescue work.
 

lvstorts

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Day #4 update:
Plumley, yes, I decided to call him Plumley (see previous post as to why, sorry Sargent Slaughter!) is doing guardedly well.

After wound cleaning last night where there was still no maggots or blood discharge I let him walk around the grass. He walked for a couple feet and got tired. Eyes bright and interested the entire time.

I tried dandelions yesterday and he didn't touch those.

This morning he was awake and had been moving around his hospital enclosure. I'm going to set him up a little enclosure in the grass today and offer him everything I can think of and hopefully get him eating!

Thanks for the replies and questions on how he's doing!
 

Yvonne G

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Hi Terese:

Try offering him some Spring Mix. Its a packaged lettuce made up of a nice variety of baby greens. Just pull out most of the spinach.

Good luck with Plumley.
 

Sulcata_Sandy

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Terese, do you need any hospital supplies? I can get a lot of that free or at clinic cost and mail them to you.
Anything you can think of that you need medically, just list it off and I will do what I can and send him a care package.


Sandy
Oregon Tortoise Rescue
 

lvstorts

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Sandy, that would be great!
Gauze pads in the 2x2 size and the adhesive wrap that sticks to itself would be great if you have any. I'll be going through a lot of it!

I can save you the postage if you want to connect with my pet sitter who will be at the dog show at the end of the month.

Thanks again for help!
 

Sulcata_Sandy

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It's up to you. If you need it now I will ship early next week. If you can wait, I will bring it to Richland Kennel Club shows

Tell me what helps you the most and I will make it happen.
I can't do free 2x2, but I can get you other sizes of gauze, lap sponges and surgical towels.


Sent from my iPhone using TortForum mobile app
 

lvstorts

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RE: Another rescue with a shell wound **updated with pics**

Hi all,
As promised, more picts are here!

He's suffered a lot of damage over the years. Most of his injuries are very old. Aside from the drill hole of course! He's getting feistier by the day! He ran around the grass for 30 minutes yesterday.

Still can't get him to eat. Any thoughts? I've tried Spring Mix, dandielines, clover, mallow, rose pettals, daisys (white and yellow), strawberry, mango, bananna, every flower in my yard I can find. I'm aware some of these foods are not in the Russian proper diet but I have to figure out what he'll eat and go from there.

My curiosity lies with the last picture. The patchwork of 'patches' make it look like it was shattered at one time. Any thoughts?
Plumley front view.jpgPlumley full plastron.jpgPlumley plastron damage.jpgPlumley top view.jpgPlumley top_bottom damage.jpg
 
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Masin

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Keep us posted! We just moved to North Fl and have seen 150 gopher tortoises come into the clinic, amazing. Most have not been able to pull through (mostly cars running them over) but some have. Hope this little makes it through and we get some happy updates!!
 

Sulcata_Sandy

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When I first rescued my Sulcata with a mangled beak, I force fed him the Oxbow Critical Care diet.
He's going to hate you, but he obviously needs to calories and nutrition to heal.
If you don't have it, just use the Mazuri and syringe that. I'm kinda rude, I just open mouth and poke syringe almost halfway down and squish!


Sandy
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ILoveTortoises2

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SenjiSandy said:
When I first rescued my Sulcata with a mangled beak, I force fed him the Oxbow Critical Care diet.
He's going to hate you, but he obviously needs to calories and nutrition to heal.
If you don't have it, just use the Mazuri and syringe that. I'm kinda rude, I just open mouth and poke syringe almost halfway down and squish!


Sandy
Oregon Tortoise Rescue

I don't think it's rude. They need to be feed and if that is the only way them you gotta do it to get them to eat some how. Poor little guy I hope he gets better soon. Will his shell ever look like it is supposed to or is the damages to bad?
 

lvstorts

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I'm very aware I may have to force feed him or tube feed him. Due to his weight being so good, I'm not panicking yet. He spent the day in the sun and was active as any other tort I have.
 

EKLC

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We have seen some weird plastron peeling like that in our gophers, and the vets were unable to diagnose it. Some weird fungal thing.

Is he on antibiotics now?



Masin said:
Keep us posted! We just moved to North Fl and have seen 150 gopher tortoises come into the clinic, amazing. Most have not been able to pull through (mostly cars running them over) but some have. Hope this little makes it through and we get some happy updates!!

Are you near the gainesville area? I help rescue gophers around there
 

Masin

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Close! Tallahassee :) I miss Gainesville, when we were there it was for Vet school so she didn't see much of anything else, then we moved south and saw randomness of south Fl (toad toxicity with dogs seemed to be a theme, and gun shots) Tallahassee has been snake bites and gopher torts. I had never seen one up close! Exciting!



EKLC said:
We have seen some weird plastron peeling like that in our gophers, and the vets were unable to diagnose it. Some weird fungal thing.

Is he on antibiotics now?



Masin said:
Keep us posted! We just moved to North Fl and have seen 150 gopher tortoises come into the clinic, amazing. Most have not been able to pull through (mostly cars running them over) but some have. Hope this little makes it through and we get some happy updates!!

Are you near the gainesville area? I help rescue gophers around there
 

Sulcata_Sandy

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lvstorts said:
I'm very aware I may have to force feed him or tube feed him. Due to his weight being so good, I'm not panicking yet. He spent the day in the sun and was active as any other tort I have.

I figured you would be. [GRINNING FACE WITH SMILING EYES] So far I've been very impressed with your work. Wanna job? LOL
Just trying to be helpful. In my business, we all would rather be told "yep, I'm on it", than not say anything and something simple and obvious get missed because of stress, busy, etc etc.
Animals come first, egos come last. HAHAHAHAAH. Gotta mind someone of that this week, ugh.



Let me know what you'd like in your care package. I can send a few ounces of Critical Care diet if needed as well.
I'm putting your box together this week.

Give him a pet from me. He's in my prayers....seems the list gets longer and longer!




Sandy
Oregon Tortoise Rescue
 

Sulcata_Sandy

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Terese, I am beginning to collect non-sterile but clean gauze for you. If you need sterile I can run some thru the autoclave and make you little packs. Otherwise it's clean and totally useful for bandaging.

Prob can get Cohesive bandage material...it's $1.60 a roll at wholesale, but I have something else that will probably work and is free and reusable. [GRINNING FACE WITH SMILING EYES]

Anything else you need? Betadine? Hibiclense?
I'm collecting random supplies as well that I think you could use.
 
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