Gandalf the Turtle
New Member
Hello everyone,
Today I took my Hermann's tortoise to the vet for the third time.
The vet pulled her legs apart and poked her with a stick, and spent 10 minutes trying to get a cotton wad into her mouth and had to resort to careful aggression. After finishing the daunting task, she was already very stressed and walked so quickly across the examination table that it almost looked like she was galloping. The vet then proceeded to put the cotton part of a cotton wad up her cloaca and turned it side to side.
It looked painful but the doctor said it was standard procedure, and he doesn't seem like a hateful doctor so I took his word for it. My tortoise had gone through this procedure twice before.
My tortoise has opened up to me lately, and ever since the examination a couple of hours ago she's been afraid of any noise or shadow near her. I gave her a strawberry but after eating it she was afraid of me again.
My question is will she calm down within a few days? How can I relax her in situations like these? Should I avoid going to the doctor? I go to the doctor to do a checkup like this every half a year to make sure she's healthy because she has had issues with worms in the past.
Thank you for all your answers
Today I took my Hermann's tortoise to the vet for the third time.
The vet pulled her legs apart and poked her with a stick, and spent 10 minutes trying to get a cotton wad into her mouth and had to resort to careful aggression. After finishing the daunting task, she was already very stressed and walked so quickly across the examination table that it almost looked like she was galloping. The vet then proceeded to put the cotton part of a cotton wad up her cloaca and turned it side to side.
It looked painful but the doctor said it was standard procedure, and he doesn't seem like a hateful doctor so I took his word for it. My tortoise had gone through this procedure twice before.
My tortoise has opened up to me lately, and ever since the examination a couple of hours ago she's been afraid of any noise or shadow near her. I gave her a strawberry but after eating it she was afraid of me again.
My question is will she calm down within a few days? How can I relax her in situations like these? Should I avoid going to the doctor? I go to the doctor to do a checkup like this every half a year to make sure she's healthy because she has had issues with worms in the past.
Thank you for all your answers