RE: EMERGENCY WHAT SHOULD I DO
Kayti I am so sorry to hear about your little Sulcata. Do they have any idea why this would happen?
Kayti I am so sorry to hear about your little Sulcata. Do they have any idea why this would happen?
Delaware
- Thread starter Kayti
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RE: EMERGENCY WHAT SHOULD I DO
My thoughts are very much with you.
My thoughts are very much with you.RE: EMERGENCY WHAT SHOULD I DO
That's Veterinarian for "Let's spend a few hundred more dollars before I tell you what you already know".
Sorry for your loss.
Kayti said:
That's Veterinarian for "Let's spend a few hundred more dollars before I tell you what you already know".
Sorry for your loss.
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RE: EMERGENCY WHAT SHOULD I DO
Sorry to hear about Delaware, Kayti.
Sorry to hear about Delaware, Kayti.
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RE: EMERGENCY WHAT SHOULD I DO
I'm saying a prayer for your and Delaware. Keep us posted. Very sorry you're going through this!
I'm saying a prayer for your and Delaware. Keep us posted. Very sorry you're going through this!
RE: EMERGENCY WHAT SHOULD I DO
Thanks everyone. This is really hard. I buried Delaware.
I think Tom is right, I really want to know what went wrong so I or someone can learn from this.
Delaware's Symptoms:
Acute- she was fine at 9:00 am, ate her breakfast, then I got home at 2:30 and she looked dead. She was perched on the side of her water bowl (legs and neck in the air), with all her appendages sticking out as far as they would go, not moving and stiff. The she gasped agonally, (it looked like a drawn out yawn) so I knew she was still alive.
At the vet, the first thing Dr. Poet did was inject her with subcutaneous fluids. I'm not sure exactly what else was done because for some reason he did not bill me for it, but I know he gave her doses of epinephrine twice, and used a needle to release a buildup of air in her body at least three times. He also numbed her leg where he was drawing air from. The buildup of air, and the acute onset, were the primary reasons Dr. Poet suspected she had ruptured a lung. Apparently this can just happen without trauma of any kind. He also said that with a tortoise of this size, liver failure can happen relatively quickly. She stopped showing signs of life at the vet around 6:00 pm.
Things that have changed recently in her enclosure:
Painted with drylock, coated edges with bathroom sealant - poison?
started covering half of it with a glass panel - could have raised temperatures?
new water bowl - made by zoo med, washed, she could get in and out of it easily
tiny little bugs- do not appear to harm/bother the tortoises. look like white dots- from what I've read, they are harmless.
In the past 6 months- she has been changed to a 99% Mazuri diet. Could this have caused acute liver failure?
This is her growth for the last few months:
12.30.09 - 75 g
3.21.10 - 113 g
4.13.10 - 125 g
4.27.10 - 131 g
I always thought she grew slowly for a Sulcata (but I have nothing to compare her to).
I have videos of her walking and eating that I might post too. I think she behaves normally and appears healthy, but I could have missed something.
I don't understand how a tortoise that could seem so perfectly happy and healthy could be dead in 12 hours.
I'm not sure if I would take my tortoise to the vet if I found them in that condition again. Dr. Poet is a great, brilliant vet- but he really couldn't do anything. At least 70% of the things he did was just trying to determine if she was still alive. I basically knew she wasn't going to make it when I found her, and everything that happened at the vet was just horribly traumatizing, and I really hope Delaware was not alive enough to feel any pain. I don't think I could have let her die alone and not tried to give her a chance, though. So, I guess I would go to the vet no matter what. At least she had a chance.
Thanks for all the support, everyone. I think Delaware had a good life, largely in part to the advice I got on this forum.
Thanks everyone. This is really hard. I buried Delaware.
I think Tom is right, I really want to know what went wrong so I or someone can learn from this.
Delaware's Symptoms:
Acute- she was fine at 9:00 am, ate her breakfast, then I got home at 2:30 and she looked dead. She was perched on the side of her water bowl (legs and neck in the air), with all her appendages sticking out as far as they would go, not moving and stiff. The she gasped agonally, (it looked like a drawn out yawn) so I knew she was still alive.
At the vet, the first thing Dr. Poet did was inject her with subcutaneous fluids. I'm not sure exactly what else was done because for some reason he did not bill me for it, but I know he gave her doses of epinephrine twice, and used a needle to release a buildup of air in her body at least three times. He also numbed her leg where he was drawing air from. The buildup of air, and the acute onset, were the primary reasons Dr. Poet suspected she had ruptured a lung. Apparently this can just happen without trauma of any kind. He also said that with a tortoise of this size, liver failure can happen relatively quickly. She stopped showing signs of life at the vet around 6:00 pm.
Things that have changed recently in her enclosure:
Painted with drylock, coated edges with bathroom sealant - poison?
started covering half of it with a glass panel - could have raised temperatures?
new water bowl - made by zoo med, washed, she could get in and out of it easily
tiny little bugs- do not appear to harm/bother the tortoises. look like white dots- from what I've read, they are harmless.
In the past 6 months- she has been changed to a 99% Mazuri diet. Could this have caused acute liver failure?
This is her growth for the last few months:
12.30.09 - 75 g
3.21.10 - 113 g
4.13.10 - 125 g
4.27.10 - 131 g
I always thought she grew slowly for a Sulcata (but I have nothing to compare her to).
I have videos of her walking and eating that I might post too. I think she behaves normally and appears healthy, but I could have missed something.
I don't understand how a tortoise that could seem so perfectly happy and healthy could be dead in 12 hours.
I'm not sure if I would take my tortoise to the vet if I found them in that condition again. Dr. Poet is a great, brilliant vet- but he really couldn't do anything. At least 70% of the things he did was just trying to determine if she was still alive. I basically knew she wasn't going to make it when I found her, and everything that happened at the vet was just horribly traumatizing, and I really hope Delaware was not alive enough to feel any pain. I don't think I could have let her die alone and not tried to give her a chance, though. So, I guess I would go to the vet no matter what. At least she had a chance.
Thanks for all the support, everyone. I think Delaware had a good life, largely in part to the advice I got on this forum.
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RE: EMERGENCY WHAT SHOULD I DO
I'm so sorry about Delaware...Its very kind of you to share, the info with us so that we can learn from such a sad event.
I'm so sorry about Delaware...Its very kind of you to share, the info with us so that we can learn from such a sad event.
RE: EMERGENCY WHAT SHOULD I DO
I think the clue is being perched on the edge of the water dish. It sounds to me like some how she got flipped over in the water dish. She struggled to turn over and in that struggle inhaled water. The more she struggled the more water went in and the less oxygen her brain was getting. She probably had one last heave in her and got flipped over. By that time though her lungs were filled with water with no way to expell it. This would explain the way she was stretched out and why the vet thought she had an exploded lung as they were full of water and not working properly.
I'm sorry the picture painted isn't very nice and not very comforting.
I'm sorry she passed away
Danny
I think the clue is being perched on the edge of the water dish. It sounds to me like some how she got flipped over in the water dish. She struggled to turn over and in that struggle inhaled water. The more she struggled the more water went in and the less oxygen her brain was getting. She probably had one last heave in her and got flipped over. By that time though her lungs were filled with water with no way to expell it. This would explain the way she was stretched out and why the vet thought she had an exploded lung as they were full of water and not working properly.
I'm sorry the picture painted isn't very nice and not very comforting.
I'm sorry she passed away
Danny
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RE: EMERGENCY WHAT SHOULD I DO
I'm so sorry to hear about Delaware, Kayti. No one is prepared for such tragedy. Take good care of yourself.
I'm so sorry to hear about Delaware, Kayti. No one is prepared for such tragedy. Take good care of yourself.
RE: EMERGENCY WHAT SHOULD I DO
So sorry - Danny's scenario sounds the most plausible. I wondered if maybe she had choked. A friend of mine had one choke on a piece of gravel ... Hang in there - we can all feel your loss.
So sorry - Danny's scenario sounds the most plausible. I wondered if maybe she had choked. A friend of mine had one choke on a piece of gravel ...
Hang in there - we can all feel your loss.
RE: EMERGENCY WHAT SHOULD I DO
I'm so sorry about Delaware.
Hang in there!
I'm so sorry about Delaware.
Hang in there!
RE: EMERGENCY WHAT SHOULD I DO
You could be right Danny, except I still think it was something else because her new water bowl was not any deeper than the old one- just wider.
And it wasn't even completely full. It was never deeper than her chin. - I guess she could have wedged herself in there somehow though.
The vet didn't find any water in her lungs- it was only later, when I brought her home, that her whole body seemed to be full of water like a balloon about to burst, and water came out her mouth. I thought it could be water from the fluids the vet gave her.
You could be right Danny, except I still think it was something else because her new water bowl was not any deeper than the old one- just wider.
And it wasn't even completely full. It was never deeper than her chin. - I guess she could have wedged herself in there somehow though.
The vet didn't find any water in her lungs- it was only later, when I brought her home, that her whole body seemed to be full of water like a balloon about to burst, and water came out her mouth. I thought it could be water from the fluids the vet gave her.
RE: EMERGENCY WHAT SHOULD I DO
Kayti~So sorry to hear that Delaware has passed. It is so clear how much you cared about your little tort and it's a hard thing to go through. That's truly tough to try to figure out what it was. I'm sure it's super hard knowing he was fine just a few hours before and wonder what went wrong. So sorry for you loss!
Kayti~So sorry to hear that Delaware has passed. It is so clear how much you cared about your little tort and it's a hard thing to go through. That's truly tough to try to figure out what it was. I'm sure it's super hard knowing he was fine just a few hours before and wonder what went wrong. So sorry for you loss!
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