HELP! How To De-Oil a Rescued Tortoise??

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Baku Steve

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Newbie post:

My wife and I found a 9-inch shell Spur Tighed Tortoise yesterday while driving through an old Soviet era oilfield in Northern Azerbaijan.

It is very oily indeed, and has probably walked beneath a leaking oil well or dripping nodding donkey because it has lots of crude oil on its shell but (luckily I guess) relatively little on its legs head or underside.

So I brought it home to try to clean it up. The question is how? I was going to use an old tooth brush and some dishwashing liquid. Do you guys (the experts!) have any tips or ideas?

Cheers
Steve
 

Itort

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You are doing the prefered method for cleaning an oiled animal. Just wash, scrub with cloth and toothbrush and then rinse. Do this until clean. Just keep soap away from eyes.
 

Baku Steve

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Thanks Larry,

I'll post some "before and after" pictures.

No idea how long it's been oiled for, or how much oil has been ingested, I just hope not too long.

Steve


Itort said:
You are doing the prefered method for cleaning an oiled animal. Just wash, scrub with cloth and toothbrush and then rinse. Do this until clean. Just keep soap away from eyes.
 

Itort

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Steve, a question to satisfy my curiosity. What is it like there ie: weather, terrion, vegetation, ect in other words, what is the habitat? Everthing we get on these guys is second hand.
 

Jacqui

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Lucky for him the two of you spotted him and are the kind to take action. I too, am interested in your answer to the above questions about your little part of the world. :)
 

Yvonne G

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If you can buy Baby Shampoo, that would be my choice. Baby shampoo doesn't burn the eyes if you should happen to get it in his face. I would put some baby shampoo in a dish pan of water, let the tortoise soak in it for a few minutes, then use a soft bristle brush to scrub the tortoise. Not sure what that would do to his insides if he drinks it, though.

Yvonne
 

Baku Steve

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Thanks for all your tips guys,

I will try Baby shampoo first then if that doesn't work I'll go with the dish washing liquid.

The area where we found the tortoise (named Nefti by the way from the Azeri word for oil, Neft) was the Siyazan Oil Field, Azerbaijan. It's pretty flat, semi-arid grassland, with terrible clayey soils. Temp range would be (Celcius) 40+ in the summer to maybe 0 in winter. I'll send some pics from home tonight. Here's a snaphot from Google Earth - we found Nefti close to the town of Gilgilchai.

I'll also send pics of the washing process which I'm going to attempt to do after work today.

The last two nights Nefti's been roaming around our garden. I read that oiled animals can be really dehydrated so he's been having lots of soaks in a big saucer of warm water.

Spur Thighed Tortoises are pretty common around the capital Baku and lots of people have semi-wild ones living in their gardens.

Cheers
Steve
 

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Itort

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The dish soap method is commonly used for oilspill rescues for marine birds and mammals so I feel it is appropriate for a tortoise. Your description of your area is very helpful to us, it gives us a first hand idea of what these guys natural habitat is like.
 

Yvonne G

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Itort said:
The dish soap method is commonly used for oilspill rescues for marine birds and mammals so I feel it is appropriate for a tortoise. Your description of your area is very helpful to us, it gives us a first hand idea of what these guys natural habitat is like.

That's right! According to the Dawn dishwashing liquid commercial, its Dawn that they use on oil soaked birds.

Yvonne
 

Itort

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In approximately 10 years of showing cats, we use Dawn as the first shampoo in bathing cats for show. It works well in degreasing coats (particully stud toms) and we've had no ill effects from its use. I feel it should work well in case also. Is Dawn available there ?
 

Redfoot NERD

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If you can buy Baby Shampoo, that would be my choice. Baby shampoo doesn't burn the eyes if you should happen to get it in his face. I would put some baby shampoo in a dish pan of water, let the tortoise soak in it for a few minutes, then use a soft bristle brush to scrub the tortoise. Not sure what that would do to his insides if he drinks it, though.

Yvonne

All baby shampoo does is "deadens" the nerves [ with a chemical ] so the chemicals in the shampoo don't irritate the eyes, etc.! Source: a 'hairdresser' friend of mine.

nerd
 

Baku Steve

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STATUS UPDATE:

After an hour with a soft plastic brush, a writhing tortoise (strong aren't they?) and many tubs of warm water with fairy liquid, Nefti now has a clean shell (top and bottom)! Woohoo!.

Head, neck, legs and tail ( the soft bits) are black and repel water which means they are oily too, but it's very difficult indeed to get to them. Hopefully time will repair - shedding skin etc.

He (I think it's a he) has crack in his shell which I could see pink through. What do I need to do about that?

Some pics attached of the oilfield where we found him and Nefti himself before the wash. Post-wast photos to follow.

Thanks for all your help
Steve
 

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Yvonne G

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Poor Nefti!! However, it looks like his shell got the most of the oil. In the pics the legs don't look too bad. I can't imagine how hot that must have made the tortoise (having all that oil and dirt stuck on him).

Yvonne
 

Baku Steve

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Had a good long look at Nefti this morning. He's much easier to handle now that his shell is clean.

2 new questions:

1. The leading edges of all 4 legs are pretty clean, but the backs of legs and his "armpits" - right under the shell if you know what I mean - are still very oily, and so is his tail. Do you think I should try to get the oil off his soft skin and armpits? I'd have to hold his leg out, then use cotton buds soaked in petrol (gasoline) I think, then rinse with fairy liquid, then rinse with water. Or should I leave it? I'm worried about his skin's abilty to breathe and absorb water, but I don't want to stress him out.

2. He has damage to his shell, including one crack which I could see pink through. Any action required? Now the oil is off his shell and the sun can get to it hopefully the shell will repair itself?

Thanks as ever guys
Steve
PS clean Nefti pics to come when I download from camera.
 

K9KidsLove

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I definitely would NOT use gasoline on his soft flesh. It would burn him. I would use dish soap, like Dawn, with a good degreaser in it and a soft brush. Just don't brush against his scales. Can't wait to see the "real" Nefti.
Good luck
Patsy
 

Baku Steve

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Thanks Patsy,

Tried dish soap and basically it only works when accopanied by very vigorous scrubbing. On his shell it took 1 hour of vigourous scrubbing with a nail brush and dish soap to get the oil off.

Obviously I can't brush his skin vigorously.

Azeri light sweet crude is what he's covered in, and this already contains volatile fractions similiar to gasoline (I know this, I work for BP!). The crude oil is irritating his skin already. I could use a few drops of WD40 on a cotton bud and in a few minutes remove the crude, then rinse off the WD40 with dish soap and then clean water.

I'll let you know how I go.

Steve

Crude THis , so (
K9KidsLove said:
I definitely would NOT use gasoline on his soft flesh. It would burn him. I would use dish soap, like Dawn, with a good degreaser in it and a soft brush. Just don't brush against his scales. Can't wait to see the "real" Nefti.
Good luck
Patsy
 

Baku Steve

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Hi folks,

GOOD NEWS: The WD40 worked a treat and Nefti is now free from pretty well all visible oil!

A couple of other questions now crop up, re milky urine and his cracked shell - I'll start new threads for those.

Steve
 

Rosiee

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i think its such a fantastic thing your doing i would love to be able to rescue tortoises but i wouln't no where to find them let alone where to start
 

Jentortmom

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It's great you were able to find him and get him all cleaned up (poor thing). The milky urine is called urates and that is normal (white watery paste), as for the cracked shell, post a pic so we can look at it. Good Job!!
 
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