help needed from philippines (stones?)

[Tortoise Princess]

hello there.yesterday i went to have my sulcata xrayed as i saw him passed a large solid urate.good thing its not too hard and you can crush it easily.anyway no stones in the xray but got a mighty shock when we saw a safety pin.surgery is uncommon here in philippines. what other less invasive methods can i try?right now,my sulcata is doing fine.appetite is a big as ever,poops and pees normal.pls any suggestions or help are welcome

 

[dmmj]

it's hard for me to tell from the picture but is the safety pin open or closed?

 

[wellington]

I can't see it either and dmmj asked the question I was going to ask. If it's closed, I would leave it alone and go about your normal routine with him. If it's open, then I would suggest surgery ASAP.

 

[Tortoise Princess]

its open

 

[dmmj]

then in that case I would go for the surgery there is far too much risk of perforation of the intestines which will cause infection and eventual death.

 

[Yvonne G]

It looks like its closed to me. The head is bent a little, but it's closed. It will pass on its own. Be sure to feed the tortoise slippery food like aloe, okra, etc. and lots and lots of water.

 

[Speedy-1]

I see it , it looks closed to me also . I believe I would also let him try to pass it !

 

[Pearly]

It looks like its closed to me. The head is bent a little, but it's closed. It will pass on its own. Be sure to feed the tortoise slippery food like aloe, okra, etc. and lots and lots of water.

Agree with Yvonne. Try to keep her gut lubricated and pray that it passes

 

[RayRay]

zoom in it is clearly open

 

[Tortoise Princess]

Hi folks, apologies for the late reply. Got x-ray last Sunday and the pin is no longer found!...must have been pooped already though my tortoise keeper wasn't able to find it. I would just have to trust that my tort pooped somewhere and/or my keeper did not inspect his pooped clearly.

 

[Yvonne G]

Small gauge wire like that's made out of disintegrates rather quickly in the gastric acids. One of my Aldabran tortoises had a piece of wire inside him on X-ray and the vet wasn't worried about it for the above reason.