Hi

[vogonsrock]

Hello, I joined yesterday so thought I should introduce myself.

I'm Julie, married with 2 children 4 cats, a dog, a tortoise (herman) a rat and a hamster. We've had our tortoise for 39 years, but she was fully grown when we got her. She's not too well at the moment, so I thought this would be a great place to look for any info, and perhaps meet some new friends

 

[dmarcus]

Hello Julie and welcome to the forum..

 

[vogonsrock]

Thank you for the welcome dalano73

 

[missmoofi]

Hi Julie and sounds like you have lots of fun with your 'critter-crowd' Im new here and a new Hermann owner LuLu, she is so cute we are so pleased to have her. So I'm just learning everything about them so dont know much about illness etc, hope yours is better soon, what wrong with her ?
Welcome to the site, you'll love it here

 

[vogonsrock]

Hi missmoofi , We do have lots of fun not to mention a few scrapes with our 'critter crowd'. I'm sure you will have a lifetime of love and fun with your new LuLu. Georgina has given us so much companionship she knows her name, and seems to have a craving for a different food every summer. She's been quite an adventurer in her time, she found a few ways out of our garden in the early days, some of them involving a fair bit of climbing! Luckily we have good neighbours who would alert us to her trundling down the pavement on her travels. Also luckily we found all her escape routes pretty quickly and blocked them off Is LuLu a baby herman? the little ones are adorable aren't they.

We noticed what looked like a lump on the side of her neck a few days ago, we bathed it with tepid water including bicarbonate of soda as we thought it might have been a bee sting. When we realised it wasn't going down we took her to a vet, it's been recommended we take her to a specialist 70 miles away, but at the moment we really cant afford to. The vet doesn't hold out much hope for her, she's had X-rays etc and they've told us her kidneys are failing, and they think her lungs and heart too :-( so even if she saw a specialist they don't think anything could be done. We're giving her a couple of days at the vets, who is keeping her warm, hydrated and giving anti-biotics, while we try and raise the money for a specialist - depending if the vet decides there is hope after all.

Sorry to ramble on!

 

[missmoofi]

Hi missmoofi , We do have lots of fun not to mention a few scrapes with our 'critter crowd'. I'm sure you will have a lifetime of love and fun with your new LuLu. Georgina has given us so much companionship she knows her name, and seems to have a craving for a different food every summer. She's been quite an adventurer in her time, she found a few ways out of our garden in the early days, some of them involving a fair bit of climbing! Luckily we have good neighbours who would alert us to her trundling down the pavement on her travels. Also luckily we found all her escape routes pretty quickly and blocked them off Is LuLu a baby herman? the little ones are adorable aren't they.

We noticed what looked like a lump on the side of her neck a few days ago, we bathed it with tepid water including bicarbonate of soda as we thought it might have been a bee sting. When we realised it wasn't going down we took her to a vet, it's been recommended we take her to a specialist 70 miles away, but at the moment we really cant afford to. The vet doesn't hold out much hope for her, she's had X-rays etc and they've told us her kidneys are failing, and they think her lungs and heart too :-( so even if she saw a specialist they don't think anything could be done. We're giving her a couple of days at the vets, who is keeping her warm, hydrated and giving anti-biotics, while we try and raise the money for a specialist - depending if the vet decides there is hope after all.

Sorry to ramble on!

Oh my bless the sweet girl, Im sending lots of good vibes for Georgina and hope things get better for her, Im sure the vet will advise the best, those times are so hard.
My name is Annie and I also have 3 kitties, all rescues over the years, Dino is my eldest boy rescued in the UK from a farm who was going to drown him BOO HISS !!! and he is such a mummies boy, he's with me now he cant bear not to be, hes 18 so I think he knows his mind now hehe
I have Miss Moofi, hence my user name, she is my youngest a rescue he in Spain, she was found in the pouring rain hundled under a car, she is such a darling, she doesnt meow she has a twirl which is soooo cute to hear !! our lastest addition is Tink as big black tom, who descended on us one day and been here ever since. We took photos to all the vets and posted them in bars etc, but no one claimed him, weird really as he was very socialised when he arrived....he's a naughty boy though, he bullies Miss Moofi and Dino is very jealous of him so its fun and games most days in our house.........and now the addition of LuLu..I dont know how old she is, they are wild where we live and some people dont want them in their gardens, so thats how we have acquired her..and happy to have her, so Im learning lots and posting lots too *blush*
well I hope you get positive news about Georgina - keep us posted...ps a hug for you too !!

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Julie:

Welcome to the forum!!

May we know where you are?

I really hate to disagree with your vet, especially since I haven't even seen a picture of your tortoise, but...

Usually a lump on the side of a tortoise/turtle's neck is merely a timpanic abscess. It just needs lancing. No big deal.

How does he know that all of those organs are failing just from looking at an X-ray? I think you need a second opinion.

 

[wrmitchell22]

Welcome to the forum! I hope your herman pulls through and I hope Yvonne is right. It does seem curious to come up with that from an x-ray, did the vet take blood or anything?

 

[Jacqui]

Sorta mixed feelings right now. Of course I am very happy you have joined us, sad at what your going thru, and like Yvonne curious how the Vet came up with his/her diagnosis. *hugs for both of you* Looks like you have quite the group of critters at your place.

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

Welcome.

 

[Fernando]

Hi Julie! Welcome to TFO!

 

[vogonsrock]

Hi everyone thank you for all of your lovely concerned replies. I'm from a little village in Wales uk.

The vet did do other tests apart from the X-ray, she has taken blood and a some other procedures (I'm sorry I can't name them as my mother took her for the first visit as I couldn't get out of an appointment) I'll have to check with the vet for more precise details. The abscess was my first thought too, though I didn't know a specific name, I'll mention checking for a 'timpanic abscess' (thank you yvonne). She (the vet) did say that Georgie's legs were also swollen and she was unable to withdraw them properly which she felt indicated excess water in her tissues. I don't have current pictures of my girl - since she became ill - :-( as she is still at the vets. She has had a wee today, which the vet says is a good sign, and she is being given baths in tepid water. Our vet has spoken to a specialist and thinks she may pull through but will need lots of extra care, what that extra care is we don't know yet. Hoping to speak to the vet again tomorrow

---

Hi missmoofi , We do have lots of fun not to mention a few scrapes with our 'critter crowd'. I'm sure you will have a lifetime of love and fun with your new LuLu. Georgina has given us so much companionship she knows her name, and seems to have a craving for a different food every summer. She's been quite an adventurer in her time, she found a few ways out of our garden in the early days, some of them involving a fair bit of climbing! Luckily we have good neighbours who would alert us to her trundling down the pavement on her travels. Also luckily we found all her escape routes pretty quickly and blocked them off Is LuLu a baby herman? the little ones are adorable aren't they.

We noticed what looked like a lump on the side of her neck a few days ago, we bathed it with tepid water including bicarbonate of soda as we thought it might have been a bee sting. When we realised it wasn't going down we took her to a vet, it's been recommended we take her to a specialist 70 miles away, but at the moment we really cant afford to. The vet doesn't hold out much hope for her, she's had X-rays etc and they've told us her kidneys are failing, and they think her lungs and heart too :-( so even if she saw a specialist they don't think anything could be done. We're giving her a couple of days at the vets, who is keeping her warm, hydrated and giving anti-biotics, while we try and raise the money for a specialist - depending if the vet decides there is hope after all.

Sorry to ramble on!

Oh my bless the sweet girl, Im sending lots of good vibes for Georgina and hope things get better for her, Im sure the vet will advise the best, those times are so hard.
My name is Annie and I also have 3 kitties, all rescues over the years, Dino is my eldest boy rescued in the UK from a farm who was going to drown him BOO HISS !!! and he is such a mummies boy, he's with me now he cant bear not to be, hes 18 so I think he knows his mind now hehe
I have Miss Moofi, hence my user name, she is my youngest a rescue he in Spain, she was found in the pouring rain hundled under a car, she is such a darling, she doesnt meow she has a twirl which is soooo cute to hear !! our lastest addition is Tink as big black tom, who descended on us one day and been here ever since. We took photos to all the vets and posted them in bars etc, but no one claimed him, weird really as he was very socialised when he arrived....he's a naughty boy though, he bullies Miss Moofi and Dino is very jealous of him so its fun and games most days in our house.........and now the addition of LuLu..I dont know how old she is, they are wild where we live and some people dont want them in their gardens, so thats how we have acquired her..and happy to have her, so Im learning lots and posting lots too *blush*
well I hope you get positive news about Georgina - keep us posted...ps a hug for you too !!

Thanks for your name Annie, my middle name is Ann ,

Aww your kittie family sound wonderful, I like the name miss moofi I used to use one of my cat's names as a username too for a long time. She's passed away now at the age of 22. One of my cats was a rescue a pretty black and white long haired lady, I guess the other three are too in a way as she was having kittens when we took her in and kept them. We had two old lady cats (who were also rescues) when we took in Minette who have since passed away, Minettes babies are called Bitw Bach (which is Welsh for teeny tiny, another black and white girl), Jed a handsome great lump of a cat who is all black, he sounds a bit like your Tink , and his black and white brother Barfwr (which is Welsh for Beardie).

Our dog is also a rescue he was dumped at the side of the road in a box with 8 brothers and sisters. We've had him since he was four weeks old as he didn't have a mum to look after him the shelter allowed us to take him home for one to one care. He's a Jack Russell cross, but with what we don't know, it must be something big, he's the size of a labrador!

Our hamster is called Spike, a chocolate brown fluffy boy with tons of personality. Our rat is a wild one that Bitw Bach caught when it was a baby, and I managed to get off her. It's a long story but ratty got out of the box where I'd put her to recover and lived behind our panelling for a year before we caught her. We didn't let her go as she wasn't used to foraging for her own food (I put food and water out for her every night). She lives in a huge 3 story rat cage and has lots of out of cage time, and interaction. We called her Neville, I don't know why we gave her a boys name, she just looked like a Neville for some reason .

It's lovely that you are looking after LuLu, it's a shame others aren't so caring about the animals that live around them

Julie