Injured, rescued sulcata

Sshrum11

New Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2018
Messages
6
Location (City and/or State)
Washington
First I know nothing about sulcata tortoises. I live in the country, only two close neighbors and we know they didn't have a tortoise. But I have a rule with animals. If you end up at my house you get treated like family and you stay.

My son was swathing hay and hit what he and my husband thought was a rock. When my husband went to move the rock he realized it was a tortoise. The shell was badly damaged. We took her to a vet that specializes in exotics she was not his first sulcata. He patched her shell gave her antibiotics and a couple of days later sent her home. We got her to graze and I was feeding her greens. Keeping her a bit confined due to the bad injury. However, she does sleep a lot. It's only been 17 days so was wondering if sleeping a lot might just be due to trying to recover. She also can but won't use her back legs. xrays showed nothing that should be causing that.
She kind of quit eating a day and half ago. I finally offered her three 1" squares of watermelon and she went crazy for them but nothing else. I had also purchased some pellets just for sulcatas so I soaked those and then smashed a little watermelon up with them to try and get her to eat some pellets since she quit eating he greens.
Looking for tips and suggestions and just knowledge. We are headed back to the vet Monday morning.
Thanks for any help you can give me.
My family and I are in love with this little girl. Don't know her age. She is about 10"-12" and badly pyramided as well.

IMG_4898.JPG
 

Maro2Bear

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May 29, 2014
Messages
14,712
Location (City and/or State)
Glenn Dale, Maryland, USA
Welcome...and Yikes! That is one damaged shell, poor guy, too bad it was hit. Do you have a picture of post vet visit?

I’m sure it is very traumatized beyond belief, now injured, confined, being taken to vet and back, etc.

I’m sure @Yvonne G or @deadheadvet will jump in with some additional suggestions.

All kinds of Sully links here..

https://tortoiseforum.org/forums/sulcata-tortoises.88/

Best of luck.
 

Yvonne G

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Hi, and welcome!

Can we see a picture AFTER the vet fixed the damaged shell?

I don't think this is an escaped pet, I think someone dumped it because it was getting too big. I think you're correct about it being female. She has a very short/small gular, like in females.

An injury like this is sure to become infected. Is she on a regimen of antibiotics? If so, that sometimes puts them off their feed. If the vet closed up the shell with fiberglass, trapping an infection inside the shell would be a concern. Also, I see you're in Washington, if it isn't warm enough so that she can get her core temperature up to at least 80-85F degrees, she won't eat because the food won't digest any cooler than that.

Good luck getting this pretty tortoise back to good health. Wishing you all the best! I'll bet your son feels awful.
 
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Sshrum11

New Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2018
Messages
6
Location (City and/or State)
Washington
Thanks. We are lucky to have a very experienced exotic vet hospital and Docs in our area. They treat quite a few tortoises. She was sealed with vet tech and given lots of antibiotics. She just had her 3 week check up with some additional x-rays and I am thrilled to report that she is doing way better than any of them expected and actually went from 7 pounds 9 ounces when she was repaired to 8 pounds 12 ounces in just 3 weeks. Doc and techs (some who have sulcatas) all think she has come a long way. She has a bit of paralysis on her back legs but they see signs of that getting better too.
I'm slowly learning lots and apparently her eating is just fine. I may have been expecting too much in that area.
She is definitely female and she is very affectionate in her own way. She is an attention pig for sure. I just love her to pieces as does our whole family. I included a before and after pic.IMG_4898.JPG IMG_4907.jpg
 

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