Misstreated Tortoise

[Rhyno47]

A few months ago I was at a persons house and saw a tortoise on the floor walking around. It was an adult female that they had had for about 5 years. The strange thing was its scutes were either pink or white, and it had an odd smell. The owners daughter thought it would be cute to paint the tortoise with finger nail polish and spray it with perfume. Her beak was badly overgrown too. Also the owners didnt even have a tortoise table or tub for it. it. They said that she got her food from her doggie bowl filled with kale non-stop, that was next to two dogie dishes (that she sometimes also ate out of.) They also said that she got warmth during the day by laying next to the window or bly sleeping under the fridge. I very quickly began to persuade them away from their pet. Eventually i succeeded and brought her home. A lengthy scrubbing got 99% of the paint off only leaving a pin sized spot here and there. She is now very healthy and is the most active tortoise i have. She almost runs to me when she sees me with lettuce and eats like she never had a good meal before every time. Oh and the worst thing they did was name her the most generic name ever, Myrtle. I also fixed that with a more modern Tori.

In these pictures (taken 6 months after i got her) you can see some small spots on her shell. They arent shell rot they are spots of nail polish i still cant get off. You can also see her deformed rear spinal scute (i dont know its technical term.) That scute is concave at the top and very sensitive. If i touch it she almost leaps forward and hisses.

 

[purpod]

Hiya Ryan ~

Sounds like a good thing you came along when you did! It's always heartbreaking when you hear or see of an animal that is not being cared for properly (it's one of my major pet peeves, no pun intended) You know, if you put nail polish remover on a Q~Tip, you should be able to remove any lingering nail polish spots. Thankfully you got the majority of it off ~ Keep up the great work!

One thing of concern tho, you said

"She almost runs to me when she sees me with lettuce

Surely you are giving her a balanced diet with lettuce only being one ingredient, right? I'm 'prolly 'preaching to the choir' as they say, but only dark green/red lettuces should be given (NO iceberg, since it has no nutritional value) and even then, only as a part of a varied diet. If you have any questions about the diet, there are all kinds of posts here that can lead you to the proper 'balance'.

Wishing you blessings of wisdom & lots of fun with Tori ~
Purpod

 

[Rhyno47]

Yeah she gets no iceberg at all. And i vary her meals day to day. She gets romaine, red leaf, hibiscus (flower and leaf) and dandelions. She also gets anything that should come along. She doesn't have any fear and runs to me almost every time when shes hungry. I think the fearlessness comes from being in a busy household full of dogs. But now she only lives with her pal Marty, (also a russian.)

 

[purpod]

Ryan ~
Yeah, it's a good thing you got her outta there! And she has a bud now too ~ sweeet! As noted before, keep up the great work!

Blessings,
Purpod

 

[treshell]

Yes I am VERY glad you now have her, really. Remember there were good things in her life and 'keep' some of them in place.
Unlike most of the tortoise we read about her weight seem to be good. Maybe this was do to your care the last 6 months but in the pictures and your email above she seems to move well. No one mentioned worms. Dogs weren't allowed to maul her. My kids painted their dogs nails, whose to say this family thought the tortoise shell was different. The tortoise's body seems to have good tone. She has a very nice shell if you look past the problem caused by the nail polish. No pyramiding at all. Seems to be way more out going then most Russian Tortoise. Most likely went outside when the family did. Maybe even to the park. She seems used to using her mind to solve problems. As to the name, well that comes with letting children name them. Care to guess how many animals are named spot?
I am trying to say a loving family had this animal for '5 years', they did what they knew. I don't think we have the right to come in and say oh poor thing what horrible care it got. Its so lucky you came along to save it. I think perhaps we should also say something about the loving family who had a animal they loved but gave to You, someone who could give their tortoise better and healthier life.

And yes I will now put on my fire coat and take my lumps.
tj

 

[Yvonne G]

You get no lumps from me!! I liked what you said. However, in this day and age of the internet and GOOGLE, there really is no excuse for not doing some research and finding out the correct care for your family pet.

Yvonne

 

[purpod]

I'm sorry, TJ, but I will not consider a family 'loving' when they remain in ignorant bliss.

I wholeheartedly agree with Yvonne,

... in this day and age of the internet and GOOGLE, there really is no excuse for not doing some research and finding out the correct care for your family pet.

It appears that it took Ryan months to get this lil' tortie healthy.
And thank God for him ~

Blessings,
Purpod

 

[stells]

The jumping forward when touched on the back end... is pretty normal in Horsfields (Russians) most of mine will do this is there back end of the carapace is touched... so don't be to overly concerned with that...

The scutes just look like they got stuck together at the seams for a while whilst the tortoise was growing... probably a humidity issue...

 

[Rhyno47]

Not to pick on you but they didnt really put up a fight. They pretty much pushed the thing on me. Its tub and heat lamp were taken from it years earlier to give to another pet. They told me to take care of her for a while and they might want it back if they ever did want it back. The persuading came a month later when the daughter who is 16 missed quote "the occasional midnight trip" meaning that she often would stumble over the turtle walking throughout the house. Not like they hated it, but over time they got bored and stopped caring, as many people do when they buy a pet on impulse.

 

[Crazy1]

Congratulations on obtaining a lovely looking tort. I am sure Tori will get the much needed corrected care she deserves. She looks like she has a new growth line. It would be interesting to see an x-ray of her with the 5th vertebral scute to see if her spine is deformed. I would suspect if it is it may be pressing on nerves and that’s what makes it so sensitive. (but I don't know Russians) I am not suggesting you run to the vet unless she begins to display difficulty walking.

Treshell often when we see a tort that we equate with mis-treatment or in a bad situation, we forget that these are sometimes people who really care for their pet.(though I have difficulty with someone giving up a loved pet instead of making things right). And Yvonne is right with internet even libraries these days better care can be researched, but some people are just clueless, and pets are just that pets. I'm sure they looked at her and thought she seems well and happy so no problems. I know when I was a Kid we had a DT that roamed the house. She spent most days outside in the back yard and roamed the house at night or in bad weather. She hibernated under my bothers bed with a box over her and we thought that was fine because she seemed healthy and what we perceived as happy.
Boy we've come a long way baby

So again Congrats on your new shelled girl Tori.

 

[Maggie Cummings]

Yes I am VERY glad you now have her, really. Remember there were good things in her life and 'keep' some of them in place.
Unlike most of the tortoise we read about her weight seem to be good. Maybe this was do to your care the last 6 months but in the pictures and your email above she seems to move well. No one mentioned worms. Dogs weren't allowed to maul her. My kids painted their dogs nails, whose to say this family thought the tortoise shell was different. The tortoise's body seems to have good tone. She has a very nice shell if you look past the problem caused by the nail polish. No pyramiding at all. Seems to be way more out going then most Russian Tortoise. Most likely went outside when the family did. Maybe even to the park. She seems used to using her mind to solve problems. As to the name, well that comes with letting children name them. Care to guess how many animals are named spot?
I am trying to say a loving family had this animal for '5 years', they did what they knew. I don't think we have the right to come in and say oh poor thing what horrible care it got. Its so lucky you came along to save it. I think perhaps we should also say something about the loving family who had a animal they loved but gave to You, someone who could give their tortoise better and healthier life.

And yes I will now put on my fire coat and take my lumps.
tj

No lumps from me either. I had a Gulf Coast box turtle that I got as a hatchling because it's keeper didn't believe in leaving his lights on when she wasn't home, so he was cold and in the dark much of the time...So I took him and set him up great inside and outside as well. But it was obvious he wasn't happy AND even with my experienced care he grew lumpy bumpy and looked like he was mistreated. When I saw how unhappy he was and especially when I finally noticed how bumpy he was I asked my sister to keep him for me so he could get some California sun as all it was doing here was raining.
To look at him and see the way he acted you would think he was mistreated...but he wasn't... and now Danny has him and he is happy there and his personality has changed. So we can't always assume they are mistreated when we see one that merely looks that way.
Did I make any sense here???

 

[tortoisenerd]

Thanks for sharing your story!

 

[dmmj]

Man young girls and their need to "prettify" everything. Must have been a sight to see when you first got it. I agree that in this day and age of internet info ther eis almost no exscuse for treating a turlte like that. Just goes to show what some people are still capable of.