New Rescue Mom Here!!!

SamAnn

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Hello All! My husband and I decided to drive out of state late one night after deciding to take on a rescued Sulcata and 2 Red Foots! The Sulcata, who we have named "Bowser" had been living in a townhouse shed for 8 years without proper lighting and eating a diet of reptile pellets only:(:mad:o_O! He has some terrible MBD and isn't able to get around on his own anymore so we have been working on his wheel chair and he loves it! We have no idea how old he is, we just know he has been in a dark shed for 8 years! The red foots we also removed from the home seem to be doing much better, they are young and still resilient I think HAHA! We named them Mr. and Mrs. Pringle (Peanut Pringle and Pepper Pringle:p). We are excited to have taken on this adventure and any advise is very welcomed! Iv spent days reading through these threads, so I'm hoping these rescue babies lives will be smooth sailing from here!
bows.PNGreds.PNG
 

Jodie

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Welcome to the forum. What a great thing you are doing. They are fortunate you came along to save them. Lots of calcium and sunshine, and hopefully he will recover.
 

Yvonne G

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Hi, and welcome to the Forum! This tortoise is so lucky you found out about it. I doubt he would have lasted much longer. What is wrong with some people?

Please show us pictures when you have his 'wheels' all set up. We love pictures, but especially this kind. You're doing a good thing taking on these tortoises.
 

gingerbee

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Wow those reds look really smooth!! Are they a pair? Poor sulcata !! I bet he/she thinks he's in heaven now!!!
 

SamAnn

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WOW I'm loving all the support already! thank you! The reds are a pair, about 6 years old and yes so smooth! the female is really picky as far as food goes but the male would eat just about anything if I let him haha! I sure hope Bowser thinks he's in heaven, he deserves it after being in the dark so long! We have about 1/2 acre fenced in and a whole indoor sunroom to scoot around in once he gets his wheels!
:tort:
 

SamAnn

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Here he is on our way home! We really didn't expect to be bringing home 3 tortoises but we just couldn't leave them! I found out about them through a craigslist ad for the red foot pair. I was interested in them but then the seller showed us this guy and I KINDA FREAKED OUT!!!! So we decided to drop everything and head out of state for the night! Im a vet tech of 6 years and couldn't believe my eyes! It wasn't until we got home that we realized he wasn't able to walk without our support. He spend a lot of time sleeping and soaking up UVBs but yesterday he perked up and actually scooted himself about 5 feet just for one particular dandelion leaf HAHA!
Capture.PNG
 

Tidgy's Dad

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Hello, SamAnn and a very warm welcome to Tortoise Forum to you, Bowser and Mr. and Mrs. Pringle.
The Pringles look pretty good, but poor Bowser.
Thanks for saving them all and hopefully Bowser's life will become more tolerable now.
Goodness
Have a look at
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/threads/beginner-mistakes.45180/
in case you may have missed any of the basics
 

Carol S

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Poor Browser. :( He looks like he is smiling in the picture where he is sitting on the grass.:) In the picture on the ride home he looks so sad. It makes me so mad that people can be so stupid. If a person is not going to take care of an animal then they need to find it a new home. Nowdays there is no excuse for not taking care of an animal properly because of all the information on the internet. The person who had him in a dark shed should have to spend a couples of years in the same situation. :mad:

I am sure Brower will start to thrive now that he is in your care. It is so wonderful of you to rescue him.
 

Prairie Mom

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Hi SamAnn, I'm with everyone who is cheering you on for bringing Bowser home.

Bowser's story reminded me of an article I read recently that was actually about Alpacas (http://modernfarmer.com/2015/09/alpaca-abuse/) . The thing that I appreciated about the article was that they defined animal cruelty in two ways...Active cruelty and Passive Cruelty. Neglect can be every bit as bad as people that go out of their way to inflict intentional pain. Poor Bowser is obviously a long-time victim of Passive Cruelty. It breaks my heart. I'm so glad that he is with you.

I do not have a lot of experience with reptiles. I have seen severe MBD in small mammals. Some with severe enough MBD will permanently loose the loss of limbs. Occasionally, some that are treated right away respond well and can regain some. I'm eager to follow Bowser and how he does on his set of wheels.:) It will be really important for him to have shady sunlight and so much calcium supplementation. There are lots of people on the forum that can give you great advice about this and how to care for him.

In the mean time, is there anything I can do for you and your husband? Are there supplies that you're desperately in need of? Please answer honestly. I bet I'm not the only one wanting to help you succeed!
 

Yvonne G

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Just in case you don't know, Sam, metabolic bone disease is painful. The tortoise hasn't moved around much because it hurts to do so. And not moving much has caused the muscles to atrophy. We're all rooting for you to get this guy up and running...er...rolling. Do you have a good tortoise vet in your town? You might ask if there's anything you can give him to relieve his pain, hence get him moving more.
 

SamAnn

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Awwwwww thank you all so much! right now we are only in need of information! I believe I could never get enough information haha! I'm a little terrified to start leaving the lamps on indoors as its getting colder during the day. We are not home during the day and so right now "fire proofing" the sunroom and lamps is a concern of mine. My father was a fire fighter and that put the fear in me that everything with catch on fire haha.
Yes he is painful :( it breaks my heart, but I can tell when he is having an "ok" moment I think. We do have a vet, they actually have a house Sulcata that lives in the office haha! I don't necessarily always agree with their care (feeding ice burg, temps kinda cold, etc) so I have to be very picky and choosy what I listen to I think. But I think iv found a great forum to back up their information!
 

Speedy-1

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Hi and welcome from the Desert !
m0754.gif
Good job rescueing poor Bowser ! :)
 

Jacqui

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You have a beautiful sulcata in there, one just needs to look harder then normal. My heart goes out to those with MBD.
 

Jacqui

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You have a beautiful sulcata in there, one just needs to look harder then normal. My heart goes out to those with MBD.
 

MPRC

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Poor, poor Bowser, it is amazing the the redfoots look as good as they do considering how miserable that poor baby looks. I hope you can help him thrive from here on out.
 

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