Tort Owners’ Nightmare - Need advice on shell repair.

[mrscruffy]

A horrible thing happened almost two weeks ago, my sister in law drove her car over my adult female Impressa Betty. I dropped my breakfast, as I heard her start to drive followed by a crunch (everyone who comes over to my house is told check your car for torts). But as I ran outside I heard her accelerate and pulling her van over the top of Betty!

It was a very distressing scene, the back part of Betty's carapace had been broken and she was bleeding badly. I quickly did what I could in the way of tortoise triage. Placing Betty in one of her favourite hides, cleaning her wound with betadine, and taping/bandaging together the carapace. Evidently I was late for work, but that didn't matter.

Anyhow, I repeated the process again during that week. The bleeding stopped within 24 hours. I soak her every few days and she has defecated twice with no blood present. She has eaten but much less than normal and has been spending all of her time in her favourite hide unless I remove her (which I do gently every few days).

What I am worried about? She is dragging her backlegs. She seems to have some movement in them, but is not using them to walk. I suspect a breakage. The split is in lower back right carapace.

I know everyone is going to tell me to see a vet, but there is no exotic vet that I am aware of in this country. I tend to think that taking het to my dogs' vet would only do more damage.


What do you think about the split?

Scruff

 

[dmmj]

I would take betty to the vet. She probably needs xrays at the very leadt. Plus that way you can see whstever damage was done

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Donald:

I know you said there isn't a vet in your country, but is there a school that teaches veterinary medicine? Or some sort of tortoise environmental group?

If there's spine damage or some sort of nerve damage, I'm afraid there's really nothing you can do but hope for the best. I'm sorry this happened to your tortoise. I wish I knew how to help you.

 

[mrscruffy]

Thanks Yvonne,

I have already surmised that spinal damage is the worst case scenario. She does seem to have some movement in the back legs. She ate a full meal today.
The national zoo has been improving its tortoise facilities and they do a good job considering their limited means and education, but sadly their expertise is limited and I would be surprised if they ever did invasive surgery on their torts. They frequently get new torts through donations. Anyone who has been to a zoo in the developing world will know what to expect.

There is one vet in town who does have x-ray facilities, which might be useful for peace of mind of knowing but I think I just need to accept the situation and help to her adapt. But as I implied previously, most vets here are cat/dog people or livestock focused.

I am wondering if I should attempt to seal where the carapace is split?

 

[Yvonne G]

I think at this point all you can do is offer a regimen of antibiotics to stave off infection. Do not try to seal the crack. Clean it out, flush it out with either peroxide, betadine or chlorhexidine, then dab on some antibiotic ointment to keep the flies out. If you seal it, you run the chance of sealing in germs, which will surely cause a fatal infection.

 

[Yvonne G]

If there's a lot of movement at the crack, you might consider something like this:

http://www.asianturtlenetwork.org/library/useful_resources/Easy_shell_repair_03_06.pdf

 

[mrscruffy]

Yep, I did the betadine flush twice and I can't see or smell any infection after two weeks.

I read the shell repair article previously and was considering it, but there isn't any movement and I worry about forcing them together.
Poor Betty, distresses me to think about. I spent the day working around her in the garden spending time observing her and my other torts.