Dealing with a Lame 100kg Tortoise

Large Tortoise

One quiet afternoon I  was asked by one of our vets  if I’d like to go with her and check out a ‘lame and anorexic’ tortoise, I checked with our head nurse and jumped at the chance as I was taking my City and Guilds in the Veterinary Nursing of Exotic Species. And it also beat cleaning kennels with the rota wash!

On arriving I figured it wasn’t your average garden tortoise as we were lead out to a large wooden paddock which contained 5 Large Aldabran Tortoises lurking at around knee height.

Once examined by the vet it was decided that we might be able to get a better prognosis with x-rays and sedation for a more in-depth look.

Well with one person on each corner of the Tortoise we manuvered it over a style down the paddock and eventually in to the works ambulance.

Back at the surgery as crowd quickly drew up and an array of green manhandled in to the examination room stopping on the scales as we went by only ERROR came up so it was well over the 100kg mark, we managed to fit it in to one of the walk in kennels but quickly realised this wasn’t going to be suitable as there was only about a inch clearance on each side, so we contacted our equine surgery near by and enquired if they had a small stable with a heat source that could house one of our patients for a couple of days, the equine bunch thought it was a great laugh and found it all quite interesting.

The next day after much manhandling the tortoise found its self propped up on the x-ray table, and unfortunately left its mark with a couple of scratches which didn’t amuse our radiologist,  random exposures were worked out and taken,  as we got some reasonable pictures, next we needed a blood sample…. But as soon as you grabbed the head it would disappear from view and no amount of coaxing helped, even if a couple of us grabbed on it were so strong we didn’t stand a chance. So the tail vein was attempted with the vet contorting in to various positions but the needle wasn’t long enough and became blunt very quickly having to deal with the equivalent of rhino hide!

We tried gassing the tortoise down but only proceeded to gas our selves! Maybe sedation would work, after a couple of hours we tried again but still a fight was given!

We tried tickling her under the chin and eventually either by pure luck or the technique worked but we got blood!

So eventually the tortoise was returned to its owner, nothing was seen on x-rays and the bloods were inconclusive, so she was treated for soft tissue trauma.

Over the next few months she made steady progress eventually leaving the paddock and grabbing some wind fall apples and scattered salad.

It was an interesting case and one that will stay with me for a long time I think, you never know what you will deal with day to day in any veterinary practice.