Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Our three year old female sulcata escaped two months ago. We searched and searched for her all over our neighborhood with no luck and had given up hope when temps dropped here about a month ago to freezing. Our luck changed today. We got a call, and an older couple had found her and were taking care of her. We went and picked her up this afternoon. She has had a month of ALPO which is bad, but at least she is alive. I noticed after we got her home that her back leg is broken. Who knows how old the break is since she was on her own for a month and the people hadn't noticed it. I actually work at an animal hospital that is currently constructing an exotic animal wing, but our herp vet is fresh out of vet school. I, of course, am taking her in with me tomorrow to get checked out, but I know my herp vet has NO experience with a situation like this. If any of you guys have any advice that I could pass on to her I would really appreciate it, or even any vets that have dealt with similar injuries so she could call them. Thanks a bunch!! At least we have her back and she is alive. Our prayers were answered!!

I can't really advise on how to repair a broken leg other than it would be similar to repairing the broken leg of any species.
I can give you some encouragement as far as the vet goes if this one fresh out of vet school has any talent at all.
Before my herp vet moved here I met her in a different town when she was fresh out of vet school & was interning for a vet about 45 miles away from here. I needed a herp vet for a turtle but there were none who actually specialized in exotics in this town.
I drove to see her because my turtle was sick, turned out he had urinary tract stones. She prescribed medicine that she had to call in to a human pharmacy & got laughed at by the pharmacist but.. in the end it was worth it because the medication worked.
Just because she was right out of vet school didn't mean a thing.. she moved here, opened a hospital, & has been here for almost 10 years now. She was good to begin with & has only gotten better in her almost 10 years, so hopefully your vet fresh out of school will be as good as she is.
I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!
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PHRatz

Well... today went pretty good and the vet was fine. I will actually be working under her as her exotic vet tech once construction is complete at the hospital, so I was glad I wasn't too disapointed. We work for VCA, a vet corporation that owns over 300 hospitals nationwide. So I made a few calls and got in touch with a great vet from Pittsburgh that actually teaches at the Univeristy of Pittsburgh. We had to gas my poor girl to get the xrays done today, but it showed a clean break in the distal tip of the tibia (ankle)of the back left leg, which is apparently pretty rare. Tomorrow will be much worse. We have to anestistize her and make a stirrup splint around the bottom of her foot then xray to make sure the alignment is good. Then we have to fold the leg back into the shell and tape the hole shut to prevent any movement. Depending if she gets around ok, we may have to glue a block of wood on her shell to give her better stability. He says it will take a long time to heal since torts metabilisms are so slow. We recheck the break in 8 weeks. If there are signs of bone fussion we simply re splint and continue with that treatment. But since we have no idea how old the break is, it may not fuse. If that is the case, then they have to perform surgery and run a steel pin throgh the bottom of her heel, past the metatorsal bones and into the tibula. He said this could create a frozen joint, but would still allow her to place pressure on the bottom of the foot. I didn't realize it, but with the bigger species of tortoises, they really work hard to save the limbs since they will be supporting so much weight later in life. I'm sorry I have rambled on, but you strike me as someone that would find it interesting!! Lets hope tomorrow goes well!! I'll keep you posted!!

Keeping you and your tort in my prayers.
Keep us posted!

>>Keeping you and your tort in my prayers.
>>Keep us posted!

Ditto!
I just know she's going to do fine. Keep a positive thought & do let us know what happens.
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PHRatz

Thank you so much for your support! Today went great after some trial and error!! On our first attempt, we tried to gas her down in order to be able to give the injection for the anestisa. Well, after 30 minutes, she was still lively!! Didn't phase her. Then we just attempted to hold her head out to do the injection. That didn't work either. The poor vet was a nervous wreck. I was assisting, and I know I probably made matters worse. I was just so worried about my little girl. So we took a break and I called back our new friend... who just happened to also be a vet at the Pittsburgh Zoo once. After talking to him the second attempt went smooth as silk!!!! We gave her an injection of ketamine, and didn't even have to anestitize her after that. So no horrible intibation tube down her throat or venilation. THANK GOODNESS. The ketamine relaxed her enough to let us get the splint on. That part was pretty simple. We did have to rewrap since we got it a little too puffy the first time and her leg wouldn't fit back into her shell. We used a small piece of a tounge depressor for the splint. All went well. I had a drunk little girl for a few hours, but she is back home tonight eating and stretching her three good legs out by the fire place. The bandages stay on until Jan. 16th and then we will see if it's working. So keep your fingers crossed!!! I will try to get some pictures up of her and what my 4 year old daughter refers to as her "bandaid"... lol.... Thanks again!!

Please keep us updated from time to time on her progress.
Good luck I hope all goes well.
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PHRatz

Hello, you mentioned you found a good vet from Pittsburg. I live about 2 hours from there and have took my torts and igs to Pittsburg to see vets before. But I really haven't found a vet that I thought was worth the drive. do you mind giving me the name of the vet you saw? From your postings, he sounded very knowledgeable. I usually do the routine stuff here in town but I like to have names of people in case an emergency comes up. It is senseless to wait for an emergency and then try to find the vet. Plus, if you have a sulcata in the PA area, what do you do in the winter time? I am curious how you keep yours. Mine is still relaively small. He is 3, possibly 4 years old. He stays in an enclosure while I am at work and when he is sleeping at night. But, he comes out to explore when I am home. I just have him in a 4 x 4 ft tort table. He has an outside setup but that isn't usable this time of the year.