JOURNAL SENTINEL (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) 23 August 08 Tortoise slowly on the mend after hitting the hard stuff (Jim Stingl)
Freddie the tortoise was pretty much screwed, and by that I mean he had seven wood screws lodged in his guts along with a staple, shards of glass, stones and a hunk of caulk.
He needed surgery — stat! — and a transfusion. But where would doctors find other African spurred tortoises willing to stick their necks out and donate life-saving blood?
If there were a reptilian version of “ER,” this episode would earn whatever coldblooded vertebrates had instead of an Emmy.
Freddie’s owner, Elise Stachowiak, and her mother, Lisa Stachowiak, noticed recently that the tortoise was walking in circles and vomiting. They hadn’t seen anything like that in the three years since they first got Freddie, then so small that he fit in the palm of Elise’s hand.
Freddie is now 15 inches long with a bumpy shell the color of a pizza left in the oven a minute too long. He’s been a sweet pet, they say. He doesn’t bite, and he rambles around the house like a member of the family. His loft-style bed is in the kitchen of their Franklin home. Bath time happens in the stationary tub. As a desert animal, Freddie seeks out heating pads and basking lamps.
“He’s very affectionate at times, but it’s painful because he’s got spurs all over his body,” Elise said.
Freddie’s usual diet is kale and lettuce, with blueberries, strawberries and green beans for snacks. But this herbivore has a taste for the harder stuff and apparently found the screws and other undigestibles outside on the lawn after some home remodeling projects.
So last month he was rushed to the Animal Emergency Center, 2100 W. Silver Spring Drive, Glendale, where X-rays revealed the foreign objects. You also can see from the photo that the X-ray looks like the Shroud of Tur(tle)in.
Anyway, veterinarian Paul Gibbons, who specializes in exotic animals, also noted that the patient’s blood was not clotting properly. He would need a transfusion.
Lisa called Hoffer’s Tropic Life Pets, 7323 N. 76th St., and said, um, can we borrow some turtle blood? Store manager Ken Fowler admits it’s not a question he’s heard before. “I said, sure, I don’t see any problem with that.” The store refused to take any payment for the favor.
Three of Hoffer’s tortoises were placed in a plastic tub and driven to the animal hospital. Blood is drawn from tortoises via the jugular veins in their necks. That seemed like a bad idea to two of them, so they had to be anesthetized to gain their cooperation.
But the smallest of the three contentedly noshed on mango as blood was drained from his neck. That tortoise, previously unnamed, is now Mango.
Once Freddie was drugged into dreamland, Gibbons took a bone saw and cut a flap in the underside of the shell.
“It was about a 4-inch square. You angle the edge kind of like a jack-o-lantern so that when you put it back in, it doesn’t fall in,” he said.
Once inside, Gibbons slit open the intestine and scooped out the hardware and such. He also noticed that Freddie’s liver was yellow and brown rather than the normal deep red. It suggests a degenerative condition.
Then he replaced Freddie’s new basement door and secured it in place with mesh and epoxy. The tortoise was kept overnight at the hospital.
The cost? Prepare to be shellshocked. It’s approaching $2,500, and tortoises generally are uninsured.
Freddie is on medication for his liver, and he’s back to his old self again. Elise and Lisa keep a close eye on him now when he goes outside. They stopped at Hoffer’s recently and brought a pineapple and other goodies for the tortoises and doughnuts for the humans.
“We’re very appreciative. They didn’t have to do that for us,” especially considering that Freddie wasn’t purchased there, Lisa said.
Like an auto shop that sends you home with your old brake pads, the hospital gave the Stachowiak family the objects removed during surgery. They’re keeping them in a sweet relish jar.
Tortoises have been known to live to 100. Freddie has 97 years to go, so he may want to watch his diet and avoid True Value stores.
Tortoise slowly on the mend after hitting the hard stuff