How do veterinary surgeons operate on turtles and tortoises? Where do they make the incisions?

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How do veterinary surgeons operate on turtles and tortoises? Where do they make the incisions?

In: Biology

9 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Endoscopic guided surgeries have advanced how well we can do surgery with turtles and tortoises. So we can gain access to some of the internal organs by making small incisions in (usually) high up on the thigh of the chelion.
For those that don’t have endoscopes that require access – the hard plates are essentially bone. Crack a piece open in the quadrant you need to work in and get to it. Then close with some wire and special epoxy.

Anonymous 0 Comments

I had a friend who was a veterinary surgeon student. She found a large frog with a mangled leg: she thought some large bird, like a hawk, had gotten hold of it and dropped it. She didn’t want to leave it as it was, but thought it would be tricky to help.

She basically put it in a jar with a small amount of alcohol (probably mixed with water, but I don’t remember). The frog absorbed the alcohol through its skin and went to sleep. She amputated the mangled leg, kept it for a while to heal, then let it go into the wild. She figured she had given it the best chance she could.

I know OP’s question was about turtles, but I figured anyone interested in surgery on a reptile might be interested in an amphibian too!

Anonymous 0 Comments

Ah, finally something that I can answer! I’m a veterinarian, will be done with my surgery residency in just one year! I don’t do a lot of exotic surgery but I do have knowledge in this area.

As another poster said, if we can address something endoscopically, then we will. Otherwise, we can approach the coelom of a turtle or tortoise by using something like a sagittal saw to incise a square or rectangular shaped piece of the plastron (bottom part of the shell). Once we have access, surgery is surgery as usual — assuming for anatomic variants based on species. You then reattach the plastron, usually using wire or epoxy. In some cases, such as surgery secondary to trauma, 3D printing can be used to produce shell components that might be damaged or absent and they’re attached in the same way.

I haven’t worked on these species in awhile. About a year ago I assisted with a tortoise penile amputation because he continued to prolapse it and was having some necrosis secondary to this problem. We intubated him routinely and monitored his heart rate and blood pressure using a Doppler. Overall was an easier anesthetic candidate (and intubation) than a dog or cat, but he took forever to wake up.

Anonymous 0 Comments

I once saw pictures of a C-section performed on a tortoise that couldn’t lay her eggs. The pictures showed that they cut a small square in her plastron (the down side of the shell) where her belly was, and then they took out the eggs. The piece of plastron was then put back in place and secured there until the tortoise was healed and the square was reincorporated to her body.

Anonymous 0 Comments

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Anonymous 0 Comments

I rescued a painted turtle that had been run over by a ditch mower back in the 90s. I did wildlife rehab had, had an excellent vet who treated everything I brought in without charge, I did all the follow up care. This poor turtle’s she’ll was cracked, in 2 places coming to a point, so the point lifted above the rest of the shell. I could see right into him. Vet thought maybe we could press it down, super glue it shut then duct tape it. Cripes, we couldn’t get it to bend back down! So, she loaded me up with antibiotics and I put him in a small tank with only about an inch of water. He ate just fine, and 4 months later I released him. You could barely see where his shell had cracked. I was amazed at the resilience of that little guy.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The first practice I worked at we did some turtle surgery. We had a tortoise that ate a thumb tack and was stuck in the intestine. You cut 3 sides of a square on the plastron (bottom of the shell). It makes a hinged flap. Once done, we used epoxy to glue the shell back together. We got it from the bike shop next door. It takes 2 years for the plastron to heal. Tortoise did great! Chelonians and reptiles are really easy to intubate but a bitch to monitor as they can just not breath for ages. Stupid anaerobic respiration.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Why are we doing surgery on turtles?

Anonymous 0 Comments

All of these answers are wrong. Anyone trying to perform endoscopic surgeries on your turtle are ripping you off. There’s a little button on the bottom of the shell. You push that and the shell opens up so that you can take your turtle out and do things like clean him, put him in dresses, or even perform surgery without the need to cut through the shell.