Meet Colossus.

He was seized from the police from some douchebags who thought he'd make good bait for fighting pitbulls.



He is missing his upper beak and his nostrils are wide and eroded. The black area behind his left eye (to the right in the photo, beginning under the neck skin fold), is a puncture wound in his skull, most likely from a dog bite. 3/4 of an inch into this area had to be drilled out to clear out necrotic and infected tissue. This was one of three holes in his head that needed to be enlarged and debrided of dead and infected tissue and bone.

Colossus pre-op.



Here you can see the chewed and missing pieces around the edges of his shell and the infected missing patches of shell, especially just behind the head. The black area on the right bridge of his carapace isn't black from just shadow, it was rotten and this entire portion of shell had to be removed. The black area on the left side of his head is the hole from the first photo.

Colossus' plastron, during surgery. His head is to the left in the photo.



This is the left side of the plastron. The skin is pink, usually a sign of infection. Take note the top bleeding hole the actual extent of infection under this hole is 8 - 10 times wider than the hole itself. Infection penetrated greater than an inch to an inch and a half in certain places. This was all opened and debrided. The bottom bleeding area (right side of the plastron) is a portion of the plastron after the infected tissue and bone had been removed.



Part of the cranial portion of the carapace was already missing when Colossus arrived. More had to be removed to cut out the infected bone during surgery. His true cranial-caudal shell length is probably at least 17 to 17 1/2 inches.



There is an area that looks like a dark elongated half oval on the mid-line of the carapace within the second area of eroded and debrided shell Look from left to right away from Colossus' head and towards the tail. This area of infected shell penetrated down to the dorsal and left lateral aspect of the vertebrae/vertebral spines. This area was cleaned out and debrided during surgery and closely monitored, flushed and packed with antibiotics following surgery. Colossus can ambulate with both forelimbs, but has some difficulty with his right forelimb. He gets around fine in the water but has a stilted gait with the left forelimb on land.



This is a closeup of the post-operative appearance of debrided shell behind Colossus' head. The sharpie outline was the extent the hollowed out area penetrated under the shell and was to be used as a guide for future surgery if necessary. Other areas are healing very well. The hollowed out and debrided area where infection had penetrated down to the spine is visible and also healed well.



This picture shows the extent of the hidden infection beneath the hole on the left side of plastron as seen from the pre-exploration and debridement in the third picture. The extent of this infection was shocking. The infection spread under the plastron to an area more close to 20X wider than the hole.

As of right now, he's doing just fine. He no longer is able to snap in and catch food, so he's been eating frozen thawed, and pellets. Hopefully he'll find a good home with someone with a fenced in pond, so he can peacefully live out the rest of his life.

Wow! Some people are just plain stupid. Are they using the previous owners as dog bait now? You do good work SF!!!

My understanding is that he took down one of the dogs or put a major hurting on one of them, which was how the police got involved.

Also, that's all my friend's handiwork. Even though he treats me like an equal, he is one of the gods of reptile surgery and I'm the hoodlum he likes hanging out with.

Seriously though, if it was an absolute emergency I'd have done it (or attempted it anyway), but those holes in the head were way to close to exposed brains for me to want to touch that.

Nice thanks for posting all the pics and explanations! I know the turtle is in good hands now amazing what that thing went through.

I was torn about it, since it was kinda rough what he went through, but Wyite wanted to see, so I figured I'd put it up for everyone.

people are sick, when they put down the dogs these people raise they should put down the owners as well, and I'm not just talking this case. I hope the poor guy heals up well and finds a loving owner, after what he's been through he deserves a nice home.

So sad. How's he doing?

Good.

He's taken to trout pellets, and looks like he's eating a 6 foot round bowl of cereal from the inside of it.

hey saint and everyone else. i got cought up past 3-4 months and forgot about here. cool you saved this guy sain

Id string the owners up and use a razor blade to inflict some damage and infection the same way they did the snapper.


Sad sad sad.

It's a shame too since it's pretty much all the owner's fault. I mean, pitbulls are a bit more unstable than other breeds, but I know one of the girls that helps out with pinups for pitbulls, and while they're really high energy dogs, so long as they get taken care of well, they seem to be pretty good as well.

They are children, they must be raised correctly and have the strict obedience discipline to make great loyal family canines. Just like human kids they grow up wild they behave wild throughout life if they make it that long.

My wifes friend has a nice AKC blue pit, that dog will run you down and lick you to death before it ever thought about attacking you. 2nd grade teacher had 20 pits on her property, not one of those dogs has even warned a human let alone show their teeth to one.
Its all how they are raised, rescues from violent situations take longer to trust a human again and thats why so many are misunderstood and put down because a human wouldnt tolerate it out of the box with a violent canine.
We rehab or attempt to rehab our violent yet have no problem shoving a needle into a different violent specie.

It pisses me off.