Attacked by dog- Danger!

[cjicollectibles]

Argh, bad day.  I know its been mentioned here before, but you never think its gonna happen to you. Left my female tort out in her little wood basking home in the back yard, for like two hours today while I was in house.  So I go out to get her - OMG! Her place is moved, dug under, she's missing! Terrible! But, I look around, and find, again in horror, she's at bottom of pool! Pull her out, looks limp, but she moves!

Anyhow, luckily, she is alive. Rushed her down to vet. Shell is marke up with dog teeth scrape marks, some red coming thru. He gave us medicine to put on her cut up shell. She seems OK.

Wonder how long they can hold their breath under water, she must have been in there a good while

Dog had dug under and got her. Yikes! So be careful everyone, I thought my girl was a goner this afternoon. Lucky for the happy ending, but yikes!

[Jules]

wow, scary  Glad she is ok.  Just remember you are not the first or last person this happened to.  Thanks for the reminder to be careful.

[ginababy]

OMG!  That poor little girl having to go through that!  I hope she has a quick recovery!

[Betty]

That poor poor baby!!!   How awful.  I hope so much for a full recovery for her.

[go_fish]

Bad, bad dog   

[mikachase]

That is so sad. I hope she gets better quickly. Sounds like she is lucky.

[Tylerobert]

Ahh i'm sorry to hear that. Two dogs attacked my RT's one day when I had them out in their pen years ago. Luckily the dogs only barely bit my male before I saw them. You can still see the scar on his shell.

[cjicollectibles]

Here she is, just about as good as new!

[ginababy]

Thanks for posting pictures!  She looks great!  No chance of that dog getting at her again?

[cjicollectibles]

No chance of any more dog, 'cause now she only goes out when we can stay in the yard with her. Of course, thats a bummer, because it limits her outside time, and she has to spend more time indoors.

[cjicollectibles]

sorry this picture is blurry, but here you can see the dogs teeth where he scraped thru the bottom of her shell

[Eunice]

poor thing, glad to hear she is doing better.  A few years ago I was dog sitting for my sister and a dog came into my fenced in yard (climbed under the fence) and attacked her.  Had a bite mark in her chest.  Had to take her to the vet ASAP.  Luckily they moved after I filed a complaint against them with animal control.

[bohbohb]

I just recently got a RT, have not introduced him to my dogs yet because of something like this happening- my dogs are well behaved but it still concerns me.

You were wondering how long they can hold their breath.. I was reading a book about reptile surgeries and the section on Chelonian anesthesia mentioned that gas induction agents were not effective because they could hold their breath for upwards of four hours. I'm not sure how much of that may be affected by temperature or what, but they can certainly hold their breath for quite a while.

[Chrissy]

I read somewhere that dogs (however docile) could attack a tortoise because they smell like a 'bone.'

Dogs and tortoises don't mix! It is not worth taking any chances; however 'lovely' you think you dog is..natural instinct will take it's course.

[Chrissy]

No chance of any more dog, 'cause now she only goes out when we can stay in the yard with her. Of course, thats a bummer, because it limits her outside time, and she has to spend more time indoors.

Then build a tortoise enclosure with a protective wire mesh cover so your torotise can go outside for a suitable  amount of time. Your tortoise should be outside 24/7 when the climate is right!
Here is a picture of my enclosures to show you the kind of thing that I mean:-