We’re sorry to share that we made the difficult decision to euthanize our 36-year-old African spurred tortoise, Tate, due to a poor prognosis following an intense surgery to remove a large bladder stone. 

In early July, we discovered Tate had a large bladder stone during a routine exam. While the stone wasn’t affecting him physically, a stone that size could eventually prevent him from being able to urinate or even rupture his bladder, said Zoo staff veterinarian Dr. Rachel Turner. 

When surgery at our own L3 Harris Animal Care Center wasn’t able to remove the stone, we opted to go to an outside veterinary team for a more complicated procedure: creating a “flap” in the plastron (bottom part of his shell) by cutting through three sides and leaving one side attached. The flap was resealed with epoxy. 

The 3-hour surgery was successful, and Tate initially did well during recovery which included antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs for pain. His plastron flap showed signs of shifting a week into recovery, but our veterinary team was able to re-secure it.  

“He didn’t love being up at the hospital, but it was important to keep his incision clean.  His care takers came up every day to make sure he had time to walk around outside,” Dr. Turner said. “He was really active during those sessions and loved basking in the sun and running around on the grass. ”  

Tate had multiple check-ups with our veterinary team, and at a recent exam, it was noted that his plastron flap was again shifting, and discharge was coming from it. Tate again went under anesthesia for a recheck CT and to re-evaluate his plastron flap and body wall incision. During this recheck, our veterinary team found that the incision in his body wall was filled with dead, infected tissue. The team surgically cleaned all the dead and infected tissue away from the area and applied a bandage with honey.  

During the bandage change the following morning, our veterinary team realized that the body wall incision was open to the coelom, or body cavity. This meant that the coelom was contaminated, and there was a very serious risk of infection within the coelom, including the internal organs. To move forward, our team would need to open him back up, examine all of his internal organs that we could see (there’s limited access because we only removed a small window from his plastron), flush the coelom very thoroughly, and then potentially leave the body wall incision open and manage him with bandages.  

“We discussed with the entire team that this was an extremely risky course of treatment, and the prognosis was very grave,” Dr. Turner said. “The decision at that point was made to euthanize.” 

Tate came to our Zoo in 1998 and most recently lived in our Kangaroo Walkabout in our Lands of Change loop, sharing the space with our red kangaroo mob, emus, and muntjacs.  

“One of my favorite memories of Tate is the day we introduced him into the kangaroo walk-through,” said Lands of Change area supervisor Kristen Ralbovsky. “It was Lilly the kangaroo’s birthday, and she spent the day stomping her feet around the yard whenever Tate came near her.” 

Tate was a special animal that brought joy to so many of our guests, Kristen shared. The Lands of Change animal care team has been so touched by the number of people who have asked about how he has been doing since the initial surgery.    

“I will always appreciate how much working with Tate taught me about caring for reptiles, and how he challenged me to think outside of my comfort zone,” Kristen said.  

Tate was Keeper Spring Williams’ favorite animal to care for. Her fond memories of Tate include him spending all day digging in his burrow, eating all the grass in the habitat, pushing food bowls around the whole yard, and of course, walking all over the kangaroos. Tate was the only one that could put Lilly the kangaroo in her place.   

Any time Spring sees hibiscus flower and tomatoes – Tate’s favorite foods – she thinks of him. She said this tortoise was at his cutest when he would park himself in front of the doors (and then keepers couldn’t open them). He would poke his head out of his shell when they’d try to open them, look at them, and put himself back in his shell. “He always had opinions to share in that way,” Spring said.  

 “It was always rewarding to enrich him, scratch him, and train him,” Spring said. “He will live in my heart forever.”