Tortoise gets lifesaving 'keyhole' surgery
A tortoise is making a 'slow' recovery after undergoing an rare operation which removed a bladder stone the size of a small egg.
The huge stone - which took up almost one quarter of her body -was spotted during a routine X-ray of Polly, an African pancake tortoise at Bristol Zoo.
During the procedure, the zoo’s expert vets cut away a hole in the bottom of Polly’s shell in order to remove the bladder stone, which could have killed her within weeks.
The bladder stone weighed 19g and measured 3.7cm (1.5 inches) by 3cm (1.2 inches) and Polly measures just 14cm (5.5 inches) inches long from head to tail.
The extra space in her shell means that Polly now feels like she has had a house extension.
Polly, aged five, is now bandaged up and recovering well in the Zoo’s Reptile House.
Sharon Redrobe, Bristol Zoo’s head of veterinary services, said: "We x-rayed the tortoise as part of a standard health check, and were amazed when we saw the size of the bladder stone.
"Anesthetising a tortoise is quite tricky and requires specialist training, but she is likely to have been in some discomfort so we took the decision to remove the stone as soon as possible.
"The operation went very well and there were no complications."
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