Joey, an 82-year-old tortoise in Cornwall, is recovering from surgery after the removal of a bladder stone the size of a cricket ball.
Two veterinary surgeons had to cut through Joey’s shell to remove the growth, which at 150g was almost three times the weight of a tennis ball.
One of the vets, Viliam Hoferica, said the bladder stone was the largest he had ever seen. “Given the size of the stone, it was very unique. If Joey was a human, it would be like having a bladder stone the size of a basketball,” he said.
Hoferica said it may take up to a year for Joey’s shell to heal. Explaining the procedure, he said the vets had to create a fibreglass and resin glue to hold together her shell after the surgery.
Hoferica, a surgeon at the Rosevean veterinary practice in Penzance, said Joey’s condition was only discovered by accident. He speculated that the bladder stone may have been growing for months or even years.
He said: “Tortoises are a very tough species. They don’t let you know what is wrong until it’s really bad. Joey had only been acting unusually in the last few weeks before the surgery, and even then she was just eating less and moving less.
“She had been very lethargic, eating less and generally not happy. But thankfully she has very caring owners who noticed something was wrong. Eventually we did an X-ray, and luckily bladder stones show up on tortoise X-rays. But it was much bigger than I expected.”
The other surgeon involved was Pascual Medina, an advanced exotic pet practitioner.
Thanks to their skills, Joey is expected to make a full recovery.
Hoferica added: “It was a unique surgery. Going through the shell is usually a last resort because of how long it can take for it to regrow. I treat any animal, so having Pascual to assist me in the surgery with his specialisation, it was great to have an extra pair of hands.”
