Meet Malachi

So we've been asked by our Vet to foster this poor little guy. The only history we have on him is he was in possession of a family who fed him nothing but dog food since 2003. That is NOT the correct way to feed a box turtle, contrary to old school ways of thinking. Its unclear if he had proper UV lighting or not. His shell is way too small so he may at some point need revisional surgery to expand it, to allow his body to grow without crowding/crushing his internal organs. As you can see, he is already out-growing his shell as it is. They did a full work up on him; blood tests, parasite check, x-rays etc, I have not seen the report yet. I am now scrambling to get something set up for him to live in, the main expense for now will be to order a Mega Ray Mercury Vapor UV Light for him and a fixture to screw it into. Now we're just waiting to see when Dr. B feels confident to release him from the clinic and then arrange for his transport down to us.

To donate to this little guys care, there is a button to click on, on the right hand side towards to bottom of this page. Any donations above what his immediate needs are for now, will go into a special account marked exclusively for him. Thank you all so much for your help, and for caring.

Update on Malachi; He arrived here on Sept 5th and is doing well; alert, active and eating well with assistance. He has a long way to go in terms of bringing his health back. It is hoped that with frequent beak trimmings that it can be re-shaped well enough so that it will enable him to eat on his own again. He sill has some intestinal irritation going on. I am trying to correct that and I have devised a special diet just for him that forms into a soft pellet that is easy for him to eat.

Malachi loves worms but I have to put them in his mouth for him.

His beak is malformed and x-rays revealed his skull has some abnormalities as well.

You can see how under developed his shell is compared to the rest of him.

Malachi formed another intestinal blockage and stayed at the Animal Hospital for nearly 6 weeks. During that time they performed (among other things) a barium enema to determine where the blockage was. It took forever for the barium to make its way thru his little system, (well over a week) but when I saw the final x-rays I could see where his intestines are extremely narrow in several spots, which is why food has such a difficult time passing through him. So now, I am feeding him a very watery pureed version of food with a pipette, and also giving him water in the same manner several times a day. He will likely need to be fed this way for the remainder of his life because anything more solid causes a blockage. It's heartbreaking really, because this boy so wants to eat on his own.......

Despite all of this, he is a sweet-natured and pretty active little boy, who, as it turns out LOVES to go up and down slides! We got the idea to make this for him after seeing how much he craves climbing our rockery out in the back yard. Some days he goes up and down this slide over and over again.....

Everyone gets special attention during the holidays and Malachi is certainly no exception.....

You can follow Malachi's progress on his Facebook page here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2031166270346654/

If the donation button below doesn't work, you can simply donate through PayPal using our email address; sshalimar16@msn.com