It’s always hard to watch an innocent creature struggling. Thankfully, we can still do our best to find ways to help them out.
Take this turtle’s story, for example. The turtle, named Pedro, lost his two back legs. When this happened, everyone thought that this poor tortoise would never walk again.
However, a couple of veterinarians decided one day to get creative and changed Pedro’s fate with the help of a Lego car set.
For some context, Pedro’s owners had already adopted him with one missing back leg. But one day, the turtle managed to escape from his home, and upon his return was missing his other back leg.
Pedro’s owners drove him to Lousiana State University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital for help. Fortunately, they did not diagnose him with any life-threatening diseases. It just turns out he was just really clumsy for a turtle.
Ginger Guttner, the communications manager for LSU’s School of Veterinary Medicine, told CNN:
“There was nothing medically wrong with him… But of course he didn’t have any back legs, so our doctors quickly had to figure out what they were going to do.”
After some serious deliberation, they eventually came up with the idea that seemed quite unorthodox and definitely outside the box.
The solution they came up with was a Lego cart kit.
One of their zoological interns went out to pick up a kit so they could pick out all of the parts they needed, such as the wheels. They then would fix it with syringe parts and animal safe epoxy.
After moving a few parts around a little experimental dabbling, they finally had a complete solution. The vets managed to fashion the first turtle wheely device, allowing little Pedro the freedom to get around on his own again.
His owners can even snapped the wheels off, allowing Pedro to maintain his hygiene and have a clean shell, thanks to the leggo part.
“Veterinary medicine often requires this MacGyver-like quality,” Guttner continued. “I would say the majority of special equipment we use has been fashioned or re-fashioned for a specific case.”
Guttner then explained that this wasn’t the first time vets had to come up with an incredibly creative solution to a unique situation. One time, there was a team at the hospital that also put together a miniature fountain to keep fish alive while they performed an endoscopy.
“Our patients can be two grams or 2,000 pounds, so we often have to look at things from a completely different perspective,” Guttner added.
Pedro’s owners also said that one side benefit aside from being able to get around was that Pedro was moving faster than ever!
We are so happy that Pedro “The Hot Rodding Turtle” was given a second chance, thanks to the vet’s outstanding creativity. Sometimes it doesn’t hurt to listen to your inner-child for good ideas!
Please be sure to share Pedro’s story with your family and friends.
