So Erza is my Hermann tortoise, as some of you may know i live in the south of France (french riviera) and tortoise are very common here because there is a wild population here.
i found Erza in 2015 in the garden of the house my mum used to rent (i don't live with my mum but she called me right away when she found her)
Erza shows sign of living for some time in an enclosure with males so she is either a tortoise that escaped her enclosure or most likely a tortoise that was abandonned.
Because i absolutely love tortoises i decided to keep her and everything was going on perfect until 1 month and a half ago.
So because we have mediterannean weather here tortoise do hibernate during winter, when they wake up in march/april they stay slippy and have slow reflexes for a few weeks until they are fully awake (during that time they are vulnerable).
So Erza was awake since about a week and she has always been living free range in the garden, i went up to her favorite hide to feed her breakfast and ... there i found her on her back all bloody with horrific injuries (do not scroll down if you have a hard time with blood and all that kind of stuff).
i own a dog grooming salon and i have whitnessed and suffered severe injuries , so i am okay with all this but it's still very heartbreaking to find your (about) 30years old tortoise in this state.
i rushed her to the emergency vet clinnic and after 3 clinnincs found one with a reptile/tortoise specialist that took amazing care of her since more than a month and a half.
by the way she was attacked by RATS (rats love tortoise flesh) and half of her toes were shewed off !
after being tubed for feeding, and being kept indoors for the first time in her life during almost 2 month, Erza is finally home since tuesday evening saved and infection free but still has a long way to recover and heal since tortoises have a MUCH slower healing process than humans and other mammals.
anyway just wanted to share
i found Erza in 2015 in the garden of the house my mum used to rent (i don't live with my mum but she called me right away when she found her)
Erza shows sign of living for some time in an enclosure with males so she is either a tortoise that escaped her enclosure or most likely a tortoise that was abandonned.
Because i absolutely love tortoises i decided to keep her and everything was going on perfect until 1 month and a half ago.
So because we have mediterannean weather here tortoise do hibernate during winter, when they wake up in march/april they stay slippy and have slow reflexes for a few weeks until they are fully awake (during that time they are vulnerable).
So Erza was awake since about a week and she has always been living free range in the garden, i went up to her favorite hide to feed her breakfast and ... there i found her on her back all bloody with horrific injuries (do not scroll down if you have a hard time with blood and all that kind of stuff).
i own a dog grooming salon and i have whitnessed and suffered severe injuries , so i am okay with all this but it's still very heartbreaking to find your (about) 30years old tortoise in this state.
i rushed her to the emergency vet clinnic and after 3 clinnincs found one with a reptile/tortoise specialist that took amazing care of her since more than a month and a half.
by the way she was attacked by RATS (rats love tortoise flesh) and half of her toes were shewed off !
after being tubed for feeding, and being kept indoors for the first time in her life during almost 2 month, Erza is finally home since tuesday evening saved and infection free but still has a long way to recover and heal since tortoises have a MUCH slower healing process than humans and other mammals.
anyway just wanted to share
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Poor Erza!! How awful!
thank you and yes Erza is very special to me so even though the vet i found is an hour away from my house i just had to bring her to a vet that knows about tortoise care 
)
that is wonderfull, if you can find some, tortoise absolutely LOVE Dandelion ! (mine also get crazy when i give them hibiscus flowers and prickly pears)
