Published: 10:54AM BST 28 Aug 2009
The three-year-old spur-thighed tortoise called Twinnie who is the size of a 50p coin would have died if the half inch wide stone blocking her bladder had not been removed.
But her owner Lorna Parker, 46, from Norwich, spent £400 on surgery to remove the stone.
Veterinary surgeon Louise Rayment-Dyble operated on Twinnie with a Dremel drill and cutting blade bought from the B&Q store in Hellessdon, Norwich.
She cut an inch wide square in the underside shell and sliced open the tortoise's bladder to remove the stone in an hour long operation.
Twinnie who weighs just one ounce was then stitched up and had the piece of shell stuck back in place with a special glue and a resin to make a watertight barrier.
It was allowed home two days later and is now recovering by slowly getting used again to her diet of dandelions, thistles and lettuce treats.
Mrs Rayment-Dyble, 38, who has been a vet for 15 years and runs All Creatures Healthcare in Horsford, Norfolk, said: "The drill from B&Q was perfect for the job.
"I bought it a little while ago to operate on tortoises because you need something with a powerful torque force to cut through their shells.
"Twinnie is the smallest tortoise I have operated on and I had to wear special magnifying pair of glasses to see what I was doing. The stone was an incredible size bearing in mind how tiny she is. It must have been extremely painful.
"The owner brought her in last week because she had gone off her food and was constipated. Bladder stones are a common problem in tortoises and an X-Ray showed she had this huge one inside her.
"I told the owner that I could either put her to sleep to stop her suffering or we could try and operate. People love their tortoises and she asked me to operate to give Twinnie a chance of life."
Mrs Rayment-Dyble said tortoises developed stones if they got pieces of grit in their bladders which then built up with urate from their bodies.
She said: "The stones grow as the waste builds up like the layers of an onion. This particular one was enormous compared to the size of Twinnie's body - the biggest I have seen."
Mrs Parker, a part time artist, said she noticed Twinnie was ill last week when she was off her food and straining as she tried in vain to pass water.
She said: "I suspected that she might have a bladder stone and I put her in warm water to try and help her relax and pass it naturally.
"That did not do any good so I took her to the vet who X-rayed her. It showed up this huge stone. It was so big that there was no way it would get through her pelvis.
"I was told there were three options - let her die, euthanase her, or try and get the stone out."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/6104616/Tortoise-saved-by-BandQ-drill.html
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