Manitoba animal rescue using 'shell-evator' to help save turtle

A Manitoba animal rescue is using an innovative tool to help lift a sick and malnourished snapping turtle back into good health.

It’s called a “shell-evator” and it’s being used by the Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre to help a turtle with a shell that’s caving in from years of neglect.

Veterinarian Tess McPheeters said the snapping turtle came to rescue after being confiscated as an illegal pet.

“If you keep reptiles indoors and inappropriately, giving them not the right diet and lighting and husbandry, they can get metabolic bone disease,” she explained.

“So they start breaking down the hard bone and using the calcium from that, so her shell became soft and concave.”

The shell-evator involves the use of a bracing system that will lift the shell back to its original height over the next year.

“We obviously immediately started giving her the proper diet, lighting, and supplementation in order to help that shell and those bones re-firm, and in the meantime, obviously we’re tightening,” McPheeters said.

McPheeters added this is the first time a shell-elevator has been used in Manitoba, adding that the turtle’s health has greatly improved since she came to the rescue.

-With files from CTV’s Ainsley McPhail