An overweight turtle is agile again after a roller board therapy.
For a year now, Helmuth, the heavy male turtle from Gelsenkirchen, has been making people smile. It’s too cute to see how the beige-brown colossus trudges through his enclosure on the specially made roller board. And even if since yesterday it looks like there is a happy ending for Helmuth, his story remains one of those stories that seem less and less funny the longer you deal with them.
Because Helmuth lived the first 20 years of his life with someone who apparently meant it too well for him. And who fattened the animal, which is adapted to the barren nature and the even more barren foraging grounds of the African Sahel zone, with all kinds of goodies until Helmuth cracked the 100 kilo mark. Because of this history, the turtle, which has lived in Gelsenkirchen Zoo for several years, weighs around 20 kilos too much for its age. Which is surprising on the one hand because the turtle shell should represent something like a natural boundary, but on the other it also explains why Helmuth barely wanted to move at some point.
An examination with a computer tomograph for horses finally showed that Helmuth suffers from shoulder arthritis and tends to avoid movement because of the pain in his joints. Relief was initially provided by painkillers and warm baths. But because movement is also a part of massive desert animals, Helmuth received a roller board under the tanks from an orthopedic technician from Bochum in May 2021. From then on Helmuth rolled around.
And now, after months of training with his special wheelchair, the news got around yesterday that Helmuth can walk again without support. “We’re watching that, of course,” said the zoo manager Hendrik Berendson, dampening the initial euphoria in an interview with the German press agency. One thing is certain: Helmuth’s enjoyment of movement has increased, he has become more agile. First of all, Helmuth’s times on the roller board, which was fastened to the tank with belts, were reduced further and further. Now the vet has given her okay that Helmuth can move around again without aids for the time being.
Unlike his wild relatives, Helmuth will probably not hunt any insects in the future either. But now he can walk to the salad buffet in the outdoor enclosure on his own again.
