MONCTON — When the staff at Moncton’s Magnetic Hill Zoo realized Sherman, an African Sulcata tortoise, was having difficulty walking, they quickly sprang into action, crafting him his own set of wheels.
Sharon Moss, a zookeeper at the zoo, first noticed the reptile was dragging his hind legs in 2019.
“I noticed he wasn’t moving around as much. He was staying in the same spot a lot and then when I did see him trying to move, his movement wasn’t really normal,” said Moss.
Sherman then underwent multiple tests and procedures, including x-rays and CT scans. During one of his most recent tests, the zoo’s veterinarian technician, Gabrielle Jacob, noticed a mass on his spinal cord.
“We’ve kind of ruled out cancer at this point because it did not grow between our first and second CT, so we’re kind of leaning more towards a sort of granuloma or an abscess or something like that,” said Jacob.
The tortoise began developing pressure sores on his undercarriage, leaving him almost immobile. Determined to help the 80-kilogram tortoise live his life to the fullest, Jacob and her team began building Sherman his very own wheelchair.
"This isn’t the first tortoise wheelchair that's been done, so I kind of took little pieces from each reference," said Jacob.
After testing out a few different models, they finally landed on a winner and Sherman was off to the races. Jacob is unsure at this point if 24-year-old Sherman will need the wheelchair for the rest of his life, but she said she is pleased with his progress so far.
“He’s leaps and bounds from where he was in 2019, so I’m very, very positive on what’s happened so far so, even if he does stay in the chair forever, I think he’s very happy.”
