A disabled tortoise has his owners in a spin after being fitted with the rear wheels of a Hotwheels toy car to help him zoom around when he lost a leg.
Little Lena Hale, aged three, was horrified to hear her pet tortoise Touche would have to have his rear leg amputated after a nasty accident at home left him crippled.
But creative staff at Highcroft Vetinary Hospital in Whitchurch, Bristol, fixed the base of a toy car – including to the rear axle and two wheels – to the underside of his shell.
The ‘suped-up’ surgery took an hour and a half to complete and was a “complete success” with little Touche left un-phased by his new prosthetic.
Mum Lisa Purnell, 33, said: “It did upset me when I heard Touche would have to have his leg amputated but seeing him now I know it was the best decision.
“Lena and Touche are best friends. She wakes up every morning and wants to play with him, kiss him, feed him.
“She got really hysterical when she had to leave him at the vets, but I took her up there to say goodnight.
“She knows that she has to be really careful with him now, but he seems to be doing really well and getting to grips with his wheel.”
“It’s almost as though he doesn’t realise he hasn’t got a leg – he is zooming around the house as if nothing happened.”
Lisa, a support worker from Withywood, Bristol, described vet Sonya Miles as “amazing”.
Sonya said: “The little tortoise broke his leg in an accident and it was sadly a case of amputating his leg or putting him to sleep.
“We used a special resin to attach wheels that would lift him off the ground, so he would avoid traumatising the underside of his shell by dragging his back end.”
The Hotweels car chassis used was chosen from a range of toy cars donated to the vets by kind-hearted animal lovers to help get injured pets back no their feet.
Touche has made a speedy recovery since the operation on Friday and is now “zooming” around the house on his ‘hot’ wheels.
