My tortoise has problems with her limbs :(

by Melissa
(Sabah, Malaysia)

Hello everyone, please help me on this...

I have an Amboina Box Turtle, her name is Juliet. She is about the size of my palm. I bought her few months ago (abt mid 2010) at a local market. For the past few months, she has been great, she's eating well, and i fed her turtle pellets. How ever, since im studying at a college in another state, my mum has been taking care of her and 4 other tortoises (same species). After 3 months, i had a holiday and i flew down to see my mum and my tortoises. All of my tortoises seem fine, they are eating and acting as normal, except Juliet. She would not come out of her shell, she would not eat, she would not do anything. I knew she was still alive because when i tap her shell, she would close her shell even tighter. Even if i soaked her in warm water, she would not come out and when i took her out of the water, i could hear that she's gasping for air from within her shell :(

So, i decided to check what was happening in there. Her front carapace was opened a little most of the time, so i checked from there, and saw that she was very thin and in pain. When i checked her arms and legs, her right arm and her 2 back legs has a serious problem. At first, it seemed like they were broken or dislocated. But it seemed unlikely because Juliet has never fallen down from anything, or from anywhere or held up by anyone (as my mum told me). I begin to suspect maybe there were some bone growth problems or joint problems. Her skin seemed rough too, like there were small "wart-like" growth on her skin around her neck and legs. Till today, her head has not came out fully, and she's still not eating.

Another problem, vets are not available here, they do not treat tortoises (unfortunately) ...

so please anyone, who knows about these problem, or any vets out there who knows about tortoises, please tell me what to do to help her.

I have uploaded some pictures...hope it helps...

Thanks!