Kindness Of Strangers Saves Elderly British Tortoise From Gout

<p><a class="checked-link" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/merula/">Alastair Rae</a></p>
<p><a class="checked-link" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/merula/">Alastair Rae</a></p>

Thanks to donations that came from as far away as Australia, an 80-year-old British tortoise suffering from gout can now afford his medication.

Humphrey, a spur-thighed tortoise who lives in a sanctuary in King's Lynn, England, received a human treatment for gout, in an experimental therapy prescribed by his vet. Humphrey "is an elderly tortoise with a zest for life" who suffered "from such severe gout that it left him completely immobile and swells his joints," says Donna Stocking, a charity worker at the Norfolk Tortoise Club, to a local news source.

Tortoises get gout when they eat too many peas, beans, spinach and other vegetables, and don't munch on enough weeds or flowers.

The international donation drive covered the costs -- about $675 -- for a year's supply of gout medication."Within a week Humphrey was walking again," Stocking says, "and even chasing the girls."

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