Please help!!!

[LoraJean]

Sorry, this is long
I have an 11 year old Russian tortoise, that was mauled by a loose dog that chewed it's way into his outside pen. When I found him he was on his back, had holes all over his carapace, one side was almost completely crushed in, and he was bleeding. I put band aids on the holes, and wrapped him up and drove him to a emergency vet in Madison. He was in surgery for 4 hours patching up the larger holes. The vet left the small punctures open to keep from sealing in the infection. He is very active, and acting like himself, crawling around everywhere. But not eating. I have to lavage his 14 wounds, 3 times a day with a syringe of sterile saline, and then put silver sulfadiazine ointment over them afterwards. He has to go back every 3 days for up to 6 weeks for antibiotic injections. This is all fine with me, and completely worth it, but the surgery and the injections, cost me already over 1,000 dollars. And my vet informed me that if he doesn't eat by the time he has another shot tomorrow, they will have to put him on a feeding tube. And I really do not think I can swing the cost of that, he gave me an estimate, and it is just crazy, especially because he would have to be on it for so long. So my question is, Is there a way any one knows of getting a Russian tortoise to eat? any change in temperature, or maybe special foods? I can understand his lack of desire in eating, he only came out of anesthesia less than 24 hours ago. Maybe that is all it is, if so, does anyone know how long it takes for their appetite to come back? Do antibiotic injections cause lack of appetite? I don't understand how he can be so active and goofy, and not want to eat anything. his usual diet is Organic mixed baby greens and organic strawberries. Any help would be extremely appreciated. Thanks.
Lora

[LoraJean]

UPDATE:

I just went upstairs, and Stewie ate all of his food! So happy..........

[Jem_Scout]

Yippeeeeeeeeee!!! Just keep feeding him! lol

[leoares27]

wow...that whole situation just stinks!! I"m glad he ate for you. congrats! and good luck with the rest of the recooperation

[John_E_Dove]

Glad it ate for you, that is a big step.
If you are following the normal temp fluxuations I would advise kicking up both the cool end and night time drop temps by 10 degrees.
Don't ask me why it works but generally healing Turtles and Tortoise do better under slightly higher than what is suggested for a healthy animal.
For your Russian this would mean boosting the day time low end temps to 80F and the night time drop up to the low 70s.