Concerning looking urates

Hello!! I am looking for advice regarding my tortoise, Terra. She is an eight year old horsefield tortoise. Three months ago she went off her food. For three weeks I encourage her to eat and I was bathing her twice a day with reptoboost. When that didn't make any difference I knew something was wrong and I took her to the vet. We discovered that she had follicles that were squashing her liver and stomach. The vet decided that the best thing was to wait and put her on antibiotic injections as a precaution. A month later at our next check up it was confirmed that she was in follicular stasis. The next day she had surgery to remove the follicles. The surgery was a success but the vet discovered that her liver was looking angry. She had a feeding tube placed for food and medication, including liver support. Last week the tube flipped and the vet decided to remove it. She was doing okay and eating not too bad. She is not gaining a lot of weight but just about maintaining her weight. Before the tube was removed, a week ago, I noticed that her urates were not looking right. They were orangish, lumpy and just horrible. I discussed this with the vet and she wasn't very concerned. She suggested stopping the strong painkillers and starting shallow baths to help her clear her system. An x-ray was done to make sure there was no excess debris in the bladder but everything looked okay. Today her demeanor changed and she wasn't keen on food. I gave her a wee bath and she passed urates that are looking very concerning. I am taking her to the vet on Tuesday and dropping of a sample of the urates tomorrow. I am very worried and panicked. I would appreciate if someone could advise me on what this could mean. Is she developing liver disease, is it and infection? Or is she just clearing her system and I am being dramatic? What is going on? Also the urates did have a green yuck around it, that mostly dissolve in water. The main chunk was grey/green and once I opened it up there was reddish stuff that was a bit gritty. Thank you!!

Hello there and thank you for this interesting question.  For others reading, many animals get rid of urea from the body in the form of urine, but tortoises produce a more solid waste-product, urates.  These should normally by chalky white in colour, but the colour does change to reflect the waste products that a tortoise is churning out at a particular time and this can be related to excesses of certain nurtrients or salts in the diet.  A dietary change may therefore be appropriate or they can also be indicative of kidney-related problems or dehydration, so this is certainly worth discussing with a good tortoise vet.