# Just got a very sick Ornate Box turtle...



## Terry Allan Hall (Jan 24, 2011)

This is what happens when you take a baby box turtle, keep it in a dry environment, and only give it artificial light and iceberg lettuce...















Amazingly enough, the little dude has survived for 4 years like this!

Besides the deformed shell, his rear legs are very weak, one eye only opens part way, the other not at all, and he won't eat.

Got him some unfiltered sunshine today (only about 30 minutes, but he'll get more tomorrow), he's gotten some Vitamin A shots and we're tempting him w/ everything we can think of to get him to eat..soon as we get him to eat, he's going to get plenty of calcium flour mixed in his food!

The sunlight perked him up for a few hours, but not enough to eat, yet...tomorrow he'll hopefully get 3-4 hours and I'm going to put everything I can think of for a box-turtle to eat in easy access...blackberries, strawberries, meal worms, cantaloupe, earthworms, cooked white chicken, a variety of carefully chopped veggies...

Prayers and suggestions are welcome!


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## dmmj (Jan 24, 2011)

It looks like pickles (I think that is her name) but not as bad. no real suggestions besides sunlight and calcium. try some night crawlers poor thing has probably never had a worm in it's life.


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## terryo (Jan 24, 2011)

Seeing this really hurts. I'm sure she'll do fine with you, but good wishes and prayers coming your way. My Ornate is over 30 years old now, and if I leave her out too long before the cold weather comes, her eyes get puffy and shut. I usually put some Terramycin on them with warm soaks and after a few days she's fine again. She just can't hibernate outside any more. Very sad to see a little one like that.


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## dmmj (Jan 24, 2011)

at 4 it will most likely still like protein more than fruits or vegetables but it can't hurt to try.


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## Yvonne G (Jan 24, 2011)

This is a good candidate for the Gerber baby food soaks. Be watchful for the skin to slough off after receiving Vit. a injections.


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## Terry Allan Hall (Jan 24, 2011)

terryo said:


> Seeing this really hurts. I'm sure she'll do fine with you, but good wishes and prayers coming your way. My Ornate is over 30 years old now, and if I leave her out too long before the cold weather comes, her eyes get puffy and shut. I usually put some Terramycin on them with warm soaks and after a few days she's fine again. She just can't hibernate outside any more. Very sad to see a little one like that.



I'll go get some Terramycin tomorrow!



dmmj said:


> at 4 it will most likely still like protein more than fruits or vegetables but it can't hurt to try.



At this point, anything I can get him to eat will be an improvement...my plan is finding out what gets him excited and use that to flavor some Mazuri Tort chow mixed w/ finely chopped veggies.



emysemys said:


> This is a good candidate for the Gerber baby food soaks. Be watchful for the skin to slough off after receiving Vit. a injections.



Forgot about that, but I'll try a baby-food soak right now!

Thanks, all!


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## kimber_lee_314 (Jan 24, 2011)

Poor baby!! I get so angry when I see preventable illness and deformities like this. How hard is it to type "box turtle care" into a computer? There's no excuse!!! Thank you for helping this little one.


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## Terry Allan Hall (Jan 28, 2011)

Have done the baby-food soaks for the last few days and the little dude is looking better, but still not eating much. 

Yesterday, I put him in a heavily "carroted" mix and he stayed in for several hours, as I was called away much longer than planned...when I got home, BOTH eyes were open and he was pretty active, and I think he ate a piece of soaked-until-soft catfood and he had blackberry stains on mis snout, so that gives me hope.

Today, it's due to get up to a sunny 72F, so he's getting a long afternoon out on the porch and this time I'm going to count how many pieces of catfood/other stuff he's offered, so I can be sure if he's eating and how much. 

Also, if my daughter runs into town, I'm going to have her pick up some mealworms.

That's all the news at this point.


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## Jessicap (Jan 28, 2011)

so a box turtle on washable carpet with just a water dish is probably not a "good" thing. I just read on craisgslist a couple days ago that someone had one and had just bought washable carpet for it and a water dish I will have to find and repost it here to see if anyone would be interested. 

Good luck with your little guy - glad to hear he seems to be doing somewhat better.


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## Paige Lewis (Jan 28, 2011)

It is good to know that he is in good hands now and that he is doing a lot better!


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## RianSeeking (Jan 28, 2011)

Poor baby. Sending healthy thoughts his way.


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## Kristina (Jan 28, 2011)

Be a little careful with the mealworms - don't want to overload him with un-digestable chiton. 

Nightcrawlers and redworms are good choices. 

Best wishes!


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## Terry Allan Hall (Jan 29, 2011)

Jessicap said:


> so a box turtle on washable carpet with just a water dish is probably not a "good" thing. I just read on craisgslist a couple days ago that someone had one and had just bought washable carpet for it and a water dish I will have to find and repost it here to see if anyone would be interested.
> 
> Good luck with your little guy - glad to hear he seems to be doing somewhat better.



That kind of set-up is great for a snake, which does better on a very dry substrata, but not good for turtles/tortoises.



Paige Lewis said:


> It is good to know that he is in good hands now and that he is doing a lot better!



Hoping I can do him some good...always looks a lot better after getting some sun or a soak, but he's still not eating good enough...considering trying force-feeding him a little, but prefer to use that as a last-resort option.


kyryah said:


> Be a little careful with the mealworms - don't want to overload him with un-digestable chiton.
> 
> Nightcrawlers and redworms are good choices.
> 
> Best wishes!



How about waxworms? Or thawed frozen bloodworms, like those sold for aquarium fish?


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## ChiKat (Jan 29, 2011)

Awww poor thing...glad he's doing better


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## terryo (Jan 29, 2011)

When ever I have a boxie that won't eat or is sick, or when it's close to hibernation time, I feed canned venison with sweet potato, sprinkled with vitamins. Venison has a strong smell, so maybe that why they like it.


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## Kristina (Jan 29, 2011)

Bloodworms are fine, waxworms are too fatty to be a staple food, but once in a while as a treat is fine.


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## dmmj (Jan 29, 2011)

I would use force feeding as a last last resort, even though wax worms are fatty for now I would try some just to get him eating, then go from there. My 2 cents.


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## Terry Allan Hall (Jan 29, 2011)

OK, will try to get some bloodworms tomorrow...today, he got another soak in carrot puree-water out on my porch, about 4 hours worth, as it was a warm day (low 70s) w/ plenty of sun. Looked better and, again, both eyes were open by the time he was through...felt heavier, too, so presumably he drank some carrot-water.

Offered him some canned dog-food, but I didn't notice any eaten, at least thus far.

Hopefully, the bloodworms'll appeal to him. and I'll see if I can get some canned venison somewhere.


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## Kristina (Jan 29, 2011)

I'm telling you - nothing will get him eating like a big, fat, wriggling nightcrawler. They can't resist them.


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## terryo (Jan 29, 2011)

kyryah said:


> I'm telling you - nothing will get him eating like a big, fat, wriggling nightcrawler. They can't resist them.



I have to agree with this Kristina.


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## Terry Allan Hall (Jan 29, 2011)

kyryah said:


> I'm telling you - nothing will get him eating like a big, fat, wriggling nightcrawler. They can't resist them.



Tried him on one this evening in his foot dish...no interest, so far.

Dampened the soil in his tank enough to keep some night crawlers alive and put the rest in there w/ him, so maybe he'll grow interested, eventually.

Pretty sick little dude.


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## Terry Allan Hall (Jan 29, 2011)

If Quasi has never been around natural box turtle foods (bugs, worms, etc.), would he know they're food? 

The girl who rescued him, and passed him onto me, thinks that possibly all he's even been fed was iceberg lettuce and some kind of catfood, but doesn't know for certain anything much about him...he was brought to the vet's office where she works, and the owner disappeared when she found out that vets don't give free care to turtles, apparently... and nobody at the clinic has ever worked on anything except dogs, cats, and farm stock.


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## Kristina (Jan 30, 2011)

My advice is to put him in a tank with plain topsoil substrate, some plants, like pothos, spider plants, draecena, spathum peace lilly, etc. and cover the soil with damp sphagnum moss and/or clean leaf litter. I would put some worms, slugs, wood lice, etc. in there too. Continue to baby food soak him, but other than that leave him alone and let him hide and de-stress. 

Get some mazuri, it has a strong smell, soak it prior to offering it and try just a pellet a day for now. You can start mixing in some finely chopped greens and bits of mushroom once he starts eating the mazuri.


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## dmmj (Jan 30, 2011)

Terry Allan Hall said:


> If Quasi has never been around natural box turtle foods (bugs, worms, etc.), would he know they're food?
> 
> The girl who rescued him, and passed him onto me, thinks that possibly all he's even been fed was iceberg lettuce and some kind of catfood, but doesn't know for certain anything much about him...he was brought to the vet's office where she works, and the owner disappeared when she found out that vets don't give free care to turtles, apparently... and nobody at the clinic has ever worked on anything except dogs, cats, and farm stock.


I can relate a funny story about boxies and natural food. U got a dog chewed 3 toed from the riverside animal shelter, and they had thought he had been raised on a non natural box turtle food all his life, even though besides his shell being chewed up he looked pretty good, so I got some home grown worms and plopped one in and the poor guy ran away from it, he seemed scared, but after about 10 or 15 minutes he must have either realized it was food or something because he started chowing down on them.


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## Terry Allan Hall (Jan 30, 2011)

kyryah said:


> My advice is to put him in a tank with plain topsoil substrate, some plants, like pothos, spider plants, draecena, spathum peace lilly, etc. and cover the soil with damp sphagnum moss and/or clean leaf litter. I would put some worms, slugs, wood lice, etc. in there too. Continue to baby food soak him, but other than that leave him alone and let him hide and de-stress.
> 
> Get some mazuri, it has a strong smell, soak it prior to offering it and try just a pellet a day for now. You can start mixing in some finely chopped greens and bits of mushroom once he starts eating the mazuri.


Quazi is already in a tank w/ about 2" of damp soil, a nice hide-box, and a different daily food offering (today it's the bloodworms), along w/ night crawlers, sow bugs (what some call wood lice) and some grubworms I dug out of our mulch pile crawling about in the dirt. Will add some leaf litter tomorrow.

Had another baby-food soak today for about 5 hours.

So far, he has ignored the Mazuri.


dmmj said:


> Terry Allan Hall said:
> 
> 
> > If Quasi has never been around natural box turtle foods (bugs, worms, etc.), would he know they're food?
> ...



Looking forward to the day the little dude does the same.


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## Leebug (Jan 30, 2011)

Poor guy!! We just saved a dessert tort a few weeks ago, Franklin, we are on the right track now and hopefully soon he'll be walking again! Good luck w/ the lil guy!!!



newtortoiseowner said:


> Poor guy!! We just saved a dessert tort a few weeks ago, Franklin, we are on the right track now and hopefully soon he'll be walking again! Good luck w/ the lil guy!!!



LOL!! *desert
(I'm craving chocolate!!)


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## Terry Allan Hall (Jan 30, 2011)

newtortoiseowner said:


> Poor guy!! We just saved a dessert tort a few weeks ago, Franklin, we are on the right track now and hopefully soon he'll be walking again! Good luck w/ the lil guy!!!
> 
> 
> 
> ...





Craving chocolates, ya say? Have you seen this, in the 2011 calendar?


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## Terry Allan Hall (Feb 7, 2011)

*Latest Quasimodo news*...both eyes stay open w/o eye-wash, he's boogieing around his tank, and the dozen earthworms I "stocked" the dirt in his tank with were all missing last night...no great interest is any other food, thus far, but when I put 25 more nightcrawlers in his tank today, he started digging away after one.


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## Edna (Feb 7, 2011)

That's awsome news! I'm glad to hear he's doing better and eating what he should eat. I wonder if his poor little shell will grow to look more normal one day.


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## Torty Mom (Feb 7, 2011)

Yay!! Awesome news!!! When I rescued my ornate boxie Rusty, he refused to eat. Took him about 3 weeks. He was fed raw hamburger meat, prior to my care. I had to do a huge tough love feeding schedule. He finally started eating meal worms, but would not eat if anyone was within eyesight. Now he will eat night crawlers also, fresh from the garden!! He will also eat in front of us now, but that took about 1 year! Glad things are looking up for the little guy!!


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## Terry Allan Hall (Feb 8, 2011)

TortyQueen said:


> That's awsome news! I'm glad to hear he's doing better and eating what he should eat. I wonder if his poor little shell will grow to look more normal one day.



*Probably not much, if any improvement, but at least it's not soft.*



Torty Mom said:


> Yay!! Awesome news!!! When I rescued my ornate boxie Rusty, he refused to eat. Took him about 3 weeks. He was fed raw hamburger meat, prior to my care. I had to do a huge tough love feeding schedule. He finally started eating meal worms, but would not eat if anyone was within eyesight. Now he will eat night crawlers also, fresh from the garden!! He will also eat in front of us now, but that took about 1 year! Glad things are looking up for the little guy!!



*Bought a package of 30 "Trout worms" (whatever they might be...look like small - 6-8" long - nightcrawlers), dumped 'em in one pile in the corner of his tank and he come a-running, and literally dived into the pile of worms...in the course of 10 minutes he scarfed down six...and then took a breath! Didn't seem to care where we were, he was totally focused on those worms, who were totally focused on getting out of his sight... 

Snoozing under his basking light at the moment. 

His eyes have been completely clear for the last few days and we're supposed to be in the low 60s Saturday, so all the torts get to go out onto the front porch and catch some rays! *


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## african cake queen (Feb 13, 2011)

Terry Allan Hall said:


> This is what happens when you take a baby box turtle, keep it in a dry environment, and only give it artificial light and iceberg lettuce...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 heart breaking , good luck. momo


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## Terry Allan Hall (Feb 13, 2011)

momo said:


> Terry Allan Hall said:
> 
> 
> > This is what happens when you take a baby box turtle, keep it in a dry environment, and only give it artificial light and iceberg lettuce...
> ...



The little dude is doing MUCH better...his eyes have been completely clear for the last several days and he's hunting the worms I released into his tank's dirt...


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## Shelly (Feb 15, 2011)

Good job, Terry.


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## terryo (Feb 15, 2011)

I'm so happy to hear this. You did a wonderful job helping him. He was a sad little dude until YOU found him.


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## Terry Allan Hall (Feb 15, 2011)

Shelly said:


> Good job, Terry.





terryo said:


> I'm so happy to hear this. You did a wonderful job helping him. He was a sad little dude until YOU found him.



Thanks, but the credit should really go to this tough little dude and all of you good folks offering so many excellent suggestions in getting him well!


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