Last Autumn I took in a nice female Gulf Coast turtle. She had a hair-line crack front to back along the side of her carapace. When I first got her the crack was weeping a tiny bit, and she didn't use her back legs - just dragged herself along with her front legs. However, when you touched a back leg she would withdraw it, so I had hopes maybe it was just a bruise and she would eventually recover. So I set her up in a hospital tank over the winter.
This Spring it looked like she was getting around pretty good, still not 100%, but moving and occasionally using her legs, so I put her outside in a small box turtle habitat. I left her there for about a week, but she really never moved or ate (she had been a big eater over winter).
Last Friday I picked her up for an inspection and she had foam around her mouth, crusty eyes and looked pretty sick, so I brought her in the house and started her soaking in Terramycin water. I left her soaking for a couple hours, and later on, when I looked in on her, her eyes were open and looking good. Her mouth is still a bit on the pale side, but no longer foaming.
I have a big plastic tub, about maybe 3' long, and I made a little habitat in there with substrate, plants, a hiding place and a waterer. She was in there all week-end, with morning soaks in Terramycin. She ate.
This morning as I was walking by her enclosure (which is outside) and much to my horror, the back of her shell that was showing out the front of the hiding place, was covered in tiny maggots. I thought, "Oh NO! Is she dead?" But when I tapped on her, she withdrew her legs.
When I picked her up, the majority of the maggots were on her cloaca, which was red and swollen. So, in the house again. As I was washing off the maggots, I saw that there were many, many of them actually inside the cloaca. I don't know if they will seek refuge up inside the turtle to get away from the water she's sitting in. I took the round end of a flat toothpick and got as many maggots as I could see out of her, but I can't go inside the turtle too far, so don't know if there are more in there. After her soak, I'm going to squirt some mineral oil up into the cloaca area.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make sure I've got all the maggots out of her? Do you think it would be ok to squirt peroxide up there?
It looks like just soaking might do the trick. Before I came here to start this thread, I had her all cleaned off and all visible maggots washed off except for what I couldn't get to inside her cloaca. As you can see, there are now many maggots on her shell, climbing up the walls, and floating in the water. Looks like Miss Turtle will be spending quite a bit of time in the soaking tub today.
This Spring it looked like she was getting around pretty good, still not 100%, but moving and occasionally using her legs, so I put her outside in a small box turtle habitat. I left her there for about a week, but she really never moved or ate (she had been a big eater over winter).
Last Friday I picked her up for an inspection and she had foam around her mouth, crusty eyes and looked pretty sick, so I brought her in the house and started her soaking in Terramycin water. I left her soaking for a couple hours, and later on, when I looked in on her, her eyes were open and looking good. Her mouth is still a bit on the pale side, but no longer foaming.
I have a big plastic tub, about maybe 3' long, and I made a little habitat in there with substrate, plants, a hiding place and a waterer. She was in there all week-end, with morning soaks in Terramycin. She ate.
This morning as I was walking by her enclosure (which is outside) and much to my horror, the back of her shell that was showing out the front of the hiding place, was covered in tiny maggots. I thought, "Oh NO! Is she dead?" But when I tapped on her, she withdrew her legs.
When I picked her up, the majority of the maggots were on her cloaca, which was red and swollen. So, in the house again. As I was washing off the maggots, I saw that there were many, many of them actually inside the cloaca. I don't know if they will seek refuge up inside the turtle to get away from the water she's sitting in. I took the round end of a flat toothpick and got as many maggots as I could see out of her, but I can't go inside the turtle too far, so don't know if there are more in there. After her soak, I'm going to squirt some mineral oil up into the cloaca area.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make sure I've got all the maggots out of her? Do you think it would be ok to squirt peroxide up there?
It looks like just soaking might do the trick. Before I came here to start this thread, I had her all cleaned off and all visible maggots washed off except for what I couldn't get to inside her cloaca. As you can see, there are now many maggots on her shell, climbing up the walls, and floating in the water. Looks like Miss Turtle will be spending quite a bit of time in the soaking tub today.