Bianca1975
New Member
Hi all, I just returned from work and found my 6 year old ornata box turtle male dead. He is stiff with rigor mortis so I can't open his mouth for clues at the moment. He was not ill at all so I am feeling guilty as I think it was all my fault.
Normally he was in his tank with some females but as I had 2extra females returned from the vet on tuesday, I put him in a plastic container with a water bowl and fresh water as of tuesday evening. It would be temporarely as the new enclosure is a good as finished. He was doing fine, no signs of illness at all. And today he is dead. His water bowl was dry and I am not sure if I had refreshed it between tuesday evening and today, but could that (max 2,5 days without water) be a reason he died? I feel really bad about the dry water dish, it is all because I worked wit a closed plastic container (of course with air holes but because it was closed I did not see everything), if I would not have moved him from his normal tank he would probably still be alive. Does anyone have an idea of what could have happened? My husband put the container outside today but it was not that warm, around 20 degrees so I don't think it was the sun.
For your background; the reason why the females were hospitalized earlier was that they had nose bubles and I also had a male at the time with serious breathing problems that died on the day I had found him already 2 months or so ago. The vet did an autopsy at the time and there were signs of viral infiltration. The vet also though of mycoplasma bacteria but per the vet this normally is not lethal. These issues started directly after hibernation a couple of months ago, it affected some adults but also some hatchlings, a couple of them died as well. since may, everything seemed to be normal again, the turtles were without issues and the ones that were hospitalized improved as well the last couple of weeks. This has been a horrible turtle year for me so far. I have had them already for >25 years without any dead animals....this year it has been 6 altogether (2 adults and 4 hatchlings).
Kind regards, Bianca, The Netherlands
Normally he was in his tank with some females but as I had 2extra females returned from the vet on tuesday, I put him in a plastic container with a water bowl and fresh water as of tuesday evening. It would be temporarely as the new enclosure is a good as finished. He was doing fine, no signs of illness at all. And today he is dead. His water bowl was dry and I am not sure if I had refreshed it between tuesday evening and today, but could that (max 2,5 days without water) be a reason he died? I feel really bad about the dry water dish, it is all because I worked wit a closed plastic container (of course with air holes but because it was closed I did not see everything), if I would not have moved him from his normal tank he would probably still be alive. Does anyone have an idea of what could have happened? My husband put the container outside today but it was not that warm, around 20 degrees so I don't think it was the sun.
For your background; the reason why the females were hospitalized earlier was that they had nose bubles and I also had a male at the time with serious breathing problems that died on the day I had found him already 2 months or so ago. The vet did an autopsy at the time and there were signs of viral infiltration. The vet also though of mycoplasma bacteria but per the vet this normally is not lethal. These issues started directly after hibernation a couple of months ago, it affected some adults but also some hatchlings, a couple of them died as well. since may, everything seemed to be normal again, the turtles were without issues and the ones that were hospitalized improved as well the last couple of weeks. This has been a horrible turtle year for me so far. I have had them already for >25 years without any dead animals....this year it has been 6 altogether (2 adults and 4 hatchlings).
Kind regards, Bianca, The Netherlands