My eastern box turtle, Junior Moon, has stopped eating. Eating. This has been almost a month and a half.
She's seen a veterinarian who knows turtles well. Additionally, I conferred with a vet who had seen her her when I lived in another town.
The first vet x-rayed her to check for egg binding. Negative there. Also checked her to see if she was going into a hibernation mode. Negative there also.
He instructed me to hold off on anything other than observing her. To keep an eye on her weight. If she lost 10% of her body weight, that's when to worry. To make sure she's getting UVB and UVA lighting. To keep her in an appropriate enclosure with appropriate substrate. To make certain she had food available at all times if she wanted to eat again. All of this I did and have done for a while.
The second vet I conferred with 4 weeks into this problem. She said wait and watch.
Her weight has been steady for two weeks now, since I started measuring it. That is, her weight weight has been steady compared to her weight when she first went in to see the vet. If anything, her weight has gone up a hair.
I am sick with worry. No matter what the vets say, this is a long time in my estimation for the turtle to go without food. The first vet said she might be eating strata. Has anyone heard of this? She's not pooping when she has a bath, so that seems unlikely.
Despite what I see as less muscle, she moves around her enclosure all day long. Long. And burrows into the substrate and moss. She's alert, almost hyper-alert, keeping her head extended and up.
I've also noticed she doesn't seem to protest as much, moving her arms about. I don't know how to check for muscle mass, I could swear there is less strength and muscle coming from her shoulders that I can touch just inside her shell.
Please, if anyone has had a similar situation and the turtle survived, give me a little hope here. Did you have to do anything special other than wait? Could a new type of substrate help? I changed it out for a new type just a week and a half after she stopped eating. I wanted to see if that might be part of the problem. She did not start up again, obviously.
Thank you.
Mitch
She's seen a veterinarian who knows turtles well. Additionally, I conferred with a vet who had seen her her when I lived in another town.
The first vet x-rayed her to check for egg binding. Negative there. Also checked her to see if she was going into a hibernation mode. Negative there also.
He instructed me to hold off on anything other than observing her. To keep an eye on her weight. If she lost 10% of her body weight, that's when to worry. To make sure she's getting UVB and UVA lighting. To keep her in an appropriate enclosure with appropriate substrate. To make certain she had food available at all times if she wanted to eat again. All of this I did and have done for a while.
The second vet I conferred with 4 weeks into this problem. She said wait and watch.
Her weight has been steady for two weeks now, since I started measuring it. That is, her weight weight has been steady compared to her weight when she first went in to see the vet. If anything, her weight has gone up a hair.
I am sick with worry. No matter what the vets say, this is a long time in my estimation for the turtle to go without food. The first vet said she might be eating strata. Has anyone heard of this? She's not pooping when she has a bath, so that seems unlikely.
Despite what I see as less muscle, she moves around her enclosure all day long. Long. And burrows into the substrate and moss. She's alert, almost hyper-alert, keeping her head extended and up.
I've also noticed she doesn't seem to protest as much, moving her arms about. I don't know how to check for muscle mass, I could swear there is less strength and muscle coming from her shoulders that I can touch just inside her shell.
Please, if anyone has had a similar situation and the turtle survived, give me a little hope here. Did you have to do anything special other than wait? Could a new type of substrate help? I changed it out for a new type just a week and a half after she stopped eating. I wanted to see if that might be part of the problem. She did not start up again, obviously.
Thank you.
Mitch
