Drowned Nearly

DoubleD1996!

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2021
Messages
1,257
Location (City and/or State)
Memphis
Boy, does this bring back memories- bad ones.

I had an eastern mud turtle who somehow got herself trapped under her basking platform one night. When I got up in the morning and found her, I almost freaked. Like you, I grabbed her out, held her head down and pumped her legs. She finally started to move, so I set her in an empty tub, on folded paper towels with a warm lamp on her. When she appeared strong enough to handle being back in her tank, I put her back in.

She seemed ok for a couple of weeks. Then I noticed that when she swam or floated, she was lopsided: her right shoulder was lower in the water than her left shoulder. I took her to an exotics vet who diagnosed pneumonia.
This will be a very long story if I don’t summarize, so I’ll summarize.
A week in Hosp with daily antibiotic injections, daily nebulizer etc, then home.
Seemed better but the pneumonia came back 6 months later.
Hospital again, more intensive treatment, then home after a week or so.
Another 6 months and the pneumonia came back- this time the exotics vet referred us to the state veterinary school. (I live in Louisiana, and our vet school has a reputation of being particularly good with exotics).
They treated similarly. But it just came back again.

By then it was a year and a half since the original downing incident. She was just slowly getting worse over time, and I opted for euthanasia and a necropsy.

The necropsy report showed that she still had crud from the aquarium water in her airways- after a year and a half!!!!! That crud was acting like seeds of bacteria causing the pneumonia. As long as the crud was there, it would just start another pneumonia after one had been treated. TURTLES CANNOT COUGH- they don’t have diaphragms like we do. WE can cough out crud in our airways- they can’t.

She was slowly dying for a year and a half despite our best efforts.

I will add my voice to what some of the other members have already said: PLEASE TAKE HER TO AN EXOTICS VET to be examined and possibly treated.
I wish you the very best of luck with this.❤️
Sounds terrible!

I would take him to a vet, but you have to understand, reptile keeping isn't common here, so I'd have to find the time to travel out of state.

Lucky for me, I've befriended some exotic vets and mentors out of state who have guided me over the years(when they answer 😂).

He's doing much better, but is still taking antibiotics for a scar on his foot.
 

DoubleD1996!

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2021
Messages
1,257
Location (City and/or State)
Memphis
I'd say in another week almond will be good to go in the pond!

Only took him a day or two to act normal, but now he's begging for food, and darting off when i clean his water as usual.

The swelling is completely gone.

There is some scar tissue, but he's been shedding lately so it's healing right.

With daily water changes and anti biotic and fungus, he is doing well.
 

Attachments

  • 20230604_082708.jpg
    20230604_082708.jpg
    1.3 MB · Views: 3

New Posts

Top