JennTN
New Member
Hi all!,
I understand that this is a tortoise forum, but I have been unable to find a turtle forum to post this question to, so I was hoping there was someone here who might have some experience, and that may be able to help. I know that there is a site called Turtle Forum, but they have not confirmed my profile, even after having waited for a week, and my questions are time-sensitive.
On May 16th, my daughters found a female, sub-adult, eastern box turtle with its eyes swollen shut. We brought it home with the intent to rehabilitate her and take her back EXACTLY where we found her. I know there are those who will say that it is unethical to take a turtle from their territory, but I figure it was inhumane to leave her blind and helpless, so here we are. I am not really interested in a discussion about the ethics of relocating eastern box turtles. I called a local vet that works with reptiles, and the woman told me that they would rehabilitate the turtle and then release it. When I said that I wanted to make sure that it was released back where it came from, the woman tried to tell me that they weren't territorial (and was rude) so I ended the discussion. I called a local turtle rehabilitator and they said that they would try to get the turtle back close to her home, but that they couldn't guarantee it and that they would have to work with the town in which we found her to determine an exact release site. I considered this to be less-than-optimal, but I am planning on taking her there if my home treatments can't help her.
For the last week and a half, I have had her dry-docked in a 2'x5' Rubbermaid container lined with a bedding made specifically for turtles that I bought from Petsmart (I can find out the brand, if that has any bearing on the situation, but I don't remember off the top of my head). I let her soak in my bathtub in water that is right around 85°F for about 3-6 hours a day, replenishing the water to maintain temperature about every 15 minutes (I am a stay-at-home mom, so I can invest this time). I fill the tub in such a way that she can go to the shallow end and be completely out of the water, but usually she stays in the deepest part of the tub. I base how long she is in the water off of her behavior, and the time that I have to dedicate to maintaining an even water temperature. I have made it a point to go no lower than two or three hours a day (per the recommendations of some articles that I found that were species-specific) and oftentimes she looks so calm and comfy that I leave her in for longer. I chose this temperature because I have read that this simulates a fever and helps them to fight infection. We try to disturb her as little as possible, save to care for her or move her from her enclosure to the bathtub. I have been treating her with Zoo Med Turtle Eye Drops, two drops each eye, twice a day, after her morning and evening soaks. I remove any "snot" from her nose with a Q-tip, but she doesn't let me try to clean her eyes and ears (I've given up because it clearly causes her distress).
On May 24th, her left eye opened, and on May 27th, the right finally opened. Both can now open completely, but she still has trouble opening them in the morning before her soak. I didn't provide her any food until the 24th because every resource that I read said that they absolutely will not eat with their eyes closed. Since her first eye opened, I have been offering meal worms, red wigglers, and a variety of fruits and vegetables (whatever we happen to be eating that day). I started mixing some Pedialyte in her bath water on the 27th because I was concerned that she would starve, and I couldn't verify that she was eating anything that I was putting into her enclosure. When I changed the bedding, I looked for carcasses, but couldn't find any, but finding a meal worm carcass in all that bedding would be like finding a needle in a haystack, so I have no way to say what she was eating before. Fruits and veggies have been completely untouched, except for a half a blackberry that she ate today. Day before yesterday I started feeding her in the shallow end of my bathtub while she is soaking so that I could monitor food intake. She ate two worms that day (and pooped), and yesterday she ate about a dozen worms.
Ok...I think that is all of the specifics that anyone may want. Now to the questions...
First, both of her ears are inflamed. I will attach photos of both. The right ear came to a head (it looked just like a big pimple) and then she must have scratched it off, because it was open when I went to soak her. I removed what pus I could and the swelling came down quite a bit in that ear. It is still swollen though. The other ear is more swollen. though. Both seem to be coming to a head though, and her general health is improving greatly. Does anyone have any experience with this. I don't want to take her to a rescue if I can avoid it because I want to return her to her home (more on this below), but I also don't want her suffering. If this were on my body, than my course of action would be to lance it, squeeze out the pus, and then soak for a while before treating it with some Neosporin and a Band-Aid. Obviously I know that the Neosporin and Band-Aid are a no-go for a turtle, but what about lancing it? It looks so easy online, and, like I said, if it were on me I would do it, but I don't want to hurt her not knowing what I am doing. Has anyone done this on their turtles? I would take her for a vet visit but they will take her away and probably fix her up and toss her out back. Has anyone had a turtle that had this resolve on its own? I feel like there is overall improvement, so I am inclined to just wait and see, but I also have read that these abscesses cause long-term damage.
Second (and this is probably the more difficult question), I am now not so certain where I should release her. It has now been almost three weeks since we brought her home. My original intention was to take her back where we found her, but I also didn't think that her recovery would take so long. Also, I'd say that she's probably going to need another week or so to get the inflammation to go down completely (she's still not 100%). I have heard that they can re-home, but I have NO idea how long this takes, and there is no information online. I would hate to take her back to where I found her (about 15 miles away, as a crow flies), and then have her try to find her way back here and meet the same fate that I was trying to avoid in the first place. As they say, the road to...*ahem*...heck is paved in good intentions. If she is homed to here, she could have a great habitat here. We have eastern box turtles around our house although, like everywhere else in TN, we are seeing fewer and fewer of them as time goes on. We have a lot of open, undeveloped space around our house, and it is actually an ideal habitat for her species. I have NO INTENTION to keep this creature as a pet, so she needs to go back into the wild as soon as she is well enough to. Does anyone have any experience with this? I really want what is best for this turtle. This isn't some attempt to keep her out of sentimentality. I really just don't want to let her loose where we found her and have her get hurt trying to get back here. I have read online that some people (ill-informed) have caught wild eastern box turtles and penned them up at their house for many months and then they will stay there. Does anyone have any idea how long it takes them to "get used" to a new home? Do I need to worry about her imprinting on this location after this amount of time?
Thank you, in advance, for any help!! Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!
Photo captions: The first photo is Tortuga (what my daughter decided to name her) the day after we found her. You can see both eyes swollen completely shut. The second two photos are of her lounging in the "turtle hot tub" (my bathtub). The last three were taken tonight. They show both eyes and ears. As you can see, the right eye is still having trouble opening. This was before her soak. After her soaks, both eyes open fully after soaking, although they still need some more healing time.
I understand that this is a tortoise forum, but I have been unable to find a turtle forum to post this question to, so I was hoping there was someone here who might have some experience, and that may be able to help. I know that there is a site called Turtle Forum, but they have not confirmed my profile, even after having waited for a week, and my questions are time-sensitive.
On May 16th, my daughters found a female, sub-adult, eastern box turtle with its eyes swollen shut. We brought it home with the intent to rehabilitate her and take her back EXACTLY where we found her. I know there are those who will say that it is unethical to take a turtle from their territory, but I figure it was inhumane to leave her blind and helpless, so here we are. I am not really interested in a discussion about the ethics of relocating eastern box turtles. I called a local vet that works with reptiles, and the woman told me that they would rehabilitate the turtle and then release it. When I said that I wanted to make sure that it was released back where it came from, the woman tried to tell me that they weren't territorial (and was rude) so I ended the discussion. I called a local turtle rehabilitator and they said that they would try to get the turtle back close to her home, but that they couldn't guarantee it and that they would have to work with the town in which we found her to determine an exact release site. I considered this to be less-than-optimal, but I am planning on taking her there if my home treatments can't help her.
For the last week and a half, I have had her dry-docked in a 2'x5' Rubbermaid container lined with a bedding made specifically for turtles that I bought from Petsmart (I can find out the brand, if that has any bearing on the situation, but I don't remember off the top of my head). I let her soak in my bathtub in water that is right around 85°F for about 3-6 hours a day, replenishing the water to maintain temperature about every 15 minutes (I am a stay-at-home mom, so I can invest this time). I fill the tub in such a way that she can go to the shallow end and be completely out of the water, but usually she stays in the deepest part of the tub. I base how long she is in the water off of her behavior, and the time that I have to dedicate to maintaining an even water temperature. I have made it a point to go no lower than two or three hours a day (per the recommendations of some articles that I found that were species-specific) and oftentimes she looks so calm and comfy that I leave her in for longer. I chose this temperature because I have read that this simulates a fever and helps them to fight infection. We try to disturb her as little as possible, save to care for her or move her from her enclosure to the bathtub. I have been treating her with Zoo Med Turtle Eye Drops, two drops each eye, twice a day, after her morning and evening soaks. I remove any "snot" from her nose with a Q-tip, but she doesn't let me try to clean her eyes and ears (I've given up because it clearly causes her distress).
On May 24th, her left eye opened, and on May 27th, the right finally opened. Both can now open completely, but she still has trouble opening them in the morning before her soak. I didn't provide her any food until the 24th because every resource that I read said that they absolutely will not eat with their eyes closed. Since her first eye opened, I have been offering meal worms, red wigglers, and a variety of fruits and vegetables (whatever we happen to be eating that day). I started mixing some Pedialyte in her bath water on the 27th because I was concerned that she would starve, and I couldn't verify that she was eating anything that I was putting into her enclosure. When I changed the bedding, I looked for carcasses, but couldn't find any, but finding a meal worm carcass in all that bedding would be like finding a needle in a haystack, so I have no way to say what she was eating before. Fruits and veggies have been completely untouched, except for a half a blackberry that she ate today. Day before yesterday I started feeding her in the shallow end of my bathtub while she is soaking so that I could monitor food intake. She ate two worms that day (and pooped), and yesterday she ate about a dozen worms.
Ok...I think that is all of the specifics that anyone may want. Now to the questions...
First, both of her ears are inflamed. I will attach photos of both. The right ear came to a head (it looked just like a big pimple) and then she must have scratched it off, because it was open when I went to soak her. I removed what pus I could and the swelling came down quite a bit in that ear. It is still swollen though. The other ear is more swollen. though. Both seem to be coming to a head though, and her general health is improving greatly. Does anyone have any experience with this. I don't want to take her to a rescue if I can avoid it because I want to return her to her home (more on this below), but I also don't want her suffering. If this were on my body, than my course of action would be to lance it, squeeze out the pus, and then soak for a while before treating it with some Neosporin and a Band-Aid. Obviously I know that the Neosporin and Band-Aid are a no-go for a turtle, but what about lancing it? It looks so easy online, and, like I said, if it were on me I would do it, but I don't want to hurt her not knowing what I am doing. Has anyone done this on their turtles? I would take her for a vet visit but they will take her away and probably fix her up and toss her out back. Has anyone had a turtle that had this resolve on its own? I feel like there is overall improvement, so I am inclined to just wait and see, but I also have read that these abscesses cause long-term damage.
Second (and this is probably the more difficult question), I am now not so certain where I should release her. It has now been almost three weeks since we brought her home. My original intention was to take her back where we found her, but I also didn't think that her recovery would take so long. Also, I'd say that she's probably going to need another week or so to get the inflammation to go down completely (she's still not 100%). I have heard that they can re-home, but I have NO idea how long this takes, and there is no information online. I would hate to take her back to where I found her (about 15 miles away, as a crow flies), and then have her try to find her way back here and meet the same fate that I was trying to avoid in the first place. As they say, the road to...*ahem*...heck is paved in good intentions. If she is homed to here, she could have a great habitat here. We have eastern box turtles around our house although, like everywhere else in TN, we are seeing fewer and fewer of them as time goes on. We have a lot of open, undeveloped space around our house, and it is actually an ideal habitat for her species. I have NO INTENTION to keep this creature as a pet, so she needs to go back into the wild as soon as she is well enough to. Does anyone have any experience with this? I really want what is best for this turtle. This isn't some attempt to keep her out of sentimentality. I really just don't want to let her loose where we found her and have her get hurt trying to get back here. I have read online that some people (ill-informed) have caught wild eastern box turtles and penned them up at their house for many months and then they will stay there. Does anyone have any idea how long it takes them to "get used" to a new home? Do I need to worry about her imprinting on this location after this amount of time?
Thank you, in advance, for any help!! Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!
Photo captions: The first photo is Tortuga (what my daughter decided to name her) the day after we found her. You can see both eyes swollen completely shut. The second two photos are of her lounging in the "turtle hot tub" (my bathtub). The last three were taken tonight. They show both eyes and ears. As you can see, the right eye is still having trouble opening. This was before her soak. After her soaks, both eyes open fully after soaking, although they still need some more healing time.
