Pet Turtles Blamed for Salmonella Outbreak. Crackdown on Kid's Favorite Tiny Pet

[Mgridgaway]

The misinformation in this article makes my head hurt.

*Face Palm*

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-livi...tbreak-crackdown-kids-favorite-173200897.html

 

[Neal]

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-livi...tbreak-crackdown-kids-favorite-173200897.html

Apparently there are 6 outbreaks occurring right now directly linked to turtles.

Of course, no one is going to blame the sweet innocent parents to take responsibility for letting their children stick turtles in their mouths, or licking their fingers after touching the turtles. It's those damn breeders fault for selling turtles under 4 inches. It's not that difficult to teach children to wash their hands after handling turtles and tortoises. My three year old does this automatically for crying out loud.

 

[Neal]

RE: The misinformation in this article makes my head hurt.

lol, I just posted this same article....maybe the mods could combine my comments with this thread or vise versa.

 

[wellington]

RE: The misinformation in this article makes my head hurt.

Be nice if they would start putting the responsibility on the parents where it belongs. Not sure what the heck parents are thinking. Letting a child small enough to not no that a turtle doesn't go in its mouth, be any place near a turtle unattended.

 

[dmmj]

RE: The misinformation in this article makes my head hurt.

What happened? I started reading this I got a sharp pain in my head, and I think I passed out.

 

[mattgrizzlybear]

What idiot puts a turtle in their mouth? And why are the blaming the little turtles? It's not their fault!

 

[Neal]

...and where can I sign up to have a turtle just show up at my home?

 

[Tom]

How do they know these infections are from the pet turtles and not last night's chicken? I read that something like half of raw chicken is contaminated with salmonella.

What about the millions of American homes with pet turtles where NOBODY gets sick?

 

[Pokeymeg]

RE: The misinformation in this article makes my head hurt.

What happened? I started reading this I got a sharp pain in my head, and I think I passed out.

Hahahaha, good one!

I was just reading this article, and came straight to TFO to post it and vent my anger at the stupidity of the article, but someone beat me to it!!

What a mis-informed author! Looks like all the commenters at the bottom agree.

 

[Eweezyfosheezy]

How do they know these infections are from the pet turtles and not last night's chicken? I read that something like half of raw chicken is contaminated with salmonella.

What about the millions of American homes with pet turtles where NOBODY gets sick?

Who cares about the other homes, we're talking about 6 incidents here! This might as well be the Black Death all over again!!!!! Its everywhere! Is it even safe to go outside anymore???

 

[Tom]

How do they know these infections are from the pet turtles and not last night's chicken? I read that something like half of raw chicken is contaminated with salmonella.

What about the millions of American homes with pet turtles where NOBODY gets sick?

Who cares about the other homes, we're talking about 6 incidents here! This might as well be the Black Death all over again!!!!! Its everywhere! Is it even safe to go outside anymore???

AAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!! THE SKY IS FALLING! THE SKY IS FALLING!

...again.

 

[Mgridgaway]

Lets not forget that turtles are now amphibians according to the article...

 

[mattgrizzlybear]

It says that they AREN'T amphibians! Who knew? ( sarcasm)

 

[Jacqui]

Looking for the positive in this entire article is that it may make even just one parent think twice about letting their child have unsupervised time with a turtle or even better have them start to really think if their home is the right one for a turtle. It coud cause a parent to have their children washing hands and doing other reasonable, responsible and simple things to keep this from happening. Also another positive, it may help get some of those folks selling unhealthy baby turtles out of business.

 

[CGKeith]

I just had to take one of my tortoises to a new Vet last week. The guy comes in picks up my tortoise (4lbs) and without asking how I am or what is the problem with the tortoise, looks at me and says "you know these are very dangerous to kids".... and I swear not less than 1 heartbeat later he actually DROPS MY TORTOISE!!!! It was only about 2-3 inches onto the steel exam table but it was very loud.
I said NO they are not, but dropping them is dangerous to tortoises!!!


I won't be going back.


I know what he was going to say but really... c'mon man.

 

[feline8]

This frustrates me so much because i have 2 3" yellow bellied sliders and 1 3" red footed tortoise
My mom is obsessed with good health and she keeps seeing these articles. Now she wants me to get rid of my yellow bellied sliders.
I've had them for a year, and in the past, I've had one slider and he never gave me salmonella.
In all honestly, I think people spread more germs and diseases than my turtles. I've only gotten sick twice this year (with the cold) because some of my classmates decide to sneeze in my direction everytime...

 

[dmmj]

This frustrates me so much because i have 2 3" yellow bellied sliders and 1 3" red footed tortoise
My mom is obsessed with good health and she keeps seeing these articles. Now she wants me to get rid of my yellow bellied sliders.
I've had them for a year, and in the past, I've had one slider and he never gave me salmonella.
In all honestly, I think people spread more germs and diseases than my turtles. I've only gotten sick twice this year (with the cold) because some of my classmates decide to sneeze in my direction everytime...

Looks like it is time to make classmates illegal

 

[feline8]

Looks like it is time to make classmates illegal

Yes please! In fact, why dont we give students a permanent holiday for their safety and health. I could use the rest (from evil AP classes)

 

[DaisyDuke]

Anna, you bring up another point. It's as if kids today have no sense of hygiene or respect when it comes to spreading germs. I have a friend who has three kids she was pregnant with one. One was getting over a cold the other was very sick with a cold. She had her out in below freezing temps in January. That poor child was absolutely miserable. I kept telling her that her daughter was going to make others around her sick. My friend couldn't have cared less. I was just meeting her for lunch but she brought her kids to the children's museum where her daughter became even more sick and they had to leave. Her daughter would have been okay if she had kept them home to get better. But again, she couldn't have cared less.

My redfoot was tested for salmonella and thankfully came up negative. I still make sure people wash their hands after handling him. He's usually covered in peat moss that he pees and poops in.
I've had pets my entire life not once did I ever think to put one in my mouth.

 

[Madkins007]

A few points...

1. Fairly simple tests can tell which serotype (roughly like a species) of Salmonella it is. Some serotypes are typically associated with chicken, others with reptiles, etc. THAT is how they know what to look for in the outbreak.

2. "The parent's responsibility..." Exactly WHOSE responsibility is it to teach the parents about this? And if you say it is the government or the press's job, I'll scream because that is what the article is TRYING to do!

3. "I've had turtles for years and never got sick" How would you know? MOST cases of salmonellosis are short-term (24-48 hours of actually being ill) and most people pass it off as 'stomach flu' or the '24 hour bug'. Most of the time, if your cold or flu has vomiting and diarrhea, and only has strong symptoms for a day or so- you have salmonellosis, and without getting tested, you will never know for sure where it came from. Studies have shown that almost everyone over 13 has had it, and a lot of people get it every year.

4. Errors in the article. I counted two. 1.) "Yes, pet turtles are illegal"- while only those under 4", or those outlawed by local laws are. 2.) "ban the sales of the amphibians"- while we, and the article itself pointed out that they are reptiles.

4. Licking turtles/putting them in their mouths. This is just one common way the germs transmit. Anything that touches 'turtle water' is infected- your hands, their hands, the drops of water falling off them onto a counter, floor or sink, any tools used, etc. It is actually a pretty major undertaking to take care of aquatic turtles and follow all infection control procedures that should apply.

I was at an event on the 'turtles of Nebraska' in which people who handled the turtles were told to wash/sanitize their hands after handling them- but I also noticed that no one seemed to care about the water dripping off them onto their clothes or the table and saw lots of people, including the host, touch the water after washing their hands and not really think about it. (I took the host aside and mentioned this to them, after which they were better about wiping and disinfecting that as well.)