Poorly Turtle

[rickthebuilder]

I currently have a turtle with a cut on its neck close to where his shell would rub against it.

Does anyone have any idea of the cause or the best action we could take please?

Thanks;
Rick

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Rick:

to the forum!!

This is a very common injury for a water turtle. It will usually heal without your intervention, but it takes a long time. If you want to get it well sooner, you would have to dry dock the turtle and medicate.

You set up a habitat with no water (I just use a plain old plastic bin with no substrate or newspaper or paper towels) with a light on the side to keep the turtle warm. You first of all clean the area with Betadine. You can do this for two days. Just dip a q-tip in the Betadine and swab the injury, soaking it well. Let it dry. After doing this for two days (two treatments) then from now on you would use Chlorhexidrine (Nolvasan). You can buy both these products at the drug store.

You keep the turtle out of the water for 23 hours a day. One hour a day you can put her back in water and feed her.

Feel the front of the carapace and see if there is a rough edge that is rubbing. This type of injury is usually seen when you have a male and female together. The male bites the female there in that spot.

Some people feel that 23 hours is too long to keep a water turtle out of the water. But I've used the 23 hour dry dock treatment for many, many dog chewed turtles and haven't lost one yet to dehydration.

 

[rickthebuilder]

Hi,

Thanks for the advice. It is greatly appreciated. While we have someone who knows what they are talking about.

Is it okay to keep a false map turtle and a slider turtle together?

Thanks again;

Rick

 

[Yvonne G]

Its an individual turtle type thing. You don't have to worry about cross-contamination, but you just have to pay attention to fighting. If you have them together now, that's probably how the injury happened.

 

[rickthebuilder]

Cool!

Thanks! Sorry we are quite new to looking after turtles.

At the moment we are feeding them a mix of veg, raw meat and dry turtle food. Is that sufficient. We have been advised to get a supplement to help shell growth. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks again;

Rick

 

[DoctorCosmonaut]

Welcome to the forum! Sorry your turtle isn't at his best

 

[Yvonne G]

You can gut-load live crickets. You can also float a piece of cuttlebone for calcium. If you roll their food in supplement powder it usually floats off the food before the turtle eats it. Its good that they'll eat veggies. Mary at the turtle puddle has just about the best handle on caring for water turtles of anyone I've seen. Take a look around her web site:

http://www.turtlepuddle.org/

 

[Shelly]

Some people feel that 23 hours is too long to keep a water turtle out of the water. But I've used the 23 hour dry dock treatment for many, many dog chewed turtles and haven't lost one yet to dehydration.

I had a RES that would hide for weeks on end under my redwood deck.

 

[terryo]

I have a little rescue now that will spend most of the day on land basking and when she sees me she will run to the water for food. But mostly sits on the land section.

 

[alfiethetortoise]

Welcome to the forum! Now you have joined there is no going back i hope the turtles get better soon!