GreenFire719
Member
Hello everyone! I know I don’t always make my appearance on the forum but here I am again to talk about my lovely boxie io. Io is a female eastern box turtle estimated to be 17 years young who had a troubled past with improper care. Long story short she was surrendered to me after being held in captivity for two years with a steady diet of only tomatoes and a basking bulb with no uvb.
As I’m sure you can imagine, this had wrecked havoc on her poor little digestive system. She had frequently prolapsing, low levels of vitamins and calcium, and a notoriously picky diet. I have had her for two years now, and she has greatly improved on all issues with the exception of prolapsing. Although she was not prolapsing once a week anymore, prolapsing in general is a bad thing as there’s an increased risk for bleeding, infections, and necrosis.
Last year in January I had taken her in to get both bloodwork and fecal testing done as well as address the issue of her prolapsing. She ended up having a GI infection and received antibiotics that not only cleared up her infection, but also caused the prolapsing to basically cease. The only times I have seen her prolapse after that was from occasional constipation causing her to push too hard, only to retract after a few minutes.
This brings us up to this week, where she has been prolapsed for more than 15 minutes everyday and needing assistance of the sterile swab and KY Jelly to bring it back in (this is what the vet had recommended for me to do). Her vet appointment is for Thursday but it’s possible that she may even be seen tomorrow if an appointment opens up. Beyond getting her blood tested and fecal done, the possibility of her getting surgery done comes to mind. My personal theory behind her issues with prolapsing is from the poor care she received in the past causing her to have poor muscle tone in her tail.
Io is currently rocking the butt bandage in the tub to discourage her from pushing as I set up her hospital tub. I will be sure to update on how she is tomorrow and how the vet appointment goes. As of right now, everything that’s supposed to be in is in and she is otherwise business as usual.
As I’m sure you can imagine, this had wrecked havoc on her poor little digestive system. She had frequently prolapsing, low levels of vitamins and calcium, and a notoriously picky diet. I have had her for two years now, and she has greatly improved on all issues with the exception of prolapsing. Although she was not prolapsing once a week anymore, prolapsing in general is a bad thing as there’s an increased risk for bleeding, infections, and necrosis.
Last year in January I had taken her in to get both bloodwork and fecal testing done as well as address the issue of her prolapsing. She ended up having a GI infection and received antibiotics that not only cleared up her infection, but also caused the prolapsing to basically cease. The only times I have seen her prolapse after that was from occasional constipation causing her to push too hard, only to retract after a few minutes.
This brings us up to this week, where she has been prolapsed for more than 15 minutes everyday and needing assistance of the sterile swab and KY Jelly to bring it back in (this is what the vet had recommended for me to do). Her vet appointment is for Thursday but it’s possible that she may even be seen tomorrow if an appointment opens up. Beyond getting her blood tested and fecal done, the possibility of her getting surgery done comes to mind. My personal theory behind her issues with prolapsing is from the poor care she received in the past causing her to have poor muscle tone in her tail.
Io is currently rocking the butt bandage in the tub to discourage her from pushing as I set up her hospital tub. I will be sure to update on how she is tomorrow and how the vet appointment goes. As of right now, everything that’s supposed to be in is in and she is otherwise business as usual.