>>If the food can be ruled out and the only constant seems to be the rain, then it's very possible that they suffered from a strain of Botulism (which would coincide with your vet's assumption of a bacterial infection). This nasty bacteria can lay dormant in soil for a long while and then when it rains, run off into the ponds and then start producing the toxin. I know here in the mid-Atlantic area we have had a bit of an outbreak in botulism infecting birds (mainly water fowl and raptors) within the past 6 months or so.





I haven't heard about this until you posted then this morning I turned on the TV news & there was a story about a monkey at the Denver Zoo dying from this.

So yikes.. is this an outbreak that's sweeping the nation or is about to?

I agree those tests you recommended should be run on the turtles if the food is ruled out.
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PHRatz

[ Hide Replies ]

• mysterious turtle and tortoise deaths - mmcblue, Wed May 16 21:39:21 2007
• RE: mysterious turtle and tortoise deaths - PHRatz, Tue May 22 16:09:05 2007
• RE: mysterious turtle and tortoise death - PHWyvern, Tue May 22 18:42:38 2007
• RE: mysterious turtle and tortoise death - PHRatz, Wed May 23 10:41:06 2007